Cod Almighty | Diary

Ring the bells that still can ring

31 December 2013

It's New Year's Eve, a day for football fans to look forward one day, and look back over 364 and a half.

Looking forward first of all, and tomorrow Town face Lincoln. Apart from the long-term injury to Liam Hearn, Scott Kerr still has a bad knee, Sam Hatton is poorly and Clayton MacDonald is no longer poorly but did crock his arm in training. Of the three, Kerr appears to be the one we would miss most: with weary bodies, we need a bit of craft to top up the graft at this time of year especially. Arguably, it was in our failure to complete the double over Lincoln at the very start of this year that we lost our sense of invincibility and our 2012-13 promotion campaign lost its force.

Event of the year, for Middle-Aged Diary, was the publication of Pass and Move. Among the reasons why Alan Buckley's autobiography stands out is that he brings home the human cost of footballing success, and failure. To take one trivial- sounding example, in 1988 the Town team had to travel on Christmas night for a Boxing Day game at Reading. I remember the match well as I was stuck in London on my own and one of the consolations was that that I thought I'd be able to travel to Elm Park. The lack of public transport put paid to that, and in any case we lost 2-0. Unlike Buckley and the great Town team of that season, I hadn't given up my Christmas for it though.

Naturally, footballers are getting paid to do something many people do for free and for fun. We talk about the sacrifices we'd make to have their life, but that does not mean that those sacrifices, at this time of year especially, are not real. At the end of a busy period, the Grimsby squad face two big games in three days, before a comparatively quiet week. We can all play our part to ensure we all have a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and new year.

The match I most enjoyed in 2013 was our 3-1 win at Macclesfield, less for the quality of the football than for the quality of the support. Fans who proclaim themselves the best in their league, country or planet should be treated with suspicion and a large unenthusiastic crowd is a dead weight. However, large bodies (with no doubt enlarged bodies) of supportive supporters tomorrow and on Saturday can help set us up for a very good 2014.