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Diary - Thursday 29 November 2012

29 November 2012

"John Fenty: We need to forget the docks for new Grimsby Town stadium". That's the headline of an article on the Telegraph website today. It makes me think of some other headlines the Telegraph could have used to report utterances by Town's major shareholder. "John Fenty: Neil Woods has my unequivocal support as team manager and there's absolutely no way I'll sack him in 24 hours' time", perhaps. Or "John Fenty: me and Mike Parker together, we're going to sort this club out big time". And most pertinently, there's "John Fenty: we've definitely checked everywhere and Great Coates is the only possible option for a stadium anywhere in North East Lincolnshi... oh".

Your original/regular Diary was one of perhaps 80 or so Townites who made it along to lovely Buxton last night for the FA Trophy replay. One might prognosticate, from the Mariners' struggle over 180 minutes to overcome opposition from two steps below the Conference Premier, that we won't get promoted back into the Football League this season. But I'm not going to. At this moment I don't feel in my soul that we will get promoted back into the Football League this season. But it's not because of the Buxton games.

No, Buxton was just one of those lose-lose situations. Despite the rollicking our lot will have received after Saturday, the body language of some of the team suggested that they, like the narrator of Oliver's Army, would rather have been anywhere else but there last night. In this it was, in a sense, Hyde revisited. It's almost a law of nature which not even the sternest rollicking can contravene. The likes of Middlesbrough used to turn up at BP a few years ago with their noses held and go home with their arses spanked. And so the professionals of GTFC would always struggle to rouse themselves for a tie like this. Factor in the granite determination and organisation of the Buxton players, and a shock or a near-shock comes as little surprise.

Anyway, you know what? Football is supposed to be fun. And it's a lot more fun when you forget about where your team might be in a few months' time, or where you think it 'should' be. Town did not cover themselves in glory last night or at Hyde, but I had a great time at both games.

Why? There's no way of saying it without sounding patronising, but Buxton's fans and stadium were entirely charming. Sure, I'm pissed off that the Mariners are playing three steps below the division we've spent more time in than any other. But while we're down here - however long that might last - let's cherish the £9 charge for unsegregated standing, the nice chats with the other team's fans ("I used to go to Cleethorpes on my holidays!" "I sometimes come to Buxton for my holidays!"), the chips and mushy peas and the cosy clubhouses. Sure, give me Fenty's "footballing fortune", if there's any on offer. But give me the Silverlands vibe any day, ahead of a £28 ticket for Vicarage Road, police cordons and tannoys loud enough to melt human bone.

Last night may or may not hold any clues for the Mariners' longer-term success. But it was definitely the first time I could tell 90 minutes had elapsed from hearing a linesman's watch alarm go off.