Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 17 October 2011

17 October 2011

I have been giving the football a rest this week, with mixed results. On Tuesday Town managed another 5-2 victory and Hearn hat-trick while I stayed home and watched a few episodes of True Blood (mmm, Alexander Skarsgård).

On the face of it, Saturday was less successful, producing a 2-1 defeat at York. But maybe, given the quality gap in the football being played by each team as reported by Tony Butcher, losing by only one goal was a decent result. Reading Shouty's comments in the Grimsby Telegraph he seems to pretty much agree with Mr Butcher, although obviously without the pop lyrics and references to '70s prog rock bands.

I can't comment because, although I travelled to York, I chose to give the KitKat Stadium a miss and went instead to The Quilt Museum where I saw some truly amazing quilts (insert your own jokes here about patchwork formations and cobbled together defences). Afterwards there was plenty of time for shopping while I followed the game on my phone. So many shops, so much stuff on offer but I came away with only a lemon zester and a bulb planter - the spectre of the WI looms ever closer.

Apparently, Saturday's game was Darran Kempson's 50th appearance for Town, which the Grimsby Telegraph was moved to describe as a "big milestone". Surely, 50 is only about one season's worth of games? It seems a sad indictment that this is seen as a significant milestone but, I suppose, is indicative of the churn in players (and managers) at Town over the last 10 years. It got me thinking about some of my favourites from the previous 10 years and, checking on Soccerbase, I discovered that Steve Livingstone managed 323 appearances, Mark Lever 401 and Paul Groves a staggering 520 in his two spells. Of course, none of them came close to John McDermott's amazing record of over 700 appearances in 20 years. I don't know which current Town player has made the most appearances but I bet it comes nowhere near 100.

Talking of McDermott, I was quite surprised to hear some fans at a game the other week calling out to James McKeown and referring to him as "Macca". In the same way that some teams 'retire' the shirt number of a much-loved player, I think that no-one else at Town should have the nickname of Macca - well, maybe they could earn the right after they've made, say, 250 appearances.

The draw for the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup has given Town a home game against Ashington AFC to be played on 29th October. Who, you might ask. Well, they are currently in the STL Northern League but are a long-established club who have spent time in the Football League in the distant past. By coincidence, their first game in the League in 1921 was against Town. Their website tells us "a record League crowd of almost 10,000 saw Ashington win their first game at home to Grimsby Town with Dickinson scoring the only ground at Portland Park". The teams last met in 1926 when Town were 3-1 winners. I'll take that result on the 29th.

Lastly, the Grimsby Town Supporters Trust has announced details of a meeting to be held at 7pm on 24 October at Blundell Park. All Town supporters are welcome.

Enough now of this rambling, I'm off to make a lemon cake and plant some spring bulbs.