Cod Almighty | Diary

Fifty shades of Magnay

16 February 2015

Miss Guest Diary writes: Sometimes I think the internet is the worst thing that ever happened to football. A few years ago the only way to experience a Town match was to attend in person, listen on local radio or watch it on Ceefax. After the game, if you lived in the Grimsby area, you could hear a few words from the management on Radio Humberside and read a report in Monday's Grimsby Telegraph. Then you could forget about it until the next game.

Not so these days. There are official and unofficial websites and online newspapers which carry reports of the game. There are fanzines and blogs and messageboards where anyone can air their two penn'orth to the world. And then there is social media, particularly the #gtfc hashtag on Twitter. I try to stay away from that after a defeat, when it becomes a boiling soup of negativity and resentment. All of these conspire to magnify the result, whether win or loss, to ridiculous proportions.

Then we can listen to the manager's post-match interview again and again if we want to, picking on individual phrases and checking out his body language on Mariners Player. Criticising him for praising the players, or not praising them enough, for complaining about the crowd or sniping at John Tondeur. And on and on and on.

And, perhaps worst of all, these opportunities to 'feel involved' create the illusion that fans have some influence in the game. That if you rant for long enough on a messageboard about how stupid Hurst was to let Scott Neilson go, he will change his mind and get him back. That if I say enough times in this diary that I hate Town playing in odd formations, Hurst will see the light and never play anything but 4-4-2. Or that if we all take to Twitter and say Hurst should be sacked, John Fenty will make it so.

But of course none of this will happen, which only increases the sense of frustration, particularly when Town lose a game. Let's face it, the only real influence we fans can have is to turn up to the games and get behind the team, and that's what I will be doing for the rest of this season.

Looking back to Saturday's game against Bristol Rovers, Town played as well as I've seen them do recently, but they just weren't as good as the opposition. Only Nathan Arnold looked threatening in attack and, of course, Carl the Magnayficent was his usual faultless self. The rest looked like non-League players trying hard. Cod Almighty's match reporter sums it up: some enthusiastic amateurs beaten by sly pros. My hope now is that Rovers overtake Barnet and go up as champions – meeting them again in the play-offs would definitely consign us to another season in non-League.

And for God's sake, Town, offer Magnay a five-year contract before someone else does.