Cod Almighty | Diary
The lone and level sands stretch far away
30 November 2015
A win against Kidderminster! At last! Town have beaten the carpetbaggers after failing to achieve victory in their last… oh… two meetings. Oh well. At a blustery Blundell Park on Saturday the Mariners put their not-quite-bogey team not so much to the sword as to the cardboard bog roll tube – but the result propelled Hurstses's shape-keepers back to third place in the league table for the halfway point of the season.
How you receive a game like this depends very much upon the baggage you bring to it (and, in your original/regular Diary's case, upon how rigorously this baggage is searched for illicit consolatory alcohol by the Blundell Park stewarding team). Those who read Cod Almighty's match report and factfile will find their author Tony Butcher in implacable form, declining to admit "a bit of wind" in mitigation for Town's failure to weave dazzling Buckleyesque triangles around their bus-parking opponents. Having clocked up approximately 1,500 miles following GTFC this season alone, and pretty much dedicated his entire life to fighting long-ball crime in black and white stripes with little more than a ham and pickle roll and a glass of orange juice for sustenance, that is very much his right.
Darragh Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, is prepared to be more forgiving. A 17-year-old Town fan from Carlow, Ireland, Darragh travelled to BP for the first time in his life to see the Kidderminster game. In these circumstances his description of Saturday as "an amazing day" is every bit as understandable as our reporter's slightly less glowing account of proceedings. Perhaps if we could arrange for Tony to be sent tickets by Pádraig Amond in future – as apparently Darragh was – that might help. Either way, Town's league programme is now on hold for a couple of weeks, while we attend to the televised FA Cup tie against Shrewsbury a week tonight and the very much untelevised FA Trophy business the following Saturday against Omar Bogle's old team, Solihull Moors.
Another issue where various perspectives might come to bear is the proposed new arena to host the sporting exploits of Grimsby Town Football Club. And the interminable faffing that has surrounded its development at least means that supporters have had the time to weigh up various points of view and arrive at an informed opinion. While this is a very good thing to you and me, it is clearly unbearable to Councillor John Shelton Fenty, who is far more used to telling people what to think and expecting them to think it.
Unfortunately for the non-chairman, neither Town supporters in general nor North East Lincolnshire Council in particular seem terribly convinced by the pack of Top Trumps he recently crayoned over and presented as a stadium location feasibility study. Clearly starting to panic at the prospect of due process from the council and independent thought from supporters, Positive John has told us that building a new stadium in the Freeman Street area would take ten years.
Now for one thing, this is one perspective – from a man whose many admirable qualities do not noticeably, let's be honest, include empathy for other perspectives. Another viewpoint on a Freemo/East Marsh stadium has been put forward by long-time local journo and Cleethorpes Chronicle editor Nigel Lowther. If you haven't read it, read it now. The timescale for such a project, it appears, could be much shorter than you might think.
For another thing, while he is busily rubbishing the Freemo idea on the grounds of timescale, the good councillor gives no indication as to when his Peaks Parkway Fentydome II might transfer itself from a pretty picture in his mighty brain to an actual real thing made of concrete, which people can sit in and watch games of football being played. Even assuming PP is shown every possible green light from now to kingdom come, I'm guessing it'll still be the other side of 2020 when the turnstiles creak open. Think ten years for a Freemo stadium is too long to wait? From the time Fenty took control of the club, the Parkway will have taken more than 15. And Town fans – and the town – will have to live with the results for another century.
After all we've been through, we deserve to watch our team in the heart of our town – a heart reanimated by the sort of local pride that a ground on a mud patch three miles inland can do absolutely nothing to restore. Whatever the merits of the various sites being considered, don't choose on the grounds of timescale. This is the last thing in the world that should be a rush job. The club will only have one chance. Get it right and the results could be inspirational – for the club and our town. Get it wrong, and while the directors might finally see their loans repaid, the football could be finished for good.