Cod Almighty | Diary

Does monitory enhancement mean Paul Hurst will have a 24-inch screen?

7 January 2014

Grimsby Town FC have given us so much to be proud of in the last few months. To take one example, the initiative around the Sporting Memory Network, climaxing with the Mariners Memory Game against Kidderminster on 19 December, was both a fitting response to the loss of Kevin Moore last April and an affirmation of the place of the club in so many hearts.

If you have not got a copy of the programme for the Kidderminster game, get one. To read different generations of Town fans sharing their memories is to understand why the club lives on.

Our few successes of the last decade may seem meagre to those of us who grew up with the myriad achievements of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Your Middle-Aged Diary, thinking back to those days, must admit to a fleeting embarrassment that our cup win over Scunthorpe was deemed worthy of a double DVD. But what the heck. Such wins are enough to hook a new generation. I am reminded of the tale of an England fan bragging about their 5-1 win in Munich in 2001, the ground cut from under him by the understated German reply: "Yes, and I understand you can still buy DVDs of that game today" – ten years later.

If we are still flogging DVDs of the Scunthorpe win in a decade, we'll be in trouble. But for now let's revel in what we are doing, from where we are now.

The near misses, by the way, have a special place in the memory. They don't get handed down the generations, but those who lived through them find themselves fighting those old battles decades on. From our 0-3 demolition of Tottenham in 1991, I can still recall a near-perfect passage of play which began and nearly ended with Dave Gilbert, and took in a one-two between Tony Rees and Gary Childs along the way. The Russell Slade generation has a stirring 2004 defeat to Charlton to harbour. Add Huddersfield to our stock of angling tales.

There is more to our pride than achievements on the pitch. As a club, we are often at our best when we are slightly understated and down-to-earth. What better, then, than a manager who is slightly understated and down-to-earth? Paul Hurst thoroughly deserves his new contract. What we deserve, though, is something better than the garbled mix of 1990s mortgage-brokerese and classic Fenty malapropism with which the news is conveyed. We have a clear and good story to tell, so tell it, clearly and well.

We do not want Danny North back, nor do we believe that two (Jason Walker has rejected a contract at Gateshead) plus two (Paul Hurst wants an attack-minded player) equals 22 (Walker in Grimsby's sights). Let's instead spend a fraction of our recent 'football fortune' employing someone to sense-check and proofread our public pronouncements. There are people out here who would do it out of love.