Cod Almighty | Diary

Up The Binos

13 May 2020

Miss Guest Diary writes: Years ago, before I was even interested in football, I worked with a chap from Liverpool who told me that many football fans have a team in Scotland which they support as a second team. I have never actually come across anyone else who does this – maybe it's just a Liverpool thing – but that could be changing for me.

In an attempt to keep some order and normality in our lives since lockdown, we have sought out a full football match to watch on TV every Saturday at 3pm. Not having a subscription to iFollow, we had been limited to a couple of rather poor quality Town games on YouTube plus some old internationals on BBC iPlayer.

In a desperate attempt to avoid having to watch anything featuring Barcelona, I was searching YouTube last month and came across Stirling Albion TV. The club have posted some full games from this season which nicely fit the bill for Saturday afternoon entertainment. They are excellent quality visually – better than anything I have seen from Town – have no commentary and do not tell you the score in advance. And some of the football isn't bad either. Perfect.

I know next to nothing about the Scottish league structure but I could tell from the stadium – more Gateshead than Blundell Park – that Albion are likely to be near the bottom of the football pyramid. Sure enough, a visit to Wikipedia told me that they are in League Two, which is the fourth tier of Scottish football. It also told me that the club has been owned by a Supporters Trust since 2010. And there is a Grimsby connection: Kevin Drinkell finished his playing career at Albion in 1995 and went on to manage the club for three years.

Like many smaller clubs, Albion are struggling financially with no revenue from games and have started a GoFundMe campaign to try and plug the gap. Making a donation seemed the least I could do given the entertainment I have received over the last few weeks. In return I got a lovely message inviting me to Forthbank when football is allowed to resume.

Another thing we've been doing during lockdown is cataloguing all of Tony Butcher's match reports, listing title, score and scorers, man of the match and referee details. It's surprising how some players and incidents really stick in your mind and others have made no impression at all. Even Mr Butcher could not recall just who Kiernan Hughes-Mason was until Google told us that he used to play for Arsenal, you know.

Reviewing every season this century confirmed that the Barnet 'inflatables' game is still my favourite away game outside of the Wembley trips, and that the breaking up of the 2016 promotion team still has the power to bring a tear to my eye.

I'm really hoping some kind of sporting normality can be resumed before we are reduced to going through the enormous box of old programmes which has been languishing in the garage for the last ten years. Who knows what memories are lurking in there.

But we are sorted for the next month at least, now that ITV are streaming the whole of Euro '96. Whether I will last the distance with Mr Butcher already shouting at the TV about the idiocy of bringing on Nicky Barmby in England's opening game is anyone's guess.

Stay alert!