Cod Almighty | Diary
You know a milestone has been reached when they're talking about racism in football on Loose Women
15 October 2019
It would be easy for a diarist today to mumble something about a slow news day around Grimsby Town FC and pretty much give up on the idea of providing anything interesting for you to read. That, however, would be to reckon without a sensational controversy over a fixture scheduled to take place today but which has now been called off.
Town reserves were due to host their counterparts from Plucky Scunny this afternoon in their first game of the season, only for the game to be postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. So far, so standard in our new age of anthropogenic extreme weather, you might think. The Irons' official website, however, while reporting the postponement, shockingly refers to the game not as a reserve fixture but an under-23 match.
It could be that our neighbours' recent sojourn in the higher echelons of the league, funded by gajillions and gajousands of pretend pounds, has put ideas in their head, and that Scunthorpe don't have actually have an official reserve team any more, and have 'rebranded' their stiffs with a whizzy new name. If this is the case, we ought at least to be grateful that they are not referring instead to their Elite Performance Development Tekkerz Team. On the other hand, it could just be that one of the two clubs doesn't actually know which competition they're playing in. Stranger things have happened.
While we're about it, doesn't it seem a bit odd to be talking about a first game of the season in the middle of October? I suppose but that’s the diminished nature of reserve team football these days. Although that's also what the B team trophy thing is for as well. Either way, it looks like the reserves' first game of the season will now take place at some point in the winter. That'll really be odd.
In games that have actually taken place, your original/regular Diary notes that Town women notched up another whopping victory at the weekend – this time 8-0 away at Louth – while the under-18 Elite Performance Development, sorry, I mean youth team continued to struggle with a 4-1 defeat at Notts County.
Speaking of Notts County, on Saturday afternoon I found myself in Nottingham's excellent Vat & Fiddle pub, where I have found myself many a time previously after watching Town play away at Meadow Lane. Shortly after 5pm, sure enough, the place started to fill up with fans who had travelled to see their team face the Pies, and I tried to figure out who they were. Yellow and blue? The Gulls? No, they couldn't be Torquay, because Torquay are non-League. And then the penny dropped, and I remembered that so are Notts County.
And don't get me started on hearing that Bournemouth have just played Arsenal or Everton and thinking, hang on, I didn't realise it was a cup weekend. Have you ever struggled to register that a certain club is now in a certain division, or a certain league? Please share your fascinating story and brighten up a slow news day around Grimsby Town FC.