Cod Almighty | Diary
When original/regular and Retro Diary are exchanging nature notes, the football season hasn't properly started
16 August 2017
Middled-Aged Diary writes: "Grimsby Town midfielder Luke Summerfield calls for unity ahead of Stevenage clash" runs the Telegraph headline. Panic sets in. We are two games into the season – one win, one loss – and already the squad is splitting into factions? Or the players feel fans are on their backs?
The article, when you read it, is less melodramatic, simply saying Town played well in one game and badly in another and will be playing better again in future. So either Summerfield said a bit more than made it into the text, or, far more likely, a sub-editor at Fisherman's Wharf got a bit overexcited. Let's move on.
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Rich Jones got in touch about the article Seasons in the sun: "Totally agree with Ron Counte's views. My Mariners addiction nearly mirrors his, my first encounter being slightly earlier: the League Cup tie against Burnley in 1968 with the mercurial Doug Collins playing.
"The hard truth is that I, no matter how many half decent teams and players I see now, just cannot exorcise the mental ghosts of witnessing and being so totally immersed in the sublime pleasure of being part of the Town journey, with players like Cumming and Waters to name but two, which a club of our size was really so honoured to have had: Cockerill, Birtles, Whymark... I'm nearly filling up.
"Yeah promotion was great at Wembley and we'll probably see another promotion fairly soon. But hell yes I am being selfish and we'll never probably see their like again. And you know what, deep down for myself and the Rons of this world, and the dwindling band of diehards I'm smugly glad."
John England's article had a warm response on Twitter. John Gaskins wrote in to say he too sat among the home fans. This leaves the distinct possibility that there weren't actually any Chesterfield fans there; just Town fans cheering the Spireites on in a desperate attempt to fit in.
Finally, Rob McIlveen writes with his "Compliments to Rise and Shine Diary for a well-written and nostalgia-tinged piece. Keep up the good work." Luckily for the rest of us, he adds: "This doesn't imply that other diaries are not well-written and/or nostalgia-tinged, of course."
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