Cod Almighty | Diary

The north will rise again

16 September 2019

Trentside Diary writes: Top away attendance in the fourth division yesterday says everything you need to know about Town fans. We always take a good few, even on a wet Tuesday night in February. There are a good number of us love an away day and even better, somewhere we haven’t been before. Following Town hooks you in, plays with you and that’s it: the Mariners are your life.

As of Saturday around 2,500 tickets out of 5,118 had been sold for the Chelsea game next Wednesday. That’s pretty impressive. There has been some grumbling at how the ticket sales are being prioritised, offering two per person for season, self-select or exile ticket holders. I’m not sure what people want the club to do. They know not everyone will be able to make it, but given the short turnaround, they need to move tickets quickly. It’s a midweek match so there’s a limit on how many can get time off work or get there – so people who want to go probably will.

There were the usual moans about plastic fans which makes me smile. Yes, some people only go to a few games, whether by choice, geography or due to other commitments. But you can’t really blame them if they want to attend a novelty match like Chelsea. Does that make them a plastic fan? Then again, what is a plastic fan? A glory supporter? Yes, it’s a big match for us – but you can’t really call anyone following Town a glory supporter. We’ve had our moments but it hasn’t been wall-to-wall success and glamour.

On our trips to Wembley, in both its incarnations, we took far more fans than we get week in, week out. I’d love to see them all at Blundell Park each home game but sadly that isn’t the case. What I do hope though is that the more matches people attend, the more it gets in their blood and the more they want to attend. Let’s not criticise just because they are not there every week.

Town need everyone they can get. We’ve got a team that is looking a bit special. The sheer determination in coming back from two-nil down, like they did on Saturday, is something we have not witnessed for a long time. Let’s get behind them whenever we can.

Salford on Tuesday and home against Macclesfield at the weekend are opportunities for wins. Now if you want to talk about plastic fans in lower leagues, you don’t have to look further than Salford. UTM!