Cod Almighty | Diary

Searching for the Wolsrap point

14 August 2018

They'll be keeping a close eye on events at Blundell Park in one corner of West Sussex this evening. If Grimsby win, Rochdale will relieve Bognor Regis Town from the ignominy of being the last team to lose to the Mariners in a national cup competition.

Dodgy statistic alert: it is a decade and two days since Town last won a League Cup tie. Yet we have fond memories. Everton. Everton again. Aston Villa. Liverpool. One day we might think of Russell Slade and remember only Tottenham. One day. Maybe.

Then there are Leicester City. We'd beaten Sheffield Wednesday over two legs in the previous round, but when the Foxes took a 1-0 half-time lead at Blundell Park in 1997, we were sinking without a trace. At half time, Alan Buckley brought on Kevin Jobling, who scored a quite brilliant equaliser: an exchange of passes as he darted into the box then the composure to adjust his feet before sliding the ball past the goalkeeper. Buckley also brought on Steve Livingstone who scored two goals which were... less brilliant, but frankly who cares.

The 1997-98 League Cup run was the first sign that Grimsby were embarking on a special season. Just as, in another cup in 1989, a new era was ushered in by another substitute. Town were losing 1-0 at Middlesbrough in the third round of the FA Cup. Buckley sent on Marc North with the instruction "run around and score some goals." North did just that, twice.

Odd that we remember the later defeat by cup holders Wimbledon better than we remember the victory. But at Middlesbrough's old Ayresome Park, the travelling fans had been telling each other when we were losing that people back home wouldn't believe how well the Mariners had played. By the time we went down at Plough Lane, we had seen it for ourselves, and we all believed.

Kevin Jobling, Steve Livingstone and Marc North: three substitutes who changed a game, and so helped change our club's destiny. No doubt you have your own memories to share of great sub appearances. (The first person to say "Danny Parslow" will be nominated to wash down the Cheapside changing rooms.) The thought came into Middle-Aged Diary's head after Saturday, when Charles Vernam was first the visible manifestation of "fresh legs", closing down the Macclesfield defence with the extra urgency which by then had been run out of Jordan Cook's legs, and then a lot more.

Vernam didn't have to change the game. Almost the best thing about it was the sense that, whereas at the end of last season Michael Jolley had got his team playing out of their skins, now he has recruited players who don't need to, players whose professional know-how and commitment we can take for granted. It is enough to leave us feeling that Bognor Regis might no longer be our last cup scalps by ten o'clock tonight.