Cod Almighty | Diary

Couldn't get the calendar to stop

23 April 2019

Happy Phil Jevons Day. Happy Jim Dobbin Day. Happy Justin Whittle Day. Is the football anniversary more of a thing than it used to be, or is it just Grimsby fans seeking refuge in the glorious past from an increasingly wearisome present? Either way, don't act all surprised on 27 January 2024 when we're all ruing the incredible players we allowed to leave from the class of '19, and we wish each other a happy John Welsh Day to mark a half-decent tackle in the 85th minute of a game against an illegitimate football club.

Well, it turns out it's not just us, although if you're a Bournemouth fan you'll view the relationship between past and present in a diametrically opposite way to a Grimsby fan. This time ten years ago a 2-1 win against Town secured Football League survival for a side who had begun the season on minus 17 points as a penalty for administration and insolvency. The trajectories of the two clubs since then tells you not just everything about the house John Fenty has been running but much about the way of English football today.

Don't bother reading the Bournemouth Echo's interview with then Cherries hero Brett Pitman if you want any insight on that – but do read it for entertainment, because it's a laugh to hear him say "Without that day against Grimsby, you just don’t know what would’ve happened. Obviously it was a massive day" and then, three lines later, "I don’t really remember much of the Grimsby game, to be honest".

But what stands out here is the wider picture of hitherto minor footballing powers like Bournemouth usurping the longer-established names – and the geographical pattern within this trend.

Back when your original/regular Diary was young – and probably quite a bit more recently than that, in fact – if Town lost the odd game to a team like Reading, we could more or less shrug our shoulders and move on, secure in the knowledge that the sparsely supported southern upstarts would soon sink back to obscurity and allow normal service to resume.

We can't do that any more. Bournemouth might have the lowest attendances in the Premier League by some way, but they are at least in the Premier League to have them. Everywhere, clubs representing the wealthier towns of southern England are making progress – even without a culture of enduring support – at the expense of sides from the north with a greater footballing tradition and history but whose populations have been increasingly impoverished by the prevailing economic policies of recent decades.

What can we do about that? Nothing, except keep supporting. See you next season.