Cod Almighty | Diary

We are lions led by donkeys. But we are still lions

2 October 2018

We have every excuse to sulk. Every excuse to fail. We are trying to turn around a 15-year record of mediocrity which has seeped into the very fabric of Blundell Park, so much so that many think this is all we are worth. It imbues every operation of the club, right down to a crap joke about Belinda Carlisle.

But there is this. We have proved time and again, from Wigs at Woking to Operation Promotion and on to Operation Mariachi, that the Mariners are too important to be left to the board. As our own Pete Green wrote recently, and despite what John Fenty and Stephen Marley tried to tell us at last year's fans' forum: "In the end it's the fans who save clubs from rich men in suits, not the other way round." We love this club too much to let it sink under a muddy wash of mutual resentment and recrimination.

We are all – players, fans, coaches – in this together. Think back to how awful you felt after Town were swept aside at Coventry last March. Think back to what doubts we all harboured as to whether that squad of players was capable of scraping together the points we needed to survive. In the end, somehow, self-respect kicked in. Professionalism kicked in. Despite everything that is wrong with this club, despite all the excuses to fail, we flourished.

Middle-Aged Diary's first thought was that Carlisle is an awful place to have to go just now when, once again, we are gripped by self-doubt. But actually it could be just the place to reset the relationship between the players and the fans. Every player, surely, will reflect sometime today what a long way it is to go to watch football on a Tuesday night when we have not won in eight games. Every player will surely respect the passion which ensures they run out tonight to a well-populated terrace and a lusty cheer. That cheer will be for all of us, our bodies wherever they may be, but our heads and our hearts with the Mariners.

Carlisle is a long way to go to return with nothing. A point or three would be great. Pride would be even better.