Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 24 January 2012

24 January 2012

These are heady times around Blundell Park way, and not just on the pitch. The Mariners, of course, have enjoyed a spectacular recent rise from 15th to ninth place in the Football Conference. Hey, after the decade we've had, that counts as spectacular. But at the same time, the football club has been at the hub of a little social media revolution. This season most of the players are Twittered up and some are using this medium to engage with fans. The club itself, not previously noted for its excellence in communications, has very recently taken to the digital thing with some gusto. And after Anthony Elding's fist-pumpy showing against Lincoln on New Year's Day, Town supporters had your original/regular Diary giggling like Kriss Akabusi on nitrous oxide as #eldingfacts trended across the North-East Lincolnshire bit of cyberspace.

After Town's latest big win, the excellent Too Good to Go Down blog calculated that our club had scored more goals at home in league games this season than any other professional side in Europe except Barcelona. This quickly became the latest mini-viral Twitter phenomenon, giving TGTGD a richly deserved upsurge in traffic. Today the Grimsby Telewag has run the same piece - albeit without crediting TGTGD. Suddenly the Mariners' improved fortunes are creating a genuine rush of interest across the local area. It all goes to show that the people of Grimsby will support a winning team. Mind you, so will anyone else, so what's so great about that? The football club will only sustain any success when we learn to support a losing team as well.

All are present and correct for tonight's long haul to Barrow, so in the absence of transfer activity it's looking like the same starting XI for a third consecutive game. Though the Cumbrian side sit 11th in the league, three points behind Town, their home form is second only to that of league leaders Wrexham. Barrow have conceded just 11 goals in 14 home games, so the Mariners' shot-shyness on their travels will clearly need to be overcome if this winning run is to continue.

There again, there's so much talk of this long midweek journey but so little attention paid to the route. Google Maps estimates the time at a punishing three and a half hours, but offers two journey options, diverging where the M62 westbound joins the M606 at Cleckheaton. Motorway lovers will be inclined to stay on the M62 to the outskirts of Manchester, then take the M6 past Preston up the Lancashire coast. In the Diary's view this would be a grave error. The alternative A65 route skirting the south-west of the Yorkshire Dales will be far preferable, offering the players views of some of Britain's most beautiful countryside - just the job to clear their heads and achieve a Zen-like state of calm ahead of the big game. Although maybe it's one of the managers who needs a Zen-like state of calm more than the players.

Safe journey, if you're travelling. T'ra!