Cod Almighty | Diary
Pundits say we've a 1-in-4 chance, though there's only a 20 percent chance of that
9 April 2026
Head over to the club’s official website (which has gone so far beyond superb and new that we’ve run out of sarky adjectives for it) and you’ll learn that 2026-27 season tickets are on sale ‘from tomorrow’. That will be today, given the article was published yesterday. But we shouldn’t nit-pick because in the 1878 Partners era things have broadly been done very well and with the best of intentions.
The update is very comprehensive — but in case you want the TL;DR version: prices have gone up marginally and very reasonably by a rate that works out slightly under a quid per game for adults. Existing season ticket holders have until Friday 29th May to secure their seat.
This season’s home shirt bears a deliberate resemblance to the one we wore at Wembley twice in 1998 — and we could yet be going there again in 2026. The Mariners compiled 72 points across that league campaign under Alan Buckley, which was enough to finish third in the table and secure a play-off place. It’s very possible that Town could accrue more points than that this season and finish outside the play-offs.
By almost every metric, as we currently stand, the Mariners are up on last season. But there’s one metric against which the superficial fan wants to measure improvement, and that’s whether or not we get promoted at the end of the season.
The beauty of football, and sport in general, is that it is nuanced. Answers are rarely straightforward. In fact, you may consider football or following the Mariners itself — as your West Yorkshire diary does — as a kind of art form. It’s a creative and expressive pursuit, and it primarily exists to entertain, provoke debate and generate discussion. We’re also in the Jamestown era, so drill, baby, drill! Extract that data, throw it into the mix. You’d think it’d back up arguments, but if anything it’s just fuel for more heated discussions.
The quest for certainty seems like a thing we all want, but it’d be boring if we ever got it. We love the spontaneity and randomness, really. It makes us angry, confused, joyous… so whatever happens in this Saturday’s crunchy-looking clash with Crewe, just enjoy the spectacle. These are the games we want; these are the matches players want to play in.
The smell of Saturday has already begun to drift my way. This is the life, isn’t it? A promise of drama, to continue in our quest to reach the thing where we get a 1-in-4 shot of promotion. I don’t like the fact that we have so many other clubs circling round that seventh spot, like seagulls spotting a chip on a sea wall. Crewe being one of them, of course.
A few seasons back, Crewe came to Blundell Park and played a very solid Hurst team off the park. In his post-match comments on the radio that day, Alan Buckley gushed with praise for David Artell’s Railwaymen. I still think about that, sometimes. It would be the kind of thing that would make it onto my CV if I were Artell.
As the season begins to draw to a climactic close, we begin to take a peek at which teams we might get to visit next season. This, naturally, depends on our own performance — it could yet be Leicester City or Boreham Wood. The race for the Conference title, by the way, is rather remarkable. With three games to go, York have already secured over a hundred points and scored over a hundred goals, and yet they could still be playing in that division next season. Scunny, whose days of pluck are long behind them, are in the play-off mix. Their presence in the fourth division — if that’s where we remain — would provide us with a couple of tasty dates next season.
It appears Creepy Crawley’s Jay Williams, the guy who in Artell’s words had ‘a brain fart’ and deliberately booted the ball at Clark Oduor’s face from five yards away on Monday, has had his red card overturned on appeal! Explain that. You can’t, can you?
Finally today, we at Cod Almighty would like to congratulate Rae Walker on being shortlisted for the EFL Club Employee award. Rae has worked for GTFC for over four decades and the club published this wonderful write-up of why she’s been nominated for the prestigious award. All the best on the night, Rae. UTM!