Cod Almighty | Diary
In the vacuum of Shaun Harvey's soul
9 November 2017
Grotesque. Last night, the players of Grimsby Town were made to play in front of 248 paying customers. The seven supporters of Sunderland B who were at Blundell Park Middle-Aged Diary can only assume were relatives of one of their players.
Shaun Harvey, John Fenty and the other 'owners' of third and fourth division teams who voted for the Checkatrade Trophy (I name the sponsor only to remind you not to use them) can have no alibi now. Every part of this ill-conceived experiment has been exposed.
Steve Wraith's claim that people have been bullied into not attending Trophy games is an insult to the intelligence and independent-mindedness of fans. In a sensible world, he'd be drafting an apology even now. As it is, unless he regards such spinelessness as his due, John Fenty is probably thanking him for 'taking one for the team' while Boris Johnson, noting his willingness to defend the indefensible, gets on the phone to offer Wraith a job.
Keyboard warriors roaming up and down the land in masks making 'true fans' feel guilty for going to a game cannot be blamed. There was no campaign before this tie, no angry picket line. Grimsby Town v Sunderland under-21s boycotted itself. As Basque Diary, who has seen the impact B teams have in Spain, warned us, these are games that carry low interest.
Yes, it was a dead rubber. But the probability of dead rubbers is built into a group format. The Football League Trophy only gains interest when you begin to sense a trip to Wembley. You need knockout matches to reach that point by the most direct possible route. But if the main aim of the competition becomes giving unused Premier League players something to do, then you inevitably need to inflate the number of games, deflating their significance.
The Football League will compensate Town for any losses on the Trophy, insulating them from the boycott and the apathy. So let's take that to its logical conclusion: play the games behind closed doors. Who needs fans anyway? I gather all four stands were open last night: nice to know the club is so flush with money.
Then there was the penalty shootout. Having had two teams of professional footballers expend energy on a match that has no purpose, in front of fewer characters than you can use in a tweet, the organisers then strip them of a little more dignity by making them take spot-kicks to decide which team will get an extra point – which still won't qualify them for the next round.
The penalty shootout is beloved of the camp followers of football, the people who used to get caught up in the excitement when England did well in a tournament but don't really like watching the game. To the actual fan, it is little more than an occasionally necessary evil. Nothing speaks so loudly of a tin ear for the game than introducing penalties when none are needed.
Finally, there is Russell Slade vying with Wraith to be the Mariners' Lord Haw-Haw. After naming an entirely different team to last Saturday's, he said: "The facts are that we've made 11 changes; that is because I have belief in the whole group." That might have sounded halfway plausible had he said it before the Doncaster game, when he elevated Harry Clifton from the bench to give him his first-team debut. Less plausible when, despite a starring performance, Clifton was dropped from the squad completely for the next league game.
Enough. Elsewhere, Shaun Pearson scored the only goal of the game as Wrexham won their derby with Chester to go joint top of the Conference. Apparently, he had a bit of a set-to with Chester manager Marcus Bignot afterwards. That would be less surprising if it had been Josh Gowling, frozen out last season. Pearson, though, was a consistent starter under Bignot. It's speculation, but if Pearson felt a game against Bignot had an extra edge, it hints once again at the broader, unselfish perspective he brings to the game. It would be great to welcome him back to Blundell Park – next season as a player with Wrexham, one day as a Town manager.