Cod Almighty | Diary

Don't let the bastards grind you down

1 August 2016

The contrast with the 2015 close season is stark. Last year, even as we went down to a play-off final defeat, we gave birth to an emblematic chant and created the atmosphere which engendered Operation Promotion and inspired almost all of our squad to sign up for another tilt at getting out of the Conference. There was a togetherness about the club we hadn't seen since 1998. The team won every pre-season friendly (remembering that our penalty shoot-out defeat by Grantham was in the Lincolnshire Cup).

The season itself could hardly hope to live up to it. But ultimately it did, from the second half of the second leg of the play-off semi-final and on to the final. "Operation Promoted" indeed.

But since Nathan Arnold rounded the Forest Green keeper?

John Fenty went spectacularly off-message to suggest that the expansion of the Football League would be an opportunity to introduce Premier League B teams. He is entitled to his opinion, of course. But then he and an unnamed other board member also voted, without reference to the rest of the board, to include B teams in the Football League Trophy.

The club tried to shut down discussion of revelations that Andy Newman, a generous contributor to Operation Promotion, was a ticket tout. Newman was inaccurately described not as someone who had put some of his dubious gains into a collective fundraising effort, but as a sponsor.

Then last week we had the shambles of the wife of a director being appointed to the supposedly independent role of supporters liaison officer, an appointment announced through a closed Facebook page.

Taken together, these three episodes suggest one or two people in senior positions at the club have become complacent. The message they send out is, at best: "Fan involvement is all very well, but now we've got promotion, we'll go back to running Grimsby Town the way we used to." At worst, they are almost writing Operation Promotion out of history, implying that last year's success was down to a few rich people.

Middle-Aged Diary has no idea of the relative financial contributions of Fenty, Newman, and Lee and Sue Mullen against the Mariners Trust and the money we put in through ticket and merchandise sales. What I do know is that all the money in the world would not have been enough without the whole community getting behind the club, without fans renewing their understanding that Grimsby Town is their club.

But against everything that has changed, for better or worse, since this time last year, there are a couple of continuing sources for optimism.

The Mariners Trust, in a quieter way than last year, has played another blinder. It conveyed fans' opposition to B teams in competitive fixtures. It sorted out the mess of the suporters liaison officer position. And on Saturday night it was able to announce, at an event to launch the DVD Operation Promoted, that it had achieved its aim of selling 3,000 season tickets.

There is never a final victory. We have to just keep pushing, week by week, month by month, to counter any arrogance in the way the club presents itself and to make sure it is as well run, off the field, as it can be.

Our pre-season form has been less impressive than last year, but we rounded the programme off on Saturday with a 2-1 win over third-flight Oldham. Our goals came from new signings Kayden Jackson and Dominic Vose, the first set up by two more new signings, Scott Vernon and Ben Davies. We may have lost Nathan Arnold to Lincoln, but in Paul Hurst's ability to spot a decent player and persuade him to sign, we can continue to trust.

It won't always be a smooth ride. There will be a lot to get upset about, but the pulse is quickening. Roll on Morecambe.