Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 9 July 2012

9 July 2012

You find your Middle-Aged Diary in a particularly jaded, middle-aged mood today. When I read the headlines from the Telegraph, mentally I continued "Funding to seal Grimsby Town deals shows..." with: "commitment to the same business model that has brought such success over the last five years". "Grimsby Town bosses only interested in signing players hungry for wins" left me wondering if any manager ever has said: "We only want players who don't care if they lose", until I reflected that had Mike Newell still been in charge, the headline might have replaced the last two words with "and thirsty".

Cheap, I know, and just as young supporters have in faith and innocence had Jack Lewis or Clive Mendonca or Michael Reddy or even Danny North as their first favourite players in the past, no doubt someone will be excited by Greg Pearson in the near future. Wikipedia notes that the six-foot, 27-year-old Pearson had a trial with the Mariners in 2004 and scored the first goal of our last match in the Football League, suggesting his entry has been edited in the last day or two by a Town fan. That last season he made just 15 first-team appearances, all but one of them on loan, adds a certain piquancy to Rob Scott's assertion that "we want winners at this football club and all of the lads that we have brought in since our time here are just that". Whether anyone at that point said: "Cough, Anthony Church, cough" is not recorded, but even Alan Buckley made the odd gamble that didn't come off.

A couple of Town matches have been rearranged to suit the imaginary audience for televised Conference football. Our match at Wrexham on 25 August will now kick off at 5:15 (meaning yet another year when, despite my Manchester home and Welsh upbringing, I won't make it to the Racecourse). And our home tie with Luton has been brought forward to Friday 21 September. Yesterday, instead of watching two of the best tennis players in the world on TV, I found myself watching good club players in an exhibition match. Being there, the pace of the game and the athleticism of the players were manifest in a way even the best camera angles and editing cannot capture. Both our televised matches have the potential to provide commitment and atmosphere but, far from being a good advert for non-League football, the excitement will seep away into the ether when broadcast on the small screen. The Conference needs to stop signing up for these TV deals and put the drive into getting fans to the ground. Anything else is selling the game short.