Cod Almighty | Diary

Melt yourself down

5 May 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: So here we are again: another season over and Town are in exactly the same position they were this time last year. Only the way they arrived here was slightly different. During this season Town lost more league games and those they did win were generally by a smaller margin. Town scored more than three goals in a game on only one occasion this season, whereas they managed it five times last season. And, as I have written here before, the actual performances were frequently less enjoyable to watch.

Given the (relatively) decent performances last season, the dull and lacklustre affairs of the two play-off games against Newport, where Town failed even to score a goal, came as a bit of a depressing surprise. By contrast, last Thursday Town finally managed to play nearly a whole game of football which was enjoyable to watch and showed their quality both as individual players, and as a team. They could so nearly have gone to Gateshead with a win under their belts and I, for one, felt relatively optimistic as we made our way north.

But, unfortunately, the team that turned up yesterday was the one we have seen many times before this season: timid and error-prone, sitting back and letting the opposition play. Yes, I know that some refereeing decisions went against us – especially Neilson's sending-off for what was apparently a dive by the Gateshead player – but that wasn't the full story. Credit must go to Gateshead's manager for getting his tactics right and to John Oster for being the great player we know he is. If only he'd been playing for Town, eh?

I know nothing of the 'trouble' at the end of the game: we left just as the home fans invaded the pitch as their third goal went in. But the fact that, as we walked to the station, all the police who had been lining the route began to run towards the stadium told its own story. It's a shame that there is still an element in the Town crowd who can't accept defeat gracefully: they probably see that as a very old-fashioned notion.

So what now? I have already seen a tweet from someone questioning whether they can take another season in non-League. I don't actually get this way of thinking, where what level the team are at determines whether you want to see them play; where supporting a team that is now non-League is seen as some kind of cross to bear. Maybe it's because during the 90s, when Town spent much of the decade in what is now the Championship, I lived down south. Most of the people I encountered there had never heard of Grimsby Town and, if they had, assumed Town were in the bottom division anyway.

Whatever. I will be back next season at Blundell Park and hope that those who feel supporting a non-League team is somehow beneath them can find a new way to occupy their Saturday afternoons. I understand B&Q has a good selection of products for the DIY enthusiast which they could check out.