Cod Almighty | Diary

Another music in a different kitchen

19 March 2015

I'll tell you what I like about the fancy dress thing: it's come from the fans. It's grassroots, it's supporter-led, it's authentic. It's not top-down, it's not imposed, it's not forced or fake.

And for that reason above all else, it's working.

In the final stages of other recent seasons, the Grimsby Telegraph would get together with what almost passed for a communications and marketing team at Blundell Park to talk slogans and vouchers. The rallying cries that would result typically comprised either a final push for promotion or a last-ditch campaign to stave off the drop.

Your original/regular Diary can't remember much of these campaigns now. There was one called Be There or Blue Square, I seem to remember. But I'm pretty sure I only remember it because a Be There or Blue Square sticker clung forlornly and paradoxically to the back of the Pontoon, near my seat, for at least one season after the Mariners' strangely inevitable descent to the Conference.

Be There or Blue Square seemed to succeed in driving up attendances for a time, and Town recorded some good crowds towards the end of the 2009–10 season. We were very much There. Sadly, the 'or' part of the deal suggested a false dichotomy. The discount-hungry part-timers who swelled the gates against Northampton, Chesterfield and Torquay did their best. But – like the best of Ollie Lancashire, Tommy Wright, Mark Hudson and Nicky Colgan – it wasn't enough. Be There AND Blue Square was, of course, the endlessly lamentable outcome of that episode.

After inflatables at Barnet, #wigsatwoking and #jestersatchester, then, this Saturday Town fans take on the tough challenge of creating a buzz back on our own, jaded northern Lincolnshire territory. #ScarvesAtThePark is the proposal this time. And while the Telewag is weighing in with the special offers again ("To help create a party atmosphere for the crunch clash with the Spitfires, the club have teamed up with the Telegraph to offer supporters a £2 discount on club scarves using the exclusive voucher below"), the fan-led flavour of the whole enterprise will hopefully remain.

'Hopefully' because the difference it's making is palpable. The players were clearly inspired at Barnet by Town's support in a way we've barely seen in years. Will it make the difference between Town going up and staying down? Stranger things have happened. That awful Newport team somehow getting promoted in 2013, for one.

But even if this current season proves not to be our last as a non-League side, all this will still have been worth it. Because after years of watching the likes of Barry Conlon trousering thousands of quid from the club to basically laugh in our faces, it's been a joy even watching the players adopt the hashtags that the fans started up.

So get yer scarves out for Eastleigh this weekend. Because in a barren time, these weeks are to be cherished for the rapport between the team and the supporters, which had been absent for yonks. When you wear our wigs, you share our dreams. Up the bleedin' Mariners again.