Cod Almighty | Diary

All aboard the GTFC train

7 April 2022

Mr Target Demographic writes: For as long as I have been a football supporter my father has always had this idea in his head that towards the end of the season other teams will come unstuck and Grimsby would come steaming through like a train into the promotion fight. I appreciated as I got older and understood more that this wasn't just the ramblings of a crazy man and it could actually happen. Never to us, of course, but it was something that did happen. However, the win against Chesterfield has left many, including myself, starting to wonder if perhaps this could be our year to be that train, while the others all fight among themselves.

When you look at it on paper, achieving promotion is still a tough ask. We've still Stockport to play (granted it's at the BP, perhaps giving us that alleged twelfth man), Notts County have a significantly easier run (they play Dover twice in the last five games), and Boreham Wood still have two games in hand over us while being only three points behind. All this being said, football isn't played on paper and if we were to win against Stockport with other results going our way...well then add more coal to that engine because this train could be pulling into London for another visit! Too soon? Depends on whether you think it's a glass half full or empty I suppose…

Moving on, I've seen this debate go on for a long while now and it will continue after this, but I just wanted to express my thoughts on "where does Harry Clifton play best?" I bring this up because every time 2pm hits on a Saturday I'm typically stood in the queue for fish and chips where I hear someone say or Tweet "Why play Clifton out wide and not through the middle!" Unfortunately I couldn't attend Chesterfield due to having a university offer holder day, but I assume he played wide left again. Hopefully, the performance against Chesterfield has converted the haters of Clifton on the wing, but I can understand where they're coming from.

When our wingers are injured Clifton out wide is a nice option to have, but when Scannell, Maguire-Drew, Sousa and even Abrahams are fit it's interesting to see Clifton picked over them. Once again, though, you can understand this: Clifton offers more defensively perhaps and more energy than the wingers but the wingers could offer more creatively going forward.

My opinion is that I like Clifton out wide just as much as in the middle. I know, very on the fence. But Clifton in his own way is an excellent player, always giving his 100% in a professional manner, no matter the position. So, if the team sheet comes out this Saturday and I see Clifton at centre-half I doubt I would even question it. I realise this doesn't answer the initial question posed, does it. Clifton out wide in favour of more creativity in the middle. Final answer.

To conclude, I just wanted to recognise and appreciate the GTFC admin for TikTok. Some of the posts on there are fabulous in terms of shithousery and winding up other teams and I'm all for a little bit of banter now and then. Because of the platform, I'd say it's better than the Twitter banter we see between admins. If you haven't already seen them, I would definitely recommend downloading it for the sole purpose of watching them.

UTM