Cod Almighty | Diary

Don't take Boxing Day literally, lads

23 December 2014

It's your London Diary here on a Tuesday, not a Wednesday, and I'm not even in London – I'm in Cleethorpes. It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and not just because I've managed to put on a stone already. There's much festive cheer at the moment in NE Lincolnshire; I think I've watched Carl Magnay's pass to Lenny on Friday over 300 times now and everytime I watch it I get a tad more excited; Carl, you're our guiding star. I've got my tickets for the Chrimbo games and I'm even more excited about those than I am about Christmas itself.

A few pictures emerged at the weekend of the players' Christmas party. By all accounts they went up to Magnay's Mansion in the north-east and all dressed up as the Newcastle United squad of '96. Seeing this picture made me all nostalgic as I haven't seen this type of team bonding for some time. All of the players were present, all of them made the effort and it's this type of stuff off the pitch that helps us on it (as long as they don't go all Gallimore on us, obviously), so well done 'the lads' for putting a smile on our faces.

People heading to the game on 1 January can expect the team to be more ruthless than you saw them four days before, according to Hurststststs.

Miss Guest Diary yesterday talked about the absence of a minute's recognition for Peter Furneaux on Friday night and it's become apparent that this will now happen on Sunday's fixture at Blundell Park. Let's hope that the referee remembers and that the away fans are respectful.

We also need to hope that there's no 'kicking off' at the Lincolnshire derby on Sunday too. The police have called for calm ahead of the 'Christmas perineum' clash and I sincerely hope that people heed this warning. We're two clubs arguably fighting for survival each year in a league that nobody wants to be in. Each year, we lose money because of the league we are in and not being where we were. Small groups of fans, who feel that they need to prove themselves in their weekend casual clobber, chase after each other to get the recognition they dearly deserve or weren't shown by their parents, but we really don't need it.

This knucklehead ignorance costs us more than dignity. We're paying for it out of the club's purse – money that could be spent on other things. If you want a fight, join a boxing club and get your head kicked in properly, but don't do it on our watch. We want to watch football and we want to pay to watch the football. I don't want to be watching and paying for hundreds of riot police to separate a group of people from two sleepy Lincolnshire towns. Grow up.

That video seems to be going on strong. Have a little look if you haven't done so yet.