Cod Almighty | Diary

If there's a queue in Grimsby, you join it

25 May 2022

Daubney Diary has been accused of having a memory for useless information. It's worse than that, the useless information bounces around my skull waiting for trigger words to summon it and interrupt any attempt to live a productive existence. A case in point was this morning when tickets went on sale for Wrexham. Every queue since a Football Focus piece prior to the Wimbledon cup game in 1989, be it for the Spoons carvery or the Pontoon bogs, is accompanied by Harry Gration's chipper tones of "if there's a queue in Grimsby, you join it". 

Grimsby queuers don't mess about either, as this picture from Blundell Park this morning shows. Fold-out chairs and hot drinks, all about preparation and planning, innit. Well done to those, some of whom queued from 3.30am, who got one of the 1,200 tickets for Saturday, with the sell out confirmed by 10.30am as the club's approach of divvying up the allocation to online and in-person sales seemed to work well.

So, on to Saturday. There are fans who regarded the play-offs this season as a free hit for us. That must be doubly so following Monday's barminess. "Our arses are out the window here, son" as my grandad used to say when up against it on the golf course. At Meadow Lane, Town arses, limbs and everything else were out the window and thumbing a lift on the hard shoulder before Gavan Holohan found the net.

Wrexham on their own turf will obviously represent a challenge and that was before our own Tony Butcher guested on the Fearless in Devotion podcast and raised hackles by labeling them an "expensive pub team". 

I get the free hit comments but to call it that makes it sound somewhat fortuitous that we are here at all. Watching the game the other night, you couldn't help notice the contrast in the attitude and body language of the managers. Ian Burchnall appeared tense throughout and had the look of a man who thought he could be out of a job if things didn't go his way. Paul Hurst on the other hand looked like his mum had given him a sack of two pence pieces on the prom and told him to knock himself out on the slots.

Hurst doesn't have to queue for tickets this weekend. We can't give the owners and the board credit for that, not even Honest John would stoop that low. If Hursty did though, he'd obviously be there nice and early with a chair and flask of Yorkshire. What we can give the owners credit for is giving a manager the tools to succeed and the knowledge his job doesn't depend on the outcome of the next two weeks. What a nice place to work; the spirit in the squad to win through on Monday has not come about by accident.

A couple of fine pieces for me to direct you to before I go. Rich Lord expands on the spirit and resilience in the squad with his analysis of our late goals this season. And Mark Dillerstone is the latest subject of the Knowing Us series. 

Right, with all that talk of hot drinks and tea, I'm off to put the kettle on. UTM.