Cod Almighty | Diary

Enjoy responsibly

10 December 2015

At one extreme, there are people who call themselves supporters but never go, and you wonder why they don't just get off the messageboards. At the other are those fanatics who feature occasionally in the "and finally" section of the news, who haven't missed a match in half a century, absconded from their own weddings to see Town lose 4-1 at home to Rochdale in February 1977, and have children named after Kevin Kilmore. You admire them, but you wouldn't really want to be them.

So most of us – including your original/regular Diary – are somewhere in between. Most of the time we go to the match when we can. Occasionally we just can't be arsed. Sometimes we can't afford it. But when we don't go, it's usually for a reason suggestive of healthy-ish football/life balance – a family birthday, a holiday, unavoidable work commitments. And as unavoidable work commitments go, rescuing inundated Cumbrians using an empty fridge as a makeshift life raft is a pretty good one. If you haven't read the Grimsby Telegraph's absolute corker of a story about Town fan Dave Gilbert (heh!), a Lincoln-based fire and rescue worker who specialises in flood response, do it now.

Like millions of other Britons, Dave ended last Saturday dozing off on the sofa during Match of the Day. But when his expertise was called for in flood-stricken Carlisle, he spent the night travelling north-west to help out. Amazingly, when he left the city on Monday, Dave intended to go straight to Town's FA Cup game against Shrewsbury until his journey was kiboshed by a fallen tree at Scotch Corner. Next time you don't fancy a game because it's a bit chilly or it's the final of Strictly Come Twatting About in a Preposterous Tuxedo, just take a moment out to think about Dave. I know I will.

What about you? Right now, living 90 miles or so away from the area, with two kids and no driving licence, I probably manage about half of Town's home games and one or two away per season. It could be worse, but it could be better. There was a time when I would even go and watch the reserves. I was young and free – and, more significantly, only lived ten minutes' walk from Blundell Park. And Town were in the same reserve league as Liverpool, so you used to get crowds of a couple of thousand paying a quid each to watch the stiffs get stuffed 6-0 by world-famous players like Ronnie Whelan.

And if I'd been in the area yesterday, I might've stopped by to see the Mariners' second string take on our one-time regular Football League adversaries Notts County. When you see Omar Bogle, Jack Mackreth, Scott Brown, Shaun Pearson and Marcus Marshall lining up for the reserves – not to mention loanees Conor Henderson and Big Unit James Alabi – it says something about the depth of Town's current squad (Alabi and Harry Clifton scored in a 2-2 draw). Still, if you see a roaming left-back matching the description of Gregor Robertson, give him directions to Cleethorpes in time for the January transfer window.