Cod Almighty | Diary
Is this a treadmill I see before me?
20 February 2026
I love this time of the season; not even 48 hours since the last game and the next is already just a day away. The players might be exhausted, the fixtures may be scudding through our brains like a fever dream, but your A46 Diary can’t get enough, and with just 15 games to go, it feels like '25-26 is ready to get tasty. Time to turn up the heat and get some extra sauce on a season that’s threatening to freeze in the icy blasts of missed chances.
Chucking away another two points on Wednesday night was a frustration that we need to bury. It was November Town who defended those corners and began the match against Walsall with an FA Cup hangover similar to the headache we suffered against tomorrow’s opponents, Bristol Rovers, after the game against Manchester United. A re-energised second half should’ve seen us comfortable on Wednesday and back in August.
The key difference is that we didn’t lose. That's a good thing, a big thing, the most important thing. The thing that lets us bury the result. I suppose. A Walsall in better form would’ve taken more advantage of our poor decision making. Hamlet was the tragic hero who suffered from indecision and inaction. Caught in a moral inertia he rages against his confinement as he is caught crawling between earth and heaven. I thought of this as I watched yet another long ball sail over Burns’s head on Wednesday night. We were all trapped between the mud of the BP pitch and the wind that caught and carried any ball above shoulder height.
Still, it was a good night, bloody cold and bloody infuriating, but some bloody good entertainment. Walker summing up a topsy-turvy 90 minutes with quick feet, quick thinking, quickly dispossessed, quickly ducking out of challenges and at the double with a quick pair of assists. Cook is off the mark and now that we’ve waited patiently, hopefully about to start a traffic jam of buses. The squad continues to impress as, corner-defending aside, the 11 we put out acquitted themselves well enough to prevent any grumbles about the starting line-up.
The prep is done. Time to cook. Bring on the season proper!
Bristol Rovers tomorrow. So far, the Gas have not had the best season, and Steve Evans’ December appointment has done little to arrest their slide. Our old friend Darrell Clarke was sacked after ten consecutive defeats, leaving the club with a budget at the top end of the division in 23rd and facing another exit from the Football League just a dozen years after the last.
The new, slimmer Evans, looking like Peter Reid’s long-lost brother, hasn’t made much of a difference, winning just three of his 13 games in charge, and moving them up to 22nd in the table. After a very busy January (12 exits and nine arrivals) he is already making familiar-sounding statements in his interviews. In the last week he has claimed that it has been ‘abysmal’ recruitment that has led the team to its lowly position, that he has been offered other jobs but he’s just so loyal he chose to stay, that under him it will be gain not pain as long as he’s allowed to stay in the building. As I’ve broken the seal on the Shakespeare references, let’s imagine Fenty's ghostly dagger hovering before chairman Hussain Alsaeed, its handle toward him. New chairman, new broom. Things sound very desperate at the Memorial Stadium.
Desperate indeed. Rovers have won just eight games all season and only five at home, conceding 55 goals - 25 of them at home - in the process. Only Newport have conceded more. Well, we put that Newport lot to the sword just a couple of weeks ago... Oh, wait, that freezing wind froze us again, its frost biting at our play-off hopes.
Yes, once bitten, twice shy, and it’s back down to the South West for another dreaded ‘this is a game we should be winning.’ We do struggle when we’re expected to win. So perhaps some desperation on each side? That's harsh on us. While we could do with some more goals and more confidence in front of goal, desperation can wait till the last half-dozen games.
No pre-match interview released at the time of writing. Turi deserves to keep his place, and I assume Vernam will come back in for Sellars-Fleming. The Hull lad doesn't look ready for consistent starts yet. Sweeney back in for Staunton, maybe Kabia for Burns, depending on whether Cook is good to go again from the start. Amaluzor could also fill in on the right and Soonsup-Bell could be the solution up front if Cook is tired; bring the Thai terror in from the cold and let him pick up from where he left off. Khouri will probably come back in for Walker. Green owes us one of his better games after an agricultural performance on Wednesday night. Gardner? Best we can do is cross our fingers for him. We’ll cross fingers and toes for a change in the wind tomorrow - and maybe a little visit from the Grimsby Reaper for the blustering Steve Evans.