Cod Almighty | Diary

Fern curl frem the Rerlin' Sterns

16 May 2014

Mardy Diary writes: I'm doing the second part of a cultural exchange tomorrow. Let me explain...

When Town played the home leg against Gateshead the other week I couldn't make it to the match. So I grabbed my laptop once I was home from work and nipped down my local pub to watch the match while having a few pints.

One of the regulars in the pub, Martin, sat down with me, had a few drinks and cheered on the Mariners. Nothing unusual about that and we've often chatted about footy down the pub. However, Martin is a Hull City fan, so for him to be sat there cheering on Town was a little odd – he admitted as much.

But it's these situations that bring a bit of local solidarity – a Humber alliance. Plus we have local football things in common: we both hate Peter Beagrie, for example.

During the return leg, while I was at Gateshead, just after Disley equalised, I got a text from Martin saying: "Come on Town". He'd been following the match online. The next one said: "I can't believe I just wrote that".

So on Saturday I'll be down the local watching the FA Cup on the big screen and cheering on Hull City in the final as an act of Humber brotherhood against That London.

After the match, though, we'll return to our respective positions: me mocking Hull's city of culture award, him mocking Grimsby's, err, Grimsbyishness. And both of us mocking the local "inlanders" with their poor-quality fish and chips.

Have a good weekend.