Cod Almighty | Diary
Oh, you wanna drive?
1 November 2018
East End Diary writes: While there was only limited discussion of whether fans should attend our game with the franchise earlier this season, there seemed to be a clear agreement that they were and will forever be a dirty club. That was illustrated by the collective groan when we drew them in the first round of the FA Cup.
Many of us seem willing to move on, and settle instead for sniping at the club. Sometimes I think we should just applaud the whole debacle. Milton Keynes, a place which would struggle to foster any identity, has one as "those tossers who nicked a football club". The real Wimbledon rose to gloriously overtake them in the Football League last year, putting paid to the lie that fans could not organise, start and sustain a football club without a big rich sugar daddy. And, because of the controversy, we established that nothing like this would happen again.
However, personally I cannot forget and move on, particularly while the franchise insist that they are the Dons. And the FA is now assessing an application from North Ferriby United to change their name to East Hull and the owner is considering a relocation. While the 15km move is not on the same scale as the 100km relocation that gave rise to the first franchise club, the plan is still to relocate a club that has its own identity, and to change that identity to fit in with the owner's whims – an owner who has not had the decency to even put out a statement on the matter.
This is where we would want the football authorities to be on the side of fans, but the pattern the EFL seems to set is that it will happily listen to fans' views if they agree with them (as with, say, safe standing or drinking in view of the pitch). When fans express their objection to something then it is a case of telling them why they misunderstand what the authorities are trying to achieve. Take Shaun Harvey's statements on the B team trophy, or his defence of streaming midweek matches despite evidence that this has further depressed midweek attendances.
Ultimately it will be fans that matter, so please sign the petition. Although Grimsby relocation might be unlikely, I am sure owners of clubs who don't understand that the club actually belongs to the community will keep trying to treat them as a plaything and testing the water to see what they can get away with.
With that moan out of the way, it's Cambridge away this weekend and my first game since the 1-0 win at Carlisle. That game started the mini-revival that turned fans from thinking Michael Jolley was Bignot with hair to wanting a DVD produced of the incredible four-game run, so am hoping for something similar.
Looking at the table, this feels somewhat more important than it should at this stage of the season, with the bottom six slightly adrift of the rest of the league in terms of points and goal difference. Hopefully a strong travelling army will see us recreate the atmosphere of two seasons ago in Paul Hurst's last away game with us, rather than the more toxic one last season following Slade's dismissal.
The man in the middle will be the same referee who was in charge for the inflatable invasion at Barnet so hopefully we can recreate some of that atmosphere. And finally, as I am mentioning that day, I found it interesting to see a Barnet fan experience the positive stewarding we have experienced at the Hive, vowing not to return after being kicked out over a can of beer that wasn't even his.
Onwards and upwards (hopefully!)