Cod Almighty | Diary

The Fentydome is dead. Long live the Oxbydome

31 December 2018

The obscenely hasty breaking up of the 2016 promotion side was traumatic for all Town fans. Those of us who berated the club for allowing the departure of players like Nathan Arnold and Pádraig Amond have been vindicated by subsequent events. But we loved that team as a collective even more than we loved any individual member of it. We loved that team for its commitment and togetherness. It mattered to Craig Disley the way it mattered to us, and the whole squad took that cue from its captain. We thought it would be a long time before we saw its like again.

All too quickly James McKeown became the last man standing from that squad. A couple of years later, Town's goalkeeper has already had a remarkable season – and his astonishing performance at Exeter on Saturday will live long in the memory. But it's not only on the pitch that Jimmy Mac is taking it to the next level.

Now I know he's been around a while, so to some extent it's natural that he might absorb some club history. But you can bet that between Paul Groves' departure and McKeown's arrival, plenty of players who drew a wage from Blundell Park had never heard of Groves, never would, and didn't care. And here is our goalkeeper, 15 years after that illustrious captain exited the stage, giving encouragement to a young midfielder by suggesting that he might one day be esteemed as highly as Paul Groves.

I don't know about you, but this has made your original/regular Diary a bit emotional.

James McKeown is not just an outstanding goalkeeper, without whom GTFC would still be mired in the lower reaches of the fourth division this season. In the current absence of Danny Collins, he's following in the mighty bootprints of Groves and Disley as captain. And most importantly of all, beneath the west midlands twang, he is now very clearly one of us – just as his erstwhile teammate Disley became one of us. Perhaps, like Disley before him, his commitment to our club and our community are setting the best possible example for his teammates. And if that's the case it should make us all very happy indeed.

Today demands we look back as well as forward, and perhaps down as well as up. Any optimism we take into 2019 will necessarily be tempered by experience, and in the case of John Shelton Fenty, auld acquaintance might never be forgot. Before you raise a glass tonight, there's sobering reading in the responses of 50-odd Town fans to a recent survey by Against League 3 about club ownership:

• Communication: 1.75 out of 10
• Finance: 3.45 out of 10
• Football: 2.63 out of 10
• Stadium: 2.12 out of 10
• Treatment of fans: 1.86 out of 10
• Transparency: 1.96 out of 10
• Overall: 27.10 out of 100

I'm not really buying recent rumours that the club is shortly to change hands. But I am cheered by the fact that the fatally flawed Fentydome II project at Peaks Parkway has followed its Great Coates predecessor to the dustbin. It looks very much like the alternative proposal for a Stadio del Freemo (or Oxbydome, if you really want to troll the non-chairman) is infinitely more viable in terms of finance, logistics and the approval of supporters. Here's one of our most memorable Twitter moments of 2018.

Finally, then, some credit where it's due: if we can take GTFC at their word when they say they changed their stance on the Football League Trophy recently, and voted to chuck out the B teams, then that would suggest things might be improving. With Fenty seemingly out of the limelight, and Michael Jolley, McKeown et al left to work their magic, 2019 might actually be half decent. Thanks very much indeed for reading Cod Almighty this year, and all the very best to you for the new one. I'm off for some chips.