Cod Almighty | Diary

Hold the front page - Cod Almighty show sympathy for Telewag journalist

25 June 2015

Wicklow Diary making his Cod Almighty debut here. I’m most comfortable writing about the good old days so even though the diary should obviously be topical, don't be surprised if I revert to style. Anyway, let's get down to business.

Don't fancy a tattoo, but want to make a worthwhile sacrifice to show your commitment to GTFC? Fed up with the Premier League starving the grassroots as another national team is embarrassed at a major tournament? Kill two birds with one stone by joining my dad (and anyone else I can convince) in cancelling your Sky subscription and pledging it to the Trust or Operation Promotion. If you don't trust the Premier League owners to distribute their mountains of cash in a just fashion, don't give it to them in the first place.

Actually, perhaps some good could come of England's exit from the European Under-21 Championship last night in that it may divert a measure of flak from our local media. In these confusing, positive times, some Town fans have had to dig deep to find an object for their off-season wrath. This week Matt Dannatt and the Telegraph took over the role of pantomime villain from previous incumbent Alan Algar (I hope everyone writes us off to be honest). The rumour mill usually provides a bit of entertainment and I don't share or frankly understand the vein-throbbing frustration that some have with waiting for the smoke signals to emerge from Blundell Park - certainly not to the extent of taking umbrage with Dannatt. He doesn't make the news, he just reports it when it happens! No news from the club today on further signings and Matt has used Twitter to issue a cagey Rumsfieldian 'known unknowns'-type teaser to keep the mob happy.

Personally, I treat all possible signings as a rumour until I get a Twitter alert along the lines of "@johntondeur, @sort_it_hursts and 75 others just followed @buzzing_baller99". Of course, this meant that I had to seek more conventional sources to confirm Andy Monkhouse's signing as, quite sensibly perhaps, he doesn't appear to bother with Twitter. He made all the right noises in his introductory interview and although I'm wary of YouTube goal compilations, he looks a good signing. I confess that I don't remember how he played against us at Wembley. The only Rovers performances I recall were Taylor for his cheating and the giant sub Blissett whose Bambi-on-ice repertoire had me hoping to see if it extended to comically missed shoot-out penalties. Apart from his playing skills, I'd like to think Bob/Monkey/Monkhouses can use his experience to help bring Arnold and Mackreth's wing play along to the next level. Mackreth in particular seemed to run short of ideas against physically stronger defenders in the games I saw last season.

Cleethorpes Town report that tickets are selling well for our first pre-season game. It's one that as an exile I would love to attend for the obvious novelty of watching Town actually play in Grimsby. Plans to arrange the family holidays around the fixture haven’t been well received but I haven’t given up hope just yet. Incidentally, at what stage does the relationship with CTFC evolve from friendlies and shared fundraisers into a "proper" derby with mounted police refereeing pre- and post-game pitched battles between the local firms of Burberry hats on Cleethorpes prom?

The aforementioned Operation Promotion continues to bubble along nicely with the totalizer and klaxon operators struggling to keep apace. It's a great achievement to raise cash in any guise and the numbers pledging (currently around 1,600 have pledged 60k) confirm we have a great core support.

The figure got me thinking about a diary a few months back comparing the gate of 3,000 that saw us beat Port Vale in 1994 to our current Conference attendances. The point was made that Town fans prefer a winning team above else. However, I thought of a couple of other examples that might suggest even winning isn't enough to expand the core significantly. Charlton at home in 1995 drew under 7,000 when we all had Ivano fever and were going for a fifth successive win to put us top of the table. Going back a decade further and just over 8,000 turned up in March 1984 when Pompey ended our 16 game unbeaten run and knocked us out of the promotion places for division one.

Is it possible to buck this trend and haul in the rest of the NE Lincs football population and get them supporting their local club? And if not, what consequences does this have in the context of the size of the new stadium? Getting slightly ahead of myself here but when we make it to the Premier League what capacity will we need at Peaks Parkway (or the #Newman99 WWE Arena as it will be known following an Operation Promotion 2025 pledge)? Experiences of clubs like Wigan and Hull suggest that reaching the top flight brings an influx of 'plastic' fans.

I hope that if it comes to pass and we are packing 20,000 in, old codgers like me will be telling the new plastic Mariners to put down their half and half scarves and listen to tales from the good old days of Braintree away on a Tuesday night in a league that couldn’t even afford a plinth for the match ball. There’s that misty-eyed nostalgia I warned you about. Sorry.

UTM!