Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 7 May 2010

7 May 2010

Middle-aged Diary is writing as, all over the country, would-be members of parliament, their supporters, the people who try to give life to their beliefs through the political process, have left the cusp at which their futures are still in flux, when there are actions they can still take to influence their fates. There will be glee, satisfaction at a job well done, reassurance that those steps untaken did not prove critical; and there will be 'if only's.

In sport, what looks like fate is often hindsight. Wayne Burnett's golden goal was perfect in space and time, but imagine that, some half an hour earlier, he had brought off that awkward volley from the edge of the area that many of us, at the time, for a moment, thought had rippled the net from the right side of the post. Wouldn't we remember the goal he almost scored just as fondly as the one he did? Might the goals that John Cockerill scored to beat Exeter and secure promotion, local boy that he is, have not been just as memorable had they been scored by Macca, or Tony Rees, making his first start after an injury lay-off?

There are rare, brief, moments in our own lives when we are conscious that we hold our futures in our own hands, before an interview perhaps, and we allow ourselves soft landings from those moments. We minimise our own responsibility for ourselves - "there is probably an internal candidate who's been promised the job" - but, in our hearts, we know that we are at a moment when we have no-one to blame but ourselves.

Tomorrow is the last time the players and staff of Grimsby Town can take hold not only of their own destinies but of that small but essential part of our lives that is devoted to the club. Fail tomorrow and it will be easy to remember the times they have frozen before the responsibility; succeed and we will come to think the fateful moment was the comeback at Accrington, or Atkinson's turn and volley last Saturday.

There have been enough reminders that the players do care, but now is no time to be looking for a soft landing. It is therefore reassuring to read Neil Woods removing all alibis for tomorrow, declaring all but Proudlock and perhaps Sinclair fit and ready, as he acknowledges how much the club means to us. It is too early to be looking for the potential consolations of failure, too early to be talking about fate.

Grimsby expects.