Cod Almighty | Diary

The Persistence of Memory

26 September 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Supporting Town this season is becoming a little surreal. Staying behind at Mansfield to sing and clap and cheer the team while they and the management clapped us in return was lovely, but strange. The level of mutual appreciation wouldn't have gone amiss after a cup victory or securing a play-off spot. But after sneaking a 1-0 win in a game where there was barely a shot on target from either side? Not so much.

Maybe we were celebrating Town's first clean sheet since the opening day of the season, due in no small part to the excellent debut of Danny Collins. His interventions in the onslaught of the first 15 minutes were vital and his calm presence in the back line seemed to inspire his colleagues, particularly Shaun Pearson.

Or we could have been celebrating Omar's coolly taken penalty which keeps him as the top scorer in the fourth division with eight goals. Little did we dream at the start of the season when lamenting the move of Amond to Hartlepool that, after nine league games, Omar would have scored four times as many goals as Amond. See what I mean: surreal.

Much is made of words in other languages which encapsulate hard to describe feelings and which defy translation. I'm thinking of 'hiraeth' in Welsh or, much talked-of recently, the Danish word 'hygge' and, everybody's favourite German word, 'schadenfreude'. I think we need a word to describe the feeling currently floating around the Grimsby Town faithful. It feels like a mixture of pride and camaraderie born out of last season's promotion, to which a fluctuating conflation of fear and hope for this season have been added.

The result is that the fans (well, most of us – no-one escapes the gimlet gaze of Mr Butcher) seem less critical of errors and inadequacies in the team. We also seem able to see defeats for what they are: one-off upsets which have been caused by specific events such as a poor refereeing decision, a mistake by an individual player or simply playing a team who are better than us. Last season each defeat was taken by many as a national disaster and followed by a Twitterstorm of insult and recrimination.

Of course, if Town are anything other than mid-table when we reach the business end of the season, that feeling is going to change. The hope or the fear, depending on whether we are above or below the halfway line, is likely to overwhelm all other feelings. For now, I'm really enjoying this period of calm.

Turning to something completed unrelated to Town, I just have to ask: what the hell has happened with away kits in the top flight? I noticed the Southampton kit the other week, and there it was again last night on Match of the Day. Two-tone binding round the neck, that weird grey panel on the front and those stupid chevrons on the sleeve. What were they thinking?

But it's Man City who take the biscuit. Plum and dark grey with yellow socks? Please. However, that's nothing compared to their third kit. What about that orange, eh? I might feel sorry for the players who have to wear them, if they weren't all millionaires.