Cod Almighty | Diary

Hearts as well as heads

17 January 2018

Grimsby Town have won. Let's pause there while you try and remember what winning is and Middle-Aged Diary lowers your expectations.

Grimsby Town have won their appeal against Jamille Matt's sending-off last Saturday, so he is available for selection. There has been little to congratulate the club for lately, but credit where it is due. Someone obviously looked at footage of the incident and decided an appeal was worth pursuing even as many fans were going on social media to express their doubts. Evidence of someone at Blundell Park knowing what they are doing is always welcome.

Less welcome is the news from Alfreton where John McDermott, the one true Macca, was yesterday dismissed as their manager. Let's not though join in the glee of those dismissing as 'naive' the hopes that Sir John might one day take charge at Grimsby. First, there are 754 good reasons which say no Town fan should ever wish McDermott anything other than very well indeed.

Second, have you really been following affairs at Alfreton so closely that you can say with confidence that his experience there proves he could never be a manager? The same argument applies, by the way, to those saying his current travails at Chester prove we were right to sack Marcus Bignot after five months at "the Blundell Park". There are too many variables – of budget, boardroom, squad, back-up staff, support – to look at a club purely through the prism of its manager and make a judgement.

Finally, the would-be pundits won't admit it but in football you need head and heart. Yes, hoping Macca might one day manage the club he played for with such skill and commitment for 20 years is an emotional response. But it is that emotion that binds some players forever in our hearts, forever in the black and white shirt. I shut my eyes and I see John McDermott stepping onto the Wembley pitch in 1998. That is the moment I started weeping.

Does that moment guarantee that McDermott would make an effective Grimsby manager? Of course not. But it does mean that the impulse that wants Macca to retain a formal association with Grimsby Town – just as, informally, he will always be associated with it – is an impulse that deserves respect. Such emotions are the lifeblood of a football club.

I hope one day soon we can have McDermott as a guest of honour at Blundell Park, and that he is given a reception to show that, whatever befell him at Alfreton, here he will always be a hero.