Cod Almighty | Diary

Keep it Real

7 March 2019

Open Diary writes: Last May I watched the Champions League final on holiday in Majorca and Real Madrid looked pretty invincible against Liverpool. On Tuesday night, shock and horror, they fell at the first step in the knockout phase of this year’s competition. Worse still, they went out to Ajax of Amsterdam who are one of the sides everyone would have wanted to draw at this stage. It was, so the papers tell me, a massive failure. In the meantime Spurs beat Borussia Dortmund in both legs. That was success. They are in dreamland.

Barring some form of miracle, it looks like Town are going to finish comfortably in mid-table. It makes a change from years of pushing for the play-offs or running scared of relegation. Given our previous history it doesn’t feel too bad, but it begs the question of what success would look like for us.

The Mariners started this century in what is now the Championship. Having survived a couple of seasons, it all fell apart in 2003 – and we all know what was to follow. There were the high points of beating Liverpool at Anfield and Spurs at Blundell Park, and various trips to Wembley, but also the overall experience of tumbling through relegation trapdoor after relegation trapdoor.

If you watch the Premier League on Sky you realise that you often end up watching sides that we regularly played as equals not so long ago. I remember Wolves getting to play us after their promotion into the second tier; trips to Brighton, Palace and Watford; and standing on an open terrace at Fulham en route to the 1998 play-off final. That was also the year we beat Bournemouth in the AWS final.

So, if a mid-season finish is as good as it’s going to get this year, where might it lead us to?

There was a time when I thought it was inconceivable that we would find ourselves in the fourth division for more than the odd season. There were plenty of sides condemned to the bottom league, and we weren’t one of them. But right now, it could be a lot worse than it is because we’ve been to worse places.

If things progress, and the team can be broadly kept together and possibly strengthened, we might look forward to being serious promotion contenders next year. Maybe we might even hope to be in the automatic promotion places rather than just the play-offs.

And why not? I see Luton, a club not unlike us, are currently top of the third flight and seemingly heading for the second. Even if we don’t get to those dizzy heights, would it so bad being slightly below that? Sides like Wycombe and Southend are mid-table, so surely we ought to be able to match that? The middle of the third tier would be our best level in 16 seasons. So, being there in March 2021 might be what you would say is success?

And we need some good cup runs. This year reminded us of what those meant and it’s a bit galling to see Crystal Palace now facing Watford in the last eight. Remember when we could put sides like Leicester City out of cup competitions? Never mind what happens at Real Madrid – we could look forward to knocking out a side like Brentford or Preston North End.

What does your idea of success look like? Tweet or email to let us know.