Cod Almighty | Diary

That haunted feeling

5 December 2019

There will be rainbow-coloured corner flags and substitution boards at Blundell Park on Saturday. As part of LGBT equality organisation Stonewall's Rainbow laces campaign, Grimsby Town want "to promote awareness that football is for everyone." The club's equality, diversity and inclusion officer Adie Merrikin says that "Grimsby Town Football Club... remains committed to proactively promote diversity and inclusion in all areas of football, both on and off the pitch."

All that you will find on the official site. What you won't find out is whether Merrikin was consulted on the decision to allow those guardians of diversity the Brexit Party to use Blundell Park for a rally. Lip service is better than no service, but a real commitment to making sure everyone feels welcome at Blundell Park needs more than an occasional flag day.

There is so little news that Liam Wood has taken to providing A-level Psychology refreshers in his articles. Writing of Anthony Limbrick, though it could be any other living human being, he notes that "the interim manager only has thought process in his mind."

That leaves Domestic Diary with your emails. Both, in their way, reflect the poor attendance for last week's mid-week match with Cheltenham. Carl Wishart writes as "a very disillusioned supporter": 

"As a Town fan going back to the Dave Booth era, I have watched my team through thick and thin, the good and the bad times. I go to all the home games and as many away games as I can. I do have an understanding of football as I used to play the game I love.

"This is the first time I have stopped going. I was even offered a free ticket for the Tuesday night game but turned it down. I can accept losing - it is part of the game - but the last five or six games all I have seen is a team so disjointed it’s embarrassing. At Oldham, there was at least four or five players playing out of position. I’ve watched Leyton Orient make us look like a Sunday league team.

The last five home games I have left Blundell park on such a downer. Not just by the results: by the performance and the constant chopping and changing of the team. I do understand through injuries that there sometimes have to be changes but a lot off the time it does not seem that way."

Rich Jones agrees with Paul Thundercliffe's take:

"Hammer and nail hit squarely with regard to dwindling support. My black and white tinted glasses were ditched many seasons ago, long before we even dropped into non-League.

"This club has been on a steady downward spiral for many years. Poor decisions have been made at every level within the club, whether that was managerial, players or infrastructure. The club was destined to end up in the mess we now find ourselves in.

"The die was cast when the club decided to implement the Taylor Report recommendations with an urgency that was both unnecessary, and - in typical Town fashion - ill-thought through. In one fell swoop the ground capacity was halved, alienating a large swathe of support which we have probably lost forever. The following season saw a half-hearted attempt to introduce ticketing for games and a membership scheme, initiatives which were soon discarded, a bit like we managed to discard the not inconsiderable floating support which all clubs have and rely on.

"My season ticket has seen daylight on three occasion this year. The sad thing is I am not that bothered. When I go, the ghosts of the past have stopped instilling that neck hair-lifting feeling as you walk into the ground, the crackling atmosphere that made you feel physically sick with anticipation. I fear the ghosts have shuffled away and deserted my club, just like the floating support."

Sombre stuff. Up what remains of the Mariners.