Cod Almighty | Diary

True love will find you in the end

31 October 2013

I used to try my best to buy in to the whole local derby thing. Really I did. Every time Plucky Scunny or whoever were mentioned on the news, I would do my best to say: "Grrrr! How dare they be a very similar club to our own but just a few miles down the road!" or whatever it is you're supposed to say. 

I was never really feeling it though. And then the Premier League came along, with its agenda to reduce professional football in England to around 40 clubs, destroy the historic link between your club and your home town, wipe out the likes of Town, Plucky Scunny, Lincoln and every other dirty little two-bit, off-brand set-up, and basically have all the money ever. 

Suddenly there was an organisation in football that deserved all the hate you could muster. And the hollow, brainless ritual of 'local rivalry' – persuading yourself that you hate the very similar club to your own from a few miles down the road – seemed more hollow and brainless than ever. One of the following clubs doesn't threaten the Mariners' competitiveness and viability by rivalling us in our own town and draining away support that should be ours: Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Scunthorpe. Can you guess which one?

Like all right-minded football folk, your original/regular Diary likes to side with the underdog. Three or four years ago I would enjoy it when Plucky Scunny were sticking it to the 'sleeping giants' and the wannabes of the 'Championship', just as Town had before them. It was good then to see Scunthorpe punching above their weight in the second division. And it's good now to see them still punching above their weight in the fourth.