Cod Almighty | Diary

What is this "supportive board" of which Geoff Ford writes?

9 December 2019

Trentside Diary writes: It sums up where we are as a club at the moment when the local rag ran an article yesterday: "Will Grimsby Town fans have to live forever on memories of past glories?"It is pretty clear that the only sensible response to this is "yes", unless we have fundamental change from top to bottom at the club. Surely even the Fenty apologists must concede that there is little seasonal cheer around the Mariners at the moment, and it’s very difficult to see where any improvement is going to come from.

Saturday wasn’t great. We didn't expect much against the team top of the table, but there was little fight or creativity. Many hoped that Jolley's departure would herald a bit of a bounce but it hasn't happened. I'm not convinced any manager could make a significant, sustained difference at this time.

Jolley came in fresh and with ideas and while it wasn't perfect, he got the players motivated, kept us up and sold coming to Grimsby to a number of players, if not everyone he would have liked. This squad had some impressive games but lacked consistency.

Limbrick was starting behind the line with a group of demoralised players in a club that really has nothing positive going for it. How did we expect that to play out? Exactly as it has.

Whilst there are problems at the club, I still don’t understand why so-called fans direct such vitriol at players and the manager. It’s always justified with "I pay my money so I can say what I think", but how on earth do they think this is going to lead to improvement? I really don’t know if it happens as much at other clubs or whether it is just some embittered, unfulfilled Town fans.

John Tondeur interviewed Jimmy Mac who talked about the confidence of a young player being affected by internet trolls. Why? Just why would you do that if you call yourself a Town fan? How on earth do you think that will improve their performance? It would be easy to advise the player not to go onto social media but why should they do that?

One fan responded to John Tondeur that his grandad always said "imagine it’s your son out there having a bad game", but some numpty responded with “Rubbish all part of the game”. It’s not part of my game. I might have a moan about a performance but I’m sure the player will be more frustrated than me so why some need to shout abuse at the player I don't know.

I can’t remember being any more demoralised than I am now, and that includes relegation in 2010. At least then I was resolute in thinking: I’m not going to abandon them now, not when my team needs support more than ever. Now, only a change of ownership is going to make a sustained difference.

UTM! Fenty Out!