Cod Almighty | Diary

We play, therefore we are

23 August 2019

Imagine if the gates closed at Blundell Park, permanently. Imagine not being able to set foot back in the ground to watch Grimsby Town play again. Imagine if the heart of our beloved club — which has been beating continuously since 1878 — suddenly stopped, severing the seemingly innocuous link between our 2-2 draw against Colchester United on Tuesday night and our 2-1 win over Northwich Victoria in 1892.

There isn’t one person alive today who remembers anything of Town’s first 40 years of existence. Times change; players and managers come and go. Shirts have changed colours and designs, the badge has evolved, and we’ve had at least three different locations we’ve called ‘home’.

The club has outlived so many people and it continues to do so because the act of supporting it has been passed down through generations of fans. We may have been frustrated with the performances of particular players, or irritated by the tactical nonsense of many managers down the years, but today, of all days, it seems more poignant than ever to recognise that we play, therefore we are. And that’s enough.

Others are not so lucky.

Your West Yorkshire Diary can’t be sure what fate may befall Bury by the time this diary is published. The club’s deadline to prove they have the means to pay creditors is midnight tonight and owner Steve Dale claims there are four parties interested in taking over. Say what you like about the way they were run off the field last season — and many people have — but the fans don’t deserve to see their beloved club fold.

I have no links to the club whatsoever, except for the Bury-supporting lad I met at university, whose surname, hilariously, was Berry. He drove me back to Blundell Park each time the Shakers played the Mariners and always refused petrol money when I offered.

On a day like today, I'll think of him. And reading this BBC Sport article from yesterday, this paragraph stood out:

“It would be a catastrophe if Bury are no longer in the football pyramid,” adds Wiggins, who feels the club gives him “a bond” with the Shakers-supporting grandfather he never met.

Let's just remember what the ‘C’ stands for in GTFC. A club is a community. It's camaraderie. Unity. Togetherness. It’s a bond we all share. I shared it with my grandad, and I share it with thousands of you that I’ve not even met.

It seems outrageous, then, that an institution 134 years old could cease to exist because of just a few individuals, and that bond be broken. Forever. A phoenix club will surely emerge if the worst happens, but it’ll never truly repair that sacred bond. It'll be another club with an asterisk after its name.

Tomorrow the Mariners will play Port Vale. Given recent events, let’s just be grateful for that. If you’re going to the match, listening to it on the radio or watching it online from abroad, enjoy the simplicity of the occasion.

Because, right now, Bury fans would do anything to see their club play a match at Gigg Lane and make a Saturday afternoon feel entirely normal.