Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 1 May 2013

1 May 2013

Afternoon, all. Your original/regular Diary will begin today by adding my voice to those regretting the loss this week of a Grimsby Town great. Moores Kevin and Dave were mainstays of Town's first XI when I began watching the side. While an eight-year-old boy will not remember the fine detail three and a bit decades later, I do remember the confidence more seasoned supporters placed in Kev. It was a confidence that no GTFC defender has since inspired in quite the same way.

I don't want to go on and on, because the UK is tending these days to make a fetish of public mourning. But I think everyone's quite shocked by the loss of Kevin Moore because he was only 55. So if you want to share your memories of him, or just read the words other people have sent to us, we've set up a page where you can do just that.

Some of us at Cod Almighty Towers have been wondering this week about the future of Bradley Wood. He might not be the best player at Blundell Park. He might not even be the best right-back at Blundell Park. And shortly after this diary is published, he may find out that his next step must be to seek another club. But there's something inextinguishably GTFC about him which makes us hope he can stay.

We talk a lot about Grimsby Town players, as opposed to footballers who merely play for Grimsby Town. Bradley Wood is a Grimsby Town player. His style and approach to football, in some incalculable way, approximate to the way we perceive our club, even our town. Even if he isn't a local lad. Who else in the current squad can we say that about? Possibly just Andy Cook. Who else in the squads of the last decade? No more than a single XI.

You don't have to be a Grimsby Town player, but it helps. Scott Neilson never quite fitted the bill but that needn't be a deal-breaker. A daft red card and a perception of selfish play were cited by many fans when the player left for Luton mid-season and gave his infamous "Grimsby don't really want promotion" interview to the Bedfordshire press. He's ready to build bridges now, of course. Since he left, Town fans have watched a succession of other temporary wingers try and fail to play consistently, or pretty much beat the first man with a ball into the box. As the supply to the frontmen dried up, so too did Town's league form and chances of promotion. I think we're ready to build bridges as well.

Today isn't just the day when new contracts are offered or withheld: it's also the time for Town's player of the season to be announced. There's more to this, of course, than adding up a column of numbers. But our man of the match awards this season show Craig Disley way out in front (just as he was last season, in fact). And in Disley's case the stats back up the instincts. Three or four games in to his GTFC career, the CA team were more or less unanimous that if a central midfielder of Disley's quality had come our way sooner, we might never have dropped out of the Football League. Sign him up, Shorty and Shouty!