Cod Almighty | Diary

In a metaphorical Morris Minor van, destination unknown

16 December 2014

The hottest news we have is that highlights from last night's fans' forum have just been made available on the official site. Middle-Aged Diary isn't a position to review it though, so that will have to wait.

If you are looking for a good combative read, you may have missed Steve Bierley's half-time report on the Mariners. If you are feeling more frivolous, our Christmas Theme Team has just gone live. Have a browse through that, and then get thinking about the rich field of erratic Mariners – the players who go from great to grotesque at a moment's notice. Let's be honest: if they were consistently good, they'd probably not have played for us, so we are hoping for a very strong squad for the new Theme Team.

Thinking about holiday matches gave rise to a few reminiscences that didn't fit in the Theme Team format. We'll feature these in quiet moments over the next few days, and you may want to add your own memories.

Many of the matches are provided by Neville Butt, his brother Patrick and his colleague Mike Potts, and Bill Shankly features heavily. The programme for 29 December 1951 (Grimsby v Halifax; the Mariners won 8-1 despite going a goal down) had this note: "An unusual sight for reserve supporters on Boxing Day was an unfamiliar figure in the number 4 jersey. Manager Bill Shankly turned out to boost the morale of the reserves side and showing some of the touches which made him Scotland's number one choice for many years, created a feeling of confidence which greatly helped the boys to their four-goals-to-one win!"

Neville notes that the reserve game was played in the morning, allowing "Shankly to travel to Scunthorpe to see Town complete the Xmas double over the Nuts, as they were called then". Christmas Day's 3-2 win over Scunthorpe gave rise to "a
feeling of frustration through our lack of goals. It was Scunny's second
season in the Football League and we had played in the first division! Why do
we maintain that arrogance to this day?"

Shankly used to address the crowd before kick-off and on Christmas Day 1952, he introduced a new signing, Harry Hart, intended to address a lack of goals that was hampering our promotion push. Hart, we must assume, was thin on top: "Do
not worry about Harry's head growing through his hair." Shankly told everyone: "He is a young man."

More from Neville soon, but Donk Dawson also has happy, if vague, memories of Christmas 1979 when "Kev Moore had us in paroxysms of delirium. We went to one of the festive away games, six of us, crammed in my Morris Minor van. Everyone had to wear a Christmas gansey and take turns with the bottle opener as a crate of horrible brown ale got demolished. I have no idea who we played, whether we won or indeed owt remotely factual about the day. But I do remember the songs for Moore, for Ford and for Bobby Cumming ringing out all the way there and all the way back. That was a good Christmas."

And may there be many more to come.