Cod Almighty | Diary

I may be an atheist, but I'm proud to claim allegiance to a country whose football fans, when they get pissed, sing hymns

13 June 2016

Thank heaven we are no longer in a #tinpot league. The headline on the Football League's announcement is curiously appropriate. By allowing Premier League B teams into the Football League Trophy, they are effectively reducing a competition into so many trial matches.

Peter Anderson's article skewers most of the reasons we should be against the experiment. Let me add that the new structure of the cup – the one that used to be sponsored by paint manufacturers and in 1998 by a windscreen company – will dilute it.

If you are of Middle-Aged Diary's vintage, you will remember 1997-98 well enough. When Town beat Chesterfield in the first round of the Trophy, my first thought was that I'd have gladly traded it for a win in the FA Cup replay we were playing against them a week later. Then the draw was kind to us, providing derbies against Scunthorpe and Hull. By the time we had got past them, we had the strong pull of a first ever appearance at Wembley as an incentive.

The Trophy is a competition that only builds momentum as reaching the final becomes a real possibility. It demands knockout matches to accelerate progress and sustain interest.

There is an essential case for group matches in international football, where the logistics of assembling players and fans makes it only polite you give each country a second and a third chance to make an impact. In club football, though, group stages are an ugly growth. They exist to guarantee the wealthy so many paydays and to insulate them against the prospect of an upset. It is an insurance policy underwritten by the fans. Our loyalty is abused as we are asked to fork out for six or three matches of lesser importance, of lesser drama, than the sudden-death ties they replace.

Group matches are at the heart of a restructure which prostitutes a competition for clubs struggling to survive, in order to provide a kickabout for young men lost in the Premier League's mountain of unwanted footballers.

Meanwhile, the silence of clubs who voted for the Football League Trophy restructure is deafening. You would have thought that if it's such a good idea then they would be anxious to make the case. There has been no statement from Blundell Park about who represented the club at the Football League gathering in Portugal and how they voted.

What we have is another statement, directly from the Football League but republished on the SNOS, about a consultation on the "Whole Game Solution". Let us hope that a further statement will follow soon, telling those whose gate money keeps the club going how we will be able to get involved in that consultation.

In the meantime, you can sign Town fan Nathan Hill's petition against the inclusion of B teams in the Trophy. And you can join the #BTeamBoycott. By keeping away from the Trophy for one season, we might miss the odd game. But give this invalidated competition our support, and we risk killing the game altogether. Let's make it clear to the Football League and to club owners that they may want to take another backward step down the slope to oblivion, but we will defend the integrity of our competitions and the integrity of our club.

Trial matches are often played behind closed doors, of course, with no fans present. Let's give this trial that extra touch and keep away. We have been denied a say. We can only vote with our feet.