Cod Almighty | Diary
Shenanigans
24 April 2017
We have arrived at the business end of the season and for the first time in a few years the mighty Mariners have no meaty business to deal with. Two end-of-season fixtures to come with nothing to play for but pride; how many inflatables we can smuggle in to the Hive; and can we dull Plymouth's end of season shine just a little?
A naive performance against one of our bogey teams put paid to our play off hopes on Easter Monday but then let's be honest, they were a distant dream at best having lost five since February. Wicklow Diary hates losing to Cheltenham and Trentside Diary agrees totally. The pillocks who thought it was amusing to go to the Millennium Stadium in flat caps and green wellies, braying posh boys at their worst, planted that seed. The gamesmanship and arrogance was just fuel to the fire.
I hope Hartlepool claw their way to safety just because they are a proper club, but it's looking a tall order. It seems a very long time since Podge came back, scored two against us and it felt like the universe had shifted. I remember the Monkey Hangers who turned up telling us "Pádraig Amond, he left 'cos you're shit". How could he leave? We gave him his own song.
I don't blame Podge for going there for a two year contract. The excellent Gregor Robertson gave us an insight into the precarious professional life of a lower league footballer and realistically we know the days of the player who spends the majority of his career at one club, like Sir John, may never be seen again. I wonder what Podge is thinking now? At least the song scans well for Jamey Osborne and he's shaping up very nicely.
We, the BP faithful, are the continuity of the club. (Non) chairmen and managers come and go but true fans are there for the duration. We're not suddenly going to change our allegiance, even though we spend our hard-earned cash to be fobbed off and fed rubbish. Our non-chairman wouldn't allow our recycled manager to answer Nigel Lowther's well put question about what happened when Sort It left us last time. His judgement is poor, he penny pinches and he gets away with little abuse from fans sums up our non-chairman pretty well for me but it's still my team. We live in the era of plastic football and we should appreciate what we have in the lower leagues. Not for us the carefully couched critique with self-satisfied exchanges of the professional pundit - We mustn't annoy the sponsors. I challenge any true lower-league fan not to cheer the outburst of sheer frustration by Jeff Stelling at the weekend. Lest we forget that was us seven years ago.
We can sit back and watch the last few games with detached fascination. As they are my nearest club, I observe Forest with interest and have to admire their fans' commitment in the face of an owner who has got bored with his toy but manages to scupper every sale. The crowds have dropped and their position has got nervy but, like Operation Promotion, the fans are pulling for the club. They've (belatedly) set up a supporters trust and "Forza Garibaldi" have set out their stall to get behind the team and improve the atmosphere at the ground. They've hired boats to arrive by flotilla and arrange to meet at various pubs so that large groups can arrive at the ground together singing and chanting and starting the match with a positive. As a commitment to their club, it’s a great model for fans making a difference.
I'm happy to settle for mid-table safety, this season. So we'll be seeing no repetition of Flag-gate, poor refereeing at Gateshead or trips to Blundell Park South and, on balance, that suits me just fine. We can over-analyse everything, chew over our season and watch the shenanigans elsewhere. We need to decide was it the drummers who brought us the result on Saturday? I for one would like us to come out to Up the Mariners every home game. And finally we said farewell to Matt Dannatt and Retro Diary in the same weekend. Perhaps we should ask Fenty to get the players to warm up in Dannatt/Retro t-shirts in tribute?
UTM.