Cod Almighty | Diary

Dare to dream Mariners!

5 April 2022

If you have a sense of déja vu reading diaries this week, I won't apologise. I wouldn't be surprised if every diarist relives last Saturday's game. I'm still buzzing. I've relived every moment and rewatched the goals countless times. For an afternoon out it really couldn't be beaten. Topped off with tea in a pub on the way home because we didn't want the day to end. Perfect.

I'm not on my own when I say I've been through the permutations so many times. I'm sure you have too and we know it's going to be a tense run in. This hope is why we follow them through thick and thin. Whatever happens I'm looking forward to next season watching this group of players. Let's keep them together, we know they have the quality to play at a level above. Dare to dream Mariners!

I did wonder whether to raise a negative or not, as I don't want to put a downer on proceedings after such a wonderful afternoon but the stewarding wasn't up to much, was it. I appreciate it can be a matter of opinion, but some clubs do it so well whilst at others it's amateur time. Chesterfield definitely come into the latter category. Some bits were just bemusing.

Are the Mariners the only club to travel with a fair number of female supporters in their ranks? Is it unheard of for female fans to travel to away games? Maybe in Chesterfield it is. Having arrived in good time, we stood in the queue for ten minutes till a steward came along to tell me to change queues because there was only one female steward trained to do searches. They appeared to be searching all adults but then let a few pensioners through.

Stewards have no legal or statutory power to search a person without that person's consent but we all know what would happen if we refused to go along with the charade. Personally, it wasn't on the Stevenage scale but inept. The steward was overzealous in some cases and I felt I had to put a mask on before I got to the front because she was talking straight into faces from a few inches away. Covid or not, it wasn't pleasant.

Move on to the game and there was one particular numpty who seemed to be at the forefront of any numptiness. I've rewatched the clip of a fan being dragged out along the floor with his son trotting alongside but unfortunately it's not clear enough to say it is definitely him. I think it probably is though. Said number one numpty steward was bouncing on his toes behind the row of stewards, ordering the others around so I assume he was senior. The phrase "Up for it" was made for him, he was spoiling for fans to cause trouble.

When one of our goals went in, I think probably Clifton's, Senior Numpty rushed out to try to stop some of the players joining in the celebration. They dodged round him but honestly what a numpty. I'm no fan of refs but it's for them to decide if a celebration is "excessive". This was a few moments joy and then we got on with the game and scoring again. Why is he so full of his own importance that he has decided this is his role? Who knows, but definitely amateur time.

Finally, just to underline how good our performance was, we have two players in the Bananarama team of the week. Congratulations John McAtee and Luke Waterfall, you were immense. So was everyone else on that pitch, but I suppose we can't be greedy. UTM!