This week the club announced a link up with the LGBTQ+ fan group Proud Yellows. Des Buckingham was pictured holding a rainbow pride flag and the two founding members were interviewed for the club’s social media channels.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, but inevitably there were a few who questioned it, levelling the accusation that it’s divisive for a group to define themselves through a set of colours and openly voice their chosen allegiance in the presence of others who may not see things the same way.

No real football fan would go to a game, define themselves through a set of colours and promote their presence by loudly voicing their chosen allegiances towards others who may not see things the same way.

So, over 1000 members of the Yellow Army travelled north on Saturday in full voice to face Blackpool. 

It’s been a funny week, with no game the club were able to address some of the criticisms levelled at them in recent weeks. 

Alongside the link up with the Proud Yellows, there was a climate change pledge, promoting the club’s sense of social responsibility and inclusivity. They addressed communication problems by appointing a new strategic communication advisor, there was even the announcement of a new IT partner, in an attempt to address long term functional failings in the club’s technology stack.

Then there were announcements that weren’t announcements about the stadium. A list of values, which were so generic they didn’t pass a basic journalistic test that says if the opposite is more surprising, the original statement is meaningless. So, when the club say the stadium would focus on job creation and sustainability – the opposite is that their objective is job losses and un-sustainability, decidedly more surprising. So as true as the statement might be, it is of little value.

Now, when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, his government relied on the sad reality that most of the scandals and mishaps of his premiership would fail to achieve what is known as ‘cut through’. Most news is just a vaporous passing odour, a bit unpleasant at the time, but quickly forgotten. Whenever something went wrong, Johnson et al, simply toughed it out until it drifted away.

While I’m not suggesting that the club announcements are akin to failing to respond to a report on Russian interference in elections, none of this week’s activities, as important, real and worthy as they are, would ultimately achieve meaningful cut through and change the overall narrative around the club.

We now have sustained disquiet due to an apparent lack of progress on the stadium (probably not true, but perceptions are reality and all that), and ho hum form. The water pistol on that particular bonfire has been a big pile of injuries to clear up. When trying to arrange a meeting, an old colleague used to say his diary looks ‘busy for the next two weeks, but is clear after that… and it’s been like that for twenty years.’ Our injury problems feel the same – the arrival of the cavalry has been around the corner for months.

Each injury seems to cycle through a newly minted calibration of time, we are now informed that players will be out for  – ‘some weeks’ then ‘a few weeks’ then they’ll be returning ‘soon’, before being ‘on the grass’.

Nobody knows what that means in conventional time and so it becomes less credible with each telling. In response, the club rolled out Sam Long, who is evolving into the club’s Elton John – surfing the generations, validating and anointing each new talent, constantly part of the scene while, at the same time, separate from it.

Long proclaimed he’d never seen the physio room as busy as it has been recently. Is that how it works? Does Amy Cranston just have players piled up in the yard like old cars at a scrap dealer, pulling the car radio from a written off Qashqai or the circuit board from an old Tom Tom sat nav?

In the middle of this buffetting is Des Buckingham, presumably Mumbai was never like this, you could get a decent Vada Pav on the way home from training, three points on a Saturday, and a healthy package of benefits from The City Group.

Blackpool feel like the kind of team we need to be competing with, they represent the strong headwind at the top of League One which ultimately halts our progress. The travel north, despite the return of four players, felt like one to endure before the revival could begin next week (it’s always next week).

An early Blackpool goal seemed to confirm the mood, at least there’s comfort in familiarity. It’s why people stay in loveless marriages. For those who hadn’t travelled, it meant you could get on with your day without distraction.

Then, three minutes later Mark Harris quietly continued to cement his credentials as a genuine goalscorer by equalising. Four minutes later, there was more news, but this time 270 miles away. Gatlin O’Donkor had scored on his debut on loan for Barnet at Welling. About 35 minutes after than, Buckingham replaced Tyler Burey with Josh Murphy, pace for pace. Fifteen minutes later, one for the lexicographers, Goodrham for Goodwin, before Matete for Rodrigues and Bodin for Harris. 

These changes, and O’Donkor’s confidence building breakthrough, feel like the realisation of the plan Buckingham hasn’t been able to access since he arrived. Rather than wilting in the face of sustained pressure, as we have done for weeks, we were able to maintain our collective effort and see the game through to the end.

Like Reading and Portsmouth, a point, but one which feels like it has more substance, the validation of a plan and a platform to work from. Whether it’ll take the weight of expectation remains to be seen, but it’s something.

Perhaps we should look at people like the Proud Yellows and believe in their plan; they want to help create a community they feel comfortable in. We should back them because they show the determination to try and make something better. That commitment deserves real cut through, because when applied on the pitch it returns results.

Maybe it’s the naysayers we should challenge sometimes. Maybe those creating an opposing narrative to the Proud Yellows are, deep down, just showing their anxiety; they’re ultimately just people who are a bit scared of what some men do with their willies in private, even though; you should really be a bit scared of what all men do with their willies in private.