Cod Almighty | Diary

No answers given, no answers possible

17 April 2020

Domestic Diary writes: Rick Parry, the chair of the Football League, has written an open letter to supporters. It is short on answers, but no one has many of them at the moment, except maybe Donald Trump. But the questions Parry is asking - how the inegrity of competitions and the future of clubs can be safeguarded without endangering lives - are the right ones to be asking. If part of the answer turns out to be playing games behind closed doors, it will be ideal for the bores who insist "football is a results business."

Parry refers to the hiatus caused by the world wars. When war was declared in 1914, the League carried on to its conclusion in April 1915. The football clock has stuck for us on a win at Scunthorpe; back then, the last League game in more than four years was a 4-1 defeat at Hull.

The football authorities got it in the neck for their lack of patriotism by carrying on playing in 1914. They made no such mistake in 1939, stopping the season straight away. As the season was only three games old, no one could feel too aggrieved that they had been denied honours as a result. Until now.

When League football resumed in 1946, they used the same fixture lists that has been drawn up for 1939-40. Town's first three games were at Manchester United then home to Wolves and Preston. In 1939, we took a loss, a draw and a win, but in 1946 we lost two and drew one. We can therefore say with statistical certainty that if the 1939-40 season had been allowed to proceed Grimsby would have got three times as many points as we ended up getting in 1946-47 and would have been Football League champions by a country mile.

Grimsby Town's offering of rewound football this weekend is the second leg of the play-off semi-final at Braintree from 2016. Physical distancing probably makes it impossible for you to re-create the mood in Grimsby after the first leg by putting up a "Hurst out" sign on Cleethorpe Road. Much better, for you, me and everyone, is to content yourself with re-reading Retro's prescient diary from the day after our home defeat by the Essex boys.

Stay safe.