Cod Almighty | Diary

We're all Town, but we are still allowed to disagree

21 November 2017

"We're all Town, aren't we?"

It's an expression that causes some amusement at Cod Almighty Towers. "Yes, Kim Jong Un is developing nuclear weapons and threatening to use them, but I heard his nan really enjoyed her afternoon in the Findus and bought a Mariners scarf in the club shop after, and we're all Town aren't we?"

We might all be Town fans, but that does not wash away all differences. And frankly, in the days when Middle-Aged Diary might find himself sharing a terrace with people spouting racist abuse, there were often people who I really wished were not fans. As someone who has only family and friends connections to north-east Lincolnshire, I have a somewhat rosy notion of the place and its people. In my first year at college, I broke off a fierce political argument in delight when I found my antagonist was from Grimsby. But he was still, I reflect 35 years later, a smug git.

Or "yes, the board might have wasted thousands of pounds appointing and sacking managers and got itself in a completely unnecessary spat with the local media, but they are Town fans through and through". I don't doubt it. I don't doubt that John Fenty thinks he is doing his best by the club. But that is what worries me. And when people try to shut down a discussion with the dread phrase "all Town aren't we", they deserve only derision. 

There is, though, a kernel of truth in the phrase if it sets up the debate with an assumption of goodwill on all sides. All credit to the club that they are holding a fans' forum next Tuesday. All credit, again, that it will be chaired by Matt Dean. When the club made its waffly non-announcement last week I feared they were looking for a pretext to avoid broadcasting it on BBC Humberside.

Less creditable is the mood music Fenty (posting on the Fishy as Getyourfactsright) has set for the forum with his combative analogies. Yes, things hurtful to Fenty have been written in the social media, and of course on Cod Almighty. But the "keyboard warriors" are the least of the club's problems. The people who write about the club, who care about it enough to turn out at Blundell Park on a cold Tuesday night not even to watch football but to talk about it, are a captive audience. We'll never walk away. We are all Town.

So to show the club really is open, that it wants a good dialogue with its most committed supporters, and to remove all scope for cynicism about the fans' forum, let me suggest this.

Set up a public forum in which people can post their questions in advance to be read by all. Publish criteria showing any kinds of question that cannot be raised. Have a neutral moderator apply those criteria to filter out any unacceptable questions. Add voting buttons to allow readers to prioritise the questions we most want answered. Then use the votes to help decide which questions are heard next Tuesday. The panel will have time to prepare considered answers and those attending will have time to consider follow-up questions. The club, in short, would be seen to be open and transparent.  

It is not the keyboard warriors the club needs to worry about. It is the 300 or so fans who, after watching the 0-0 draw with Cambridge, decided not to bother last Saturday. My guess is they are the people who watch a good game when they can, and read what comes up about Grimsby Town when it comes their way, without going hunting for it. To keep them interested and engaged, everything about the club, on and off the pitch, needs to be done professionally. Success on the pitch can mask failings for a time, but in the end those failings will affect the kind of team we put out, the kind of show they put on.

After five legitimate games without a goal, we all want change, and we all hope it starts tonight at home to Swindon. Dixon and Woolford look likely to be available but Jamey Osborne is not yet ready to start a match. Here's to a performance that makes it easy for us to get behind the team. If not, let's do our best to get behind them anyway, but not be scared to have our say on what is going wrong afterwards.

Up the Mariners.