Cod Almighty | Diary
Are you scared of staying still?
2 August 2016
Wicklow Diary writes: Short diary this week, everyone, as I'm minding the kids. Work were also on, looking for a 'wet signature'. Somehow it was me who came out of that conversation sounding like the madman when I asked what the hell a wet signature was.
It's a signature with a pen, of course. So a signature. Not a digital signature in an email, obviously. Because if you wanted a digital signature you'd have asked for a digital fucking signature and not needed to make the distinction at all. A search on Google revealed 'wet signatures' to be an actual thing and not just some localised nonsense. Buzzword morons. I didn't push it any further, as I'm on very thin ice after last week, when I referred to tag rugby as "kiss chasing" when turning down a place on the work team.
Breathe: the football is here to help me relax. Go to your happy place... Blundell Park. We're in uncharted waters this weekend at home to Morecambe. Old-school Town promotions always saw most of the squad return the following August to enjoy their success and build on it. The approach led to a pair of double promotions under Newman/Kerr and then Buckley. Paul Hurst has obviously taken a different, more adventurous tack. This could be considered a surprising trait for a manager that has been criticised sometimes for conservative and defensive tactics. More so when you consider how much stock he places in team spirit and loyalty.
It's an added dimension to what was always going to be an exciting return.
This season I'm hoping to be able to enjoy the football. To revel in a six-game winning streak rather than look at the table and freak out that we've still somehow lost ground on the one promotion spot. Promotion from the Conference felt like life and death because maybe it was, in footballing terms. Every year down there was a season nearer to becoming anchored in non-League like Barrow or Southport. Noble and worthy clubs, but ones that my generation only had a vague awareness were once League teams. We obviously didn't want that fate for Town.
Merely hoping to enjoy the season isn't some type of acceptance of our place in the basement division. My double double-promotion upbringing still has me pining for Division Two. I am one of the deluded souls who see two-timing loverats Rotherham in their new-ish ground and lower-half second-flight status and asks: "Why not us?" As the song goes, how we get there? I don't know. For sure we would be unprepared for life in a second division now filled with parachute payments. Being out of our depth hasn't stopped us before, however.
Could we go on a run like the team of 1978 to 1981? No club has ever gone from the fourth to the top division in consecutive seasons. Town came so close that season. Notts County and Swansea, who were both eventually promoted, were beaten at Blundell Park on consecutive March Saturdays to put us in the promotion places with just six games to go. Absolutely insane, unthinkable and glorious stuff. All done with basically the same staring eleven plus Trevor Whymark. Oddly, it seemed fairly normal at the time – perhaps because we were in the middle of it all.
Then we lost at QPR and took a tonking from West Ham. My uncle knew why. The rumour in the Longships was that the board didn't want promotion. The club had risen too fast and wasn't ready for life in Division Two, let alone the top tier. Players' wages and ground improvements would mean directors putting hands in their pockets. I was sceptical – how exactly would they stop the team from winning? Were the directors able to put some type of performance inhibitor in Kev Drinkell and the rest of the players' pre-match and half-time cigarettes?
Away from the smoking man X-Files of 35 years ago and back to actual news that has happened in the last few days. The Mariners Trust announced at the Operation PromotED party on Saturday evening that Operation 3k had been Operation 3kED and the 3,000 season ticket mark had been reached. It turns out that we are still a few short of that figure and although we're still likely to hit it, the trust has apologised for the mix-up.
Don't worry, folks – this isn't George W Bush looking a prat in a flight suit in a harboured aircraft carrier. In fact it hardly merits an apology. It definitely won't detract from the brilliant efforts of the trust over the summer to get the figure to the highest level this century.
More excellence from the trust comes in the form of its latest newsletter. Trust members should be getting one through the post but it's also available online. See that, you buzzword morons – I didn't need to say "physical solid hard copy printed version" because it's bloody obvious that's what you'd get through the post. Dave Roberts' interview is definitely worth a read. His words are a reminder that us supporters don't or can't always have the full story on everything, be it at club or personal level. Once again Dave, thanks for your time and work on the board at a critical period for GTFC.
Anyway, enjoy the Morecambe game. If you're exiled and can't get there, remember you'll need Mariners Player to listen to commentary as the BBC doesn't have a license to broadcast online commentary of League games. Don't take that as a suggestion that things were better in non-League, but do join me next week for news of Wycombe's £22 away ticket price with a disgraceful £13 for under-sevens.
Finally, Sky has included us in an article on changed crests. No links because Murdoch, but here is the 'before and after'. No, I'm not sure which is which either.
