Cod Almighty | Diary

Will the real Grimsby Town please stand up?

27 March 2017

Trentside Diary has been thinking about this diary from the strange perspective of spending the weekend with friends who have no interest in – or understanding of – football. The clichéd discussion about the offside rule was the only football-related discussion they could summon up. I was reduced to a bit of football surfing and checking out the scores elsewhere.

From Town's perspective, we managed a 1-1 draw at Accrington, somewhat disappointing when in our previous meeting Stanley were the first Blundell Park scalp for Smiley Marcus. Unfortunately I couldn't be there and so my comments are limited to what I've picked up second- and third-hand: the atmosphere was rubbish; Boyce played well; Gunning played well; Asante's goal was good; we conceded from a free kick. Again.

It's good to see Gunning back playing after his awful head injury, but it's now Scott Vernon's turn to be sidelined for two weeks with concussion. I'm not sure how it was caused – maybe confusion trying to work out the formation – but we all wish him well with his recovery.

The weekend ends with Doncaster top and Plymouth breathing down their necks. We are only seven points off the play-offs but have realistically run out of games to secure a place, and most of us accept this. As Paul Savage discussed on Friday, at the beginning of the season we would have taken mid-table, but none of us want mediocrity so we concede this reluctantly.

We will accept that we will get beaten sometimes, but I'd certainly like to see a hint of things beginning to come together. For five to ten minutes before our goal against creepy Crawley, there were signs of a team who were understanding each other and playing with some style. I thought at the time, this is what I'm looking for. It didn't last long but we can live in hope.

However, there is no point in this prolonged pre-season if we don't hang on to those players who are out of contract at the end of this year. A dizzying number, somewhere in the teens, could be leaving us in the summer. Although Smiley Marcus has made it clear that he doesn't want to keep certain players, let's hope that Town manage to pull off a feat that frequently eludes them and manage to close some contract negotiations successfully. Danny Andrew comes to mind as a player who is currently in negotiation with the club; Mr Fenty, we would like him to stay.

At the bottom of the table, we can at least gaze down on the likes of Newport (Flag-gate) and Leyton Orient. Personal animosity towards one particular duplicitous Os fan means I struggle to feel sympathy for their current plight. But the part of me brought up to believe that you shouldn't condemn the majority for the actions of the few will allow me to say that I'd much rather Cheltenham were for the drop. This is borne from that heartbreaking weekend in May 2006 when Town were let down by their own manager and capitulated to a bunch of hooray-henry types in flat caps and green wellies.

Apparently England played a qualifier for something over the weekend. If Town fans get disillusioned when we're not involved in some end-of-season activity, this has to be at another level. There was a time when qualifiers were anticipated with excitement. I saw most of the second half yesterday and had to check the score at the top of the screen to work out who was at home. The atmosphere was dead and the football was dreary, and these are meant to be the best English players available. They didn't even have the hardship of having to force down pasta for an early kick-off as bemoaned by poor Rooney. Even Gary Lineker tweeted: "Qualifiers are the new friendlies".

Was this really at Wembley? With a fraction of the fans we managed to generate so much more passion and excitement. Let's never forget that day.