Cod Almighty | Article
by Sam Kinnaird
18 May 2010
1 September 2001. What a day that was. Grimsby Town saw off Barnsley 1-0 in a fiery afternoon encounter at Blundell Park and in the evening England thumped Germany 5-1 in Munich. Oh, I almost forgot: the Mariners also went top of the old Division One that day and a certain Phil Jevons scored his first ever league goal.
Just nine seasons later and Grimsby have lost a desperate fight for their Football League existence. Such a fall from grace is rarely seen in English football. Plenty have endured a relegation or two but few supporters have witnessed such a dreadful decade as the Mariners.
Accusations by the loyal fanbase are thrown this way and that, with each supporter frantically looking for someone or something to blame for such a terrible state of affairs. Even former players are having their twopennyworth. Ex-Town midfielder Chris Hargreaves said recently: "You can't hold the players accountable all the time for a club's problems. When a team goes down they are usually in a mess off the field as well as on it." Well, as far as this campaign goes, I'm going to disagree with Hargreaves completely and point the finger firmly at the players.
You see, just eight short months ago the Mariners headed off to their pre-season tournament in Devon and proceeded to rip apart all opposition that stood in their way before holding a strong Leeds side to a 1-1 draw at Blundell Park.
The first half of the opening day at Cheltenham saw a similar outcome, with Town thoroughly outplaying their hosts and moving the ball around the pitch with ease. Yet after the break everything changed. The Mariners came out and completely lost their way, offering nothing going forward and falling apart at the back. Cheltenham ran out 2-1 winners.
"How any professional footballer can look themselves in the eye after these performances defies belief"
The next two games saw a pair of 4-0 drubbings at Tranmere and at home to Crewe. Three of the following four games ended in defeat and confidence had been dashed. A team showing such promise in the opening stages had totally buckled and Town already found themselves rooted in the fourth division relegation spots.
The rest of the season was little better; worse, in fact. That run of 25 games without a win ultimately cost the Mariners their league place. They were poor throughout the season and at no point offered more than the smallest flicker of light in an endlessly dark campaign.
For me, the wrongs lie squarely at the feet of the players. How can players who showed so much talent and skill at the back end of last season show so little this time around?
Take Conlon, Sweeney and Forbes, for example: a trio of players who epitomised the fighting spirit of the club which stayed up against all odds last season. Yet all three went missing this time around. They were each handed juicy contracts to keep them at Blundell Park for the next two or three years and none has showed anything like their form of last season. Conlon was shipped out to Chesterfield, Forbes spent his season either on the treatment table and on the bench, and Sweeney, well, your guess is as good as mine. I'm not putting the blame solely with the three mentioned players, but each individual tale tells a story which could symbolise the entire club for the past ten years.
Crewe away, Port Vale away, Bradford at home, Dagenham away, Torquay at home: all matches where I have seen more heart and desire in a dustbin. And don't even mention the words Bath City. How any professional footballer can look themselves in the eye after any of the aforementioned performances defies belief.
One thing is for sure: now that the Mariners have finally been sent packing to the Conference, an immediate return looks near-impossible. A losing mentality certainly cannot be quickly rectified; a comprehensive clearout within the club is massively overdue from top to bottom. A hungry, energetic, exciting, committed spine is required: a competent goalkeeper, an experienced leader, a ball-winning midfielder and a frontman who actually knows how to stick the ball away. Get the signings right and we're in with a chance; continue to get them wrong and the rut will just get deeper. It's gonna be a big summer.