Cod Almighty | Postbag

After Wembley, the deluge

27 March 2013

Spring (hah!), and a Mariner's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of play-offs. Read on for your thoughts on Wembley and the season run-in.

You'd be a Fool not to go to Stockport

When Wayne Burnett scored that wonderful Golden Goal to send me and over 30,000 fellow Grimsby Town fans into raptures of ecstasy at Wembley in April 1998, never in my worst nightmares would I have dreamt that almost 15 years later I would be watching Town contest a non-League final at the same venue. Still less so, when just over six weeks later, Kevin Donovan scored his Wembley play-off goal to take the Mariners back into the second tier of football (now the Championship) which we had graced for most of the previous 18 years. 

However, in football as with life, things can change at an alarming speed and complacency is the constant and deadly enemy of the unwary. Life can lift you up but it can bring you down again just as quickly. Ask any Grimsby Town fan.

I went to Wembley last Sunday, not through any particular desire to see Town add a non-League trophy to their (rather small!) collection and certainly not because I was expecting a Town win. I went because Grimsby Town are my team – oh and, let's be honest, because my son lives in London and he got me a ticket for the game! The result didn't particularly matter to me since I would gladly exchange any number of FA Trophies for a place back in the Football League. So too would all of us I imagine. 

Now that that competition is out of the way our faltering team must regain fully its focus on the league. We still have plenty of games left to cement a play-off place even if our championship aspirations have disappeared – the last fortnight's results have certainly put paid to those – and cost me a few quid, as my bets on Town usually do! I really do think that we will achieve promotion though, and if you want an omen, here it is. 

I left the Grimsby area in the 1960s (I'm a Meggie, by the way!) and have lived in the Stockport area for most of the subsequent years. We never seem to do well against Stockport County, certainly not on their side of the Pennines, a fact that has always irritated me, particularly since, for five years, I wrote a regular column for the Stockport County programme and for one of those years I was the club solicitor! Not any longer, though. 

Grimsby's wins over Stockport County at their Edgeley Park ground have been few and far between and in fact over the last 50 years we have only twice won there in league games. Now, here's the thing, both those victories occurred in April at or near to Easter – 3 April 1972 and 14 April 1990 to be precise, and I was there both times. After each victory, Grimsby went on to achieve promotion in that same season. This year we play Stockport County at Edgeley Park... in April and, better still, on Easter Monday! 

So that's it, the biggest game of our season is at Edgeley Park on Easter Monday, 1 April and you'd be a Fool not to go – sorry, I couldn't resist that!

Win that match and we win promotion, it's as simple as that. I'll be there, will you?

from John England

Encounter with the Andy Cook fan club

Hi, 

Sat on the train from Newark to London on Sunday Morning, eight North Eastern Lads, cans of ale strewn on the tables, bantering, not a jacket in sight. Where are they going I wonder? 

... Overhear mentions of the Mariners and Andy Cook's name crops up. We get chatting and their going to Wembley to support their old school mate. They are a variety of Mackems and Geordies, their own teams don't get the chance to go to Wembley much, so they decide they will support Cooky and the Mariners and have a day out. Basically they like to ground-hop a bit: been to Blackpool v Wigan last week, seen Town v Lincoln on New Year's Day; going to Lisbon next week to watch Newcastle. 

It's -1C and they are wearing nothing more than a shirt or T-Shirt! Last sighted sunbathing at Kings Cross.

from Martin Robinson

Not an encounter with the Rob Scott fan club

Whatever happened to the loud one on Sunday? No noise heard at all – bliss! The noise can occasionally be heard in the old Barrett Stand on quiet crowd days. 

Come to think of it, has the tall one started using Sheds of Grey as his tactical tool? It can be the only explanation; the loud and lanky one who dominates is sadistic, the wee one is the meek, masochistic one always obedient, whatever the consequences. It must be the case, to account for the foolhardy signings and team selections recently – two could not have agreed on policies unfathomable to every other genuine follower of the club. 

Where's the vote of confidence from the Board when it's wanted? There have been so few successful joint appointments for Grimsby or any other club in the country. Most need one manager, maybe with an assistant a la John Cockerill to Alan Buckley. When is the board going to realise a joint appointment is expensive and doesn't work? Why not use the purse from Wembley to pay off one or both of them? (My vote would be the tall and loud one with the perfectly coiffed hair, to be radical). 

This can be the only explanation for the dire games since Boxing Day. The management have been found out by their respective opposition bosses – even the guy from Lincoln. They have no technical knowledge, as has been said before. What else could account on Sunday for Aswad's wandering along the goal line 15 yards from where corners are about to be taken, despite there being cover from midfield for any short corner, and at the same time leaving the back post totally undefended? 

Sunday was a defeat waiting to happen. How Disley stayed on the hallowed turf is a total mystery after that blatant, outrageous, two-footed tackle. I reckon in that long telling off the ref gave him was a clear "Do that again and you're off" message; what else could account for his below par performance? Why, oh why, was Hannah withdrawn (again) (see above comments re tactics or lack thereof)? To bring Thanoj on (good move!), the other, inept midfielders (no names mentioned, Marshall) should have been withdrawn. 

Was it a coincidence that McKeown was beaten five times from the penalty spot down his right? He always goes left side from the penalty spot. Wrexham must have done their homework and known that. Where was Town's tactical awareness here? As for using a full-back to take the first, critical penalty (I reckon it would have hit the post anyway watching the replay on the large screen) and following it with Brodie trying to launch into orbit, where was the basic penalty shooting practice? Oh, that's a tactical issue isn't it? Sorry. 

I spent most of last night awake and angry, composing this in my head – a good game, definately the right result, magnificent saves from McKeown, an inevitable penalty (see references to opposition teams doing their homework). A former season ticket holder who used to sit next to me, one of the hundreds who have departed, told me of the attraction of getting Sky for the price of the annual season ticket. I must admit, it's very tempting, and it's a warmer option for a freezing cold Saturday afternoon.

from Phil Shorter

And now for something completely different

I would like to ask if anyone can shed any light on the spelling and derivation of a word I used to hear a lot as a kid at Nunsthorpe Primary. It meant "Oh no!", or amazement, or admiration, or consternation, or a worry. It sounded like "engies" or "oh engies". Maybe hengies without the H. 

Any input folks?

from Mick Mills

If you can cast light on the issues they raise, or anything else, write to us at postbag@codalmighty.com