Cod Almighty | Diary

Once more unto the pre-season friendly, my friends

28 July 2015

Tonight, kicking off at 7:30, Grimsby host Peterborough United in our latest pre-season warm-up.

James McKeown, who is back training full-time after recovering from viral meningitis, is particularly keen to play against the club for whom he made six appearances during a four-year stint at London Road. Town physio Dave Moore is apparently less keen. Middle-Aged Diary thinks the best solution would be for the Mariners to play with Shaun Pearson as rush goalie, at least until Jimmy Mack wheels up on his bike 30 minutes in and asks if he can join in. Peterborough, as the away side, should obviously play 'skins'.

Can we be bothered to get heated about Peterborough? With the short, cool summer we seem to be enduring, it might be just as well. Their owner, Darragh MacAnthony, I recall being especially patronising about Town when the club's first attempt to sign Ryan Bennett was rebuffed – he implied he knew our best interests better than we did. (There is probably an anti-Fenty dig I could work in there, but hey, everything's too groovy at the moment.)

However, the sins of the owners should not be visited on the fans of a club like Peterborough. If you meet someone who is not from west London and supports Chelsea, they should obviously be treated with the deepest suspicion. Peterborough, though, like Town, are a club for whom support is thrust upon you, for worse and, in surprising ways, for better. If they turn up tonight waving 50-pound notes and explaining in exaggeratedly loud voices what the Football League is, it will of course be a different matter.

But let's be honest: whatever happens, we'll have forgotten about it in two weeks.