Cod Almighty | Diary

The Sun ain't gonna shine any more

12 January 2015

Miss Guest Diary writes: Thoughts going through my head as Saturday's game drew to a close at an extremely chilly Blundell Park were the very epitome of the expression 'mixed feelings'. Knowing that Gateshead had refused to allow the tie to be settled on the day, a draw would mean a midweek replay at their ground – a match I would not be able to attend at such short notice – so I was willing Town to score.

Now I am not in the camp that thinks Town should play a weakened side and get out of the FA Trophy as soon as possible. (As an aside, I wonder how many Town fans who have expressed that view have been outraged when Premier League clubs take the same stance with the League Cup.) And I could never want Town to lose a competitive game… but, but, but… The nearer it got to the final whistle and the less likely it looked that Town would score, the more I started to think of reasons why it wouldn't be so bad if it was Gateshead who got the goal.

Well, first there was the replay which I wouldn't have to miss, because it wouldn't be happening. Then the next round falls on the day we are due to play at Nuneaton, which is a pleasant jaunt on a Saturday but not so nice midweek. Counting Town's chickens at a furious rate, I thought then of the following round which would clash with the game at Barnet, when I had been planning a weekend in London to coincide with my sister's birthday. All entirely selfish reasons, I admit.

In the event, my loyalty wasn't tested as the game played out in a toothless, though moderately entertaining, 0-0 draw. Town will have to "go again" – which seems to be the phrase du jour in football-speak.

The positive I'm going to take from the situation is that the replay on Wednesday will give Carl Magnay an opportunity to get back to top form before the game against Barnet. He said last week that it can take him a while to get back when he's been out with injury and he was indeed less than his usual magnayficent self on Saturday, admitting on Twitter that he was "sloppy". Way to go Carl.

I find myself unable to get very wound up about this forthcoming Sacha Baron Cohen movie – I've never seen any TV programme or film he's made and I don't plan to start now. We know it isn't really about us or our club; we know that 'Grimsby' is the convenient handle people grab on to when they want to conjure up stereotypes of a grim working-class place. Haven't we suffered for years with being "the likes of Grimsby" in every football pundit's vocabulary of teams to disrespect; and of course there's that old cliché of "a cold Tuesday night at Blundell Park" being the worst place to play.

A lazy lampoon by a bloke who spent a couple of hours in the town is not worth giving a second thought to, which makes it seem faintly ridiculous that the Sun would send a reporter to Blundell Park. Yes, apparently there were representatives of the Sun newspaper at the ground on Saturday looking for some troublemakers to interview. That they chose a Trophy game to attend, rather than, say, the Lincoln game, just about sums up what the tabloid press know about anything outside the Premier League. I'd like to see them try and spin a story out of 1,100 die-hard fans scattered around the stadium muttering about the cold and wailing the occasional forlorn "Mariners". But I do hope no-one gave them the time of day anyway.