Cod Almighty | Diary

Reality check

19 September 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Having experienced record-breaking high temperatures in the UK last week, the chill at Blundell Park came as a shock on Saturday. As did the lacklustre performance from the team after the highs of Luton the previous Saturday. The whole affair felt flat from the off, with neither the fans nor the players seemingly able to raise themselves sufficiently, so the defeat was no real surprise.

Crewe are a good side – the best I've seen in this division so far – but a draw would have been a fairer result, and without the appalling officiating might have been achieved. Last week I was critical of Paul Hurst for moaning about the referee. This week the referee and both his assistants deserve every criticism levelled at them. Tuton should feel particularly aggrieved after his pole-axing in the penalty area which went unpunished. And as for the linesman under the Police Box, in the second half he seemed determined to flag virtually every Town attack offside.

There are a lot of angry people in the world and a fair proportion of them seemed to be sitting near me in the Pontoon on Saturday. The whole of the second half was spent in raining insults down upon players and officials alike. I dare say it makes these shouters feel better to get it off their chest, but I do wonder whether the negative vibes from all that anger transmit themselves to the team. I know it makes for an unpleasant experience having to sit among them.

Maybe when Town get their new stadium they can introduce an anger test and sit all those who attain a high score in their own section, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the game in a more upbeat way. Being a travelling Town fan is so much more fun these days. Even Paul Hurst has picked up on this, mentioning in his post-match interview the expectation of there being a "big following" and a "good atmosphere" at Mansfield next weekend. I can't wait.

Despite a reluctance to provide links to the advert-riddled Grimsby Telegraph site, I just have to draw your attention to an article about a new album by Cod Almighty's own Pete Green. I may be a little biased here as one of the songs is about Wonderful Wayne's golden goal at Wembley, but the whole album is lovely, including the photographs. One song from Pete's repertoire not mentioned in the article is 'The Ballad of Phil Jevons' – always worth another listen.

Now that's what I call catharsis.