Cod Almighty | Diary

Life. Don't talk to me about life

17 November 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: I was really looking forward to the trip to Altrincham. It failed to live up to expectations, though I admit it wasn't all bad. High points were: catching up with friends in the pub and on the terrace; Nathan Arnold's goal; Carl Magnay's defending; and some great chips in Tesco's café. Low points were: conceding a goal in the 90th minute; idiots throwing smoke bombs; negative tactics; and a bus replacement service which took so long getting through the Manchester traffic that we nearly missed our train home.

All in all, I feel a 12-hour day which involved spending close to £100 for the two of us should be rewarded with a bit more than we got from Town on Saturday. Having said that, it wasn't really a surprise that the performance was distinctly average and Town's winning run came to an end at a bottom-of-the-table club. That's life for the Grimsby Town fan. Not for us the prospect of going a whole season unbeaten, like Arsenal. Every golden goal at Wembley or Boxing Day hammering of Lincoln has to be paid for by a relegation trip to Tranmere or a dreary defeat at Dartford. Or a boring draw at Altrincham.

I've got used to it over the last 25 years. You can see it coming: we certainly did on Saturday. When Altrincham got corner after corner in the last few minutes, the chances of hanging on to the lead seemed slim. And of course Town didn't. Why does that happen? You could point to negative tactics, sitting back on a lead; but over the years I've seen it happen so many times with different formations, players and managers. Is it something in the Grimsby psyche?

Paul Hurst is determinedly upbeat in his post-match interview. He poses the question as to whether the glass is half full or empty, then answers it in a positive way with talk of "a point away from home" and still being second in the table. He just hasn't been in Grimsby long enough yet. When posed the same question on Radio Humberside's Sportstalk show a couple of weeks ago, Cod Almighty's match reporter Tony Butcher said he saw no glass at all – now that's a true Grimbarian response.

I feel I need to give readers some positive news to lighten the mood on a wet Monday, but I'm struggling. The new stadium plans are still facing "a number of hurdles" and seem to have descended into a battle of the petitions, with 8,000 in favour and 3,000 against. That's less than 9 per cent of the local population expressing an opinion, and I suspect many of those in favour are Town fans who don't even live in the area. How much weight do petitions actually carry in planning applications? Is there a town planner out there who could tell us?

Oh go on then, let's wallow in some nostalgia to cheer us up. The club has announced that 'Flash' has been added to the line-up for the (not) Chairman's Challenge. The team is now Darren Mansaram, John McDermott, Dave Smith, Paul Bolland, Jack Lester, Micky Boulding, Tony Rees, Tommy Widdrington, John Fenty and Paul Hurst. That's only ten. Please, please let Town announce the 11th man as Wayne Burnett. Yes, I know they need someone to play in goal, but I can dream, can't I?