Cod Almighty | Diary

We should win. We are very strong, but... players can get injured. The referee can make mistakes

1 February 2016

Wicklow Diary writes: It's the last day of the January transfer window on the first day of February. I don't know why, probably something to do with the weekend, but I can't be bothered checking. In more confusion – let's be honest: too much confusion for a Monday morning – today isn't the last day for signings. The emergency loan window will flap open briefly during February too.

Famously first used by the allies to draft in Sylvester Stallone when Michael Caine broke Kevin O'Callaghan's arm across a bed, Paul Hurst seems confident that he too can use it next week. Fringe squad members and young bit-part players are advised to avoid the gaffer if you see him swinging a lead pipe or a sock full of 50 pences with menace.

As Hursty acknowledges, the pressure to recruit is on. His squad list is four names shorter than it was last week. Josh Sunter is, of course, out injured and Josh Venney made his loan debut for Boston against Gloucester City (in Cheltenham of all places) yesterday. More significant is the loss of Brown and Mackreth. Their departure without replacement seemed strange but Hurst reckons their hearts just weren't in it. Releasing them now also obviously frees up budget to get players who want to be here.

Players who want to be here. That seems to be Hurst's main challenge. The challenges of getting players to sign for Grimsby at any time are oft repeated. Footballers, just like most of us, are a peculiar bunch and sometimes difficult to please. Just look at the past couple of days. As mentioned, the word on the panic-filled streets of the unitary authority formerly known as Humberside was that that Brown and Mackreth preferred a club nearer home.

Then consider our brief fling with Alex Jones. He impressed during his few games in November even without finding the net. Most, including me, would have been pleased to see him return. That is not going to happen as he's gone on loan to Wellington Phoenix. Wellington Bloody Phoenix. We know the A180 drags a bit, and we're at the end of the railway line and all that – but New Zealand? You can't get any further from home. Tim Peake is nearer to home than that and he lives in space. And what's it going to do for your career? This isn't college mate, where you take a gap year out from dossing in the UK to go dossing in a foreign country.

So Paul Hurst will continue to scour the land for talent that wants to move to Grimsby, or at least get temporary digs. Some of the Operation Promotion budget is still available but I'm glad he's being prudent and diligent with it. Whether he uses it today remains to be seen. Take your pick in the battle of the Matts, Dean or Dannatt. Their tweets this morning say there is either something happening today (Dannatt) or not (Dean). History suggests that I can probably trigger the announcement of a signing by clicking submit on this diary. I'll try that in a minute.

If you are a Town fan, you have a lifetime of experiences to prepare you for every conceivable disappointment. Losing 1-0 away should be a doddle

Now, do you remember the first time you saw a bit of decent CGI at the cinema? Even if your tastes are more French arthouse, you know the ones I mean. There's an alien ship zapping capital cities or a meteor strike or tidal wave taking out the east coast of America. They may have caused an intake of breath in the mid-1990s but we're not impressed any more. Particularly as we've seen the real thing. The 2001 World Trade Center attack and the 2004 tsunami were more horrific and terrifying than any computer graphics can ever be. This hasn't stopped Hollywood trying to shock us with more and more CGI. Give it up. We're bored and we've seen it all before.

Just like we're tired of the hysterical outpourings after every any bump in the road for Town. In no sane universe can you call for the manager's head after winning eight of nine. Certainly, it's frustrating that Cheltenham and FGR have turned into winning machines which magnify our failures. However, if you are a Town fan, you have a lifetime of experiences to prepare you for every conceivable disappointment. Losing 1-0 away should be a doddle to deal with.

A natural dread should have a permanent mooring in the minds of all Town fans. A dread that we are going to be the punchline of someone else's joke. Like when we trounced Southend on the final day in 1997 and got relegated anyway. The only surprise about the Big Relegation is that we didn't win 5-0 at Burton. Almost forgotten in the smashed hoardings is that we ended four points adrift and would have been relegated regardless of the result that day.

Sometimes the joke is less damaging but nonetheless irritating. Look no further than yesterday's FA Cup draw and shake your head as you read aloud Shrewsbury Town V Manchester United for a typical example. Add in that the Shrews got a 97th-minute winner on Saturday to get there, from a player called Grimmer, and you might start to believe in voodoo. 

So strong is this dread that it can even peep out from behind the curtain to haunt our successes too. Within a sentence or two of reminiscing about the Exeter 1991 promotion clincher, it is inevitable that the moment when time stood still is mentioned: The Exeter Header That Hit The Post. Most even know the time of the header and the player who did the heading (Taylor, 82), almost as if they can see a shadow of it printed as a goal in that evening's Sports Telegraph.

I looked the part at Wembley last May. On my feet and singing like I hadn't done in years, on the outside I looked like I believed. I did to an extent. This was the first Town team in years that I'd really enjoyed watching. They can do this. The dread was there all the time though. He was chuckling away from the moment Ross Joyce botched the Puddy sending-off.

I was trying to prepare myself for a shoot-out from the moment Rovers equalised. Desperately invoking the twenty pages I'd managed to get through in a book about Zen. More useful was recalling Retro Diary's brilliant message that we can't control the outcome – only how we react to it.

We have to be the Zen Mariners. We have to accept that Hurst and Town may do everything right between now and the end of the season and still not get promoted

I didn't react to Dis and LJL scoring. There was a half-second of surreal quiet when JP missed. I could hear the ball spinning as it hit the guy in the next row. He barely flinched. Then the roar which had taken 0.5 seconds to travel the length of Wembley hit us in the chest.

The winning penalty. That roar hitting you in the chest again. Some immediately turned to the exits to escape the pain. Understandable, but I was rooted. Leaving meant it was over. This couldn't be over.

What do you do when you are faced with sickening disappointment? How will it manifest? I've never tried to start a song in my life but I wanted to start a chant of "Paul Hurst's black and white army". Turns out, others must have felt like starting a chant. I think Operation Promotion must have come from that common feeling. To look forward. To refuse to sit down and contemplate what had happened again. One-nil at sodding Gateshead isn't going to kill that.

We have to be the Zen Mariners. We have to accept that Hurst and Town may do everything right between now and the end of the season and still not get promoted. We can't control the outcome of the next three months any more than we could will JP's penalty into the net. I love the team right now and Saturday's result isn't going to change that.

The facts are we have improved every season under Paul Hurst. Yes, he has a good budget but it is not the largest in the division. He is not perfect – his suggestion that Gateshead was the type of day to batten down the hatches and attempt to nick a goal set some small alarm bells ringing – but he got us within a kick last season and can go one better this season.

I'll hold my hands up here and say as an exile, I don't get to enough games. Maybe I'd feel differently if I went week in and week out. I don't expect a stadium full of blindly positive people who cheer their team no matter what... although it would be nice. Everyone needs to remind themselves that the league is never over in January. Of course we'd rather be in Cheltenham's or FGR's position but we're not. We'll just have to keep winning and see what happens. If that happens to be the play-offs, I'll be ready and looking the part.