Cod Almighty | Diary
We're not playing
24 September 2018
Irregular Diary writes: On Saturday I went to Stevenage for the third time, not because of any fierce opinion on the events of last year – although I completely understand and support anybody that felt they couldn't attend – but because my team was playing. My previous two visits have seen some miserable people, and I'm not talking about fans, so it was nice to hit third time lucky. Bar laying out a red carpet, the set-up of our hosts couldn't have been more welcoming. All very telling for me...
I write 'playing', but we're not really playing at the minute. We always play poorly at the Lamex and Saturday was no different. Although the scoreline looked better than any previous visit, those of us who got piss wet through know it was another very worrying performance.
Stevenage fans in the pub suggested they struggled in midfield, so in theory a five-man midfield was a good idea. Reality was that we struggled. The only player who can naturally run at a player is on the bench. As much as Harry Clifton tried to support Thomas, it wasn't working. Time and again we were laboured and backward in passing.
I predicted three passes before that it'd go back to the keeper, and so it was. An intercepted pass that you could read with a contact lens missing led to the only goal of the game. In the opinions of those around me, the substitutions were late. Ben Pringle, who seemed to want to speed up play, came on too late and in setting out for a draw we didn't have it in us to push for an equaliser. Another game lost, another game without a goal or shot on target.
Social media was awash with differences of opinions: "sack him now", "he's got the Morecambe game", "give him until Christmas", "give him 'til the end of the season". I'm not at panic stations just yet. I saw the first 45 minutes against MK and the game against Lincoln. We can play quick, forward passing football with the players we have. Maybe suspensions and injuries have hampered that, but for a number of games in succession we've been scared to tackle anywhere on the pitch. When a big defender waltzes from back to front straight down the middle and we part like the Red Sea, there is an issue – especially when you have the experience of Jon Welsh and Danny Collins in there.
I don't want us to be that club changing managers after a run of bad results. But with the memories of non-League struggles still in the forefront of our minds, can we wait until Christmas if it carries on like this?
In other news 'Freemo' is a no-go according to Brenda off the East Marsh – THINK OF THE CHILDREN, she screams as the Grimsby Telegraph ekes a third story out of not a lot happening. How anything progresses with this sort of blind thinking is beyond me. People still to this day think of football matches as mass fighting with blokes pissing in people's front gardens. This is what happens when you rely on the S*n and the Telegraph for news. On the flip side, others don't want it there because of the current crime rates and the traffic problems it'll cause for an hour a week.
Like most, I'm a bit fed up now of it all. I'm fed up of the goalposts moving. In February 2017 Peaks Parkway was made a "reference site" and seen as the only/best option. Yet as early as 2014 the BBC suggested that the high-rise flats were going, and in December last year it was confirmed that there were no plans for the site once demolition was complete. So why the change of heart and the public backing of Freeman Street from the council when before they've been so tentative over full committal to other sites? I would suggest the funding for regeneration coming Grimsby's way may have something to do with it. It's an easy win for the council in that regard and ticks so many boxes when the final KPI form comes in for the millions spent.
But although I am a Grimsby Town fan, I am not in the fed-up camp of 'stick it anywhere'. It has to be right for all. We can all see the East Marsh as a shed, see the Welly up the road one way and the Dock Tower the other and chuck everything at this sudden new/old site which previously wasn't fit for purpose. I'm all for a stadium if it benefits most. But there are questions to be answered on the finer detail before I'll fully get behind a move that will see my beloved GTFC lumbered with a stadium for the next 140 years. I'm the same whether I think of Freemo or Peaks Parkway.
I think that's me for now – if you missed the Mariners Trust exhibition a week ago you've got a second chance this Thursday to relive the memories of old. At the moment, it's the memories that make us happy!
UTM