Cod Almighty | Diary

92 what?

1 December 2016

Town's victory over Stevenage on 27 August restored the Mariners to the list of teams who have played all the other 91 clubs in the top four divisions in a competitive match. Our trip to Crawley last Saturday left us one club short of having played them all in a League fixture. Fleetwood we have played only in the Conference.

When automatic promotion from the Conference was first introduced, one of the bonuses for the promoted club was the swelling of their gate as groundhoppers sought to re-complete their set of the 92 grounds visited. Perhaps it still happens, out of habit. But, for a few reasons, the concept of completing the set of 92 grounds feels a bit archaic nowadays.

First, the 92 what? It's not been members of the Football League for a long time. Now and again someone will try and define the concept as the full-time professional clubs, but that ignores a high proportion of the Conference.

"The 92" has a fine air of mutual solidarity and respect. The behaviour of the Premier League makes clear that this notion is a lie. And not all even of the 72 are worthy of respect. I hope those of you driven by the need for completeness stopped at 91, then paid a second visit to Wimbledon rather than visit Milton Keynes.

Referencing the 92 is a habit of thought. Middle-Aged Diary is too old not to retain it, but perhaps it does the fourth division an injustice. It masks the gross inequalities of wealth between the top 20 and the next 72. It means that when it comes to the FA Cup, the achievements of clubs at our level of the game will always be overshadowed by teams that are both non-Premier and non-Football League.

I can't blame that entirely on the Premier League. Town's best FA Cup result in my lifetime – that I can think of – is almost forgotten. A few places off the bottom of what was still called Division Four in 1989, we beat Middlesbrough - members of the old first division – away from home. The headlines all belonged to Sutton United, who the same day beat Coventry.

Second, which grounds count? The vagaries of our fortunes meant that Town found themselves playing Middlesbrough regularly in the league a couple of seasons after that FA Cup win. If you tick off grounds visited, you'll have had the chance to visit both Ayresome Park and the Riverside Stadium. If you have visited both, let us know how they compare. Other grounds have gone. Do the league games we played at Man City's old Maine Road, Oxford's Manor Ground, or Arsenal's (as opposed to Fleetwood's) Highbury still count?

Nostalgia for something you have never known is both possible and wrong. I never visited Wigan's old Springfield Ground or Bolton's Burnden Park. They may have been hellholes. And for all I know, the new stadiums that have replaced the Manor Ground or Shrewsbury's Gay Meadow may have retained the charm of the old; but I'm not taking any bets. What I do know is that ticking off from a list each retail-enabled metal box – set in the tarmac of generous car parking provision so you may watch a game without visiting the town it takes place in – is a task, not a labour of love.