Cod Almighty | Diary

A lot of nothing

12 June 2020

Dale Vince, the owner of a football club without fans, says - with no apparent sense of irony - that fourth flight teams can carry on without fans. How long before he decides they can carry on without football either? Tragically, there is every danger that the teams which have been puffed up by a millionaire's ego will be the ones to suffer least by the absence of actual football.

Tempting, but wrong, to suggest Forest Green may be like the cockroaches who'll survive a nuclear war. I mean no offence to the fans who supported Forest Green when they escaped relegation from the Conference only because of the off-field misfortunes of other clubs. Or Salford City. Middle-Aged Diary remembers them well: a handful of their fans were always ready to cross the Manchester Ship Canal to watch their team get whipped by Trafford in the Northern Premier League. I bet they have days when they worry what will happen when their owners get bored.

And besides, the Mariners have roots. When our players agreed their pay-cut, chairman Philip Day stated confidently that the club could now keep going until next May. However, as this Mariners Trust statement explains, there are many uncertainties. Our efforts, through the crowdfunder, purchase of shares and auctioning of memorabilia are still needed. The trust will be at Blundell Park on Monday morning for a sale of books and the distribution of share appplication forms.

We are all feeling that homesickness for the past which is, in any case, second nature to Town fans. Not long before the COVID-19 crisis, I joined the Mariners Sporting Memories Network to share in reminiscences ranging from great old players to the Humber ferries. The group set me straight on a point we have discussed before on Cod Almighty. It is sometimes written that Grimsby and Hull were unique in playing games on Christmas Day. This is a nonsense: a flick through old fixture lists proves it in an instant. What does seem to have been true is that the two clubs were generally guaranteed a home game on Christmas Day and Good Friday, the two days of the year when the fishing crews were sure to be on land.

I long once more to be in a group of people with whom I can talk about Matt Tees with no need to explain why he matters. I fancy that going to the ground on Monday to look at old books may be your best chance to fulfil that need. (Sadly not mine - I don't fancy my chances of explaining that a cross-country trip to Blundell Park is essential.)

Town have, rightly, refused to sell season tickets for a season whose form, whose very existence, we cannot yet tell. No reason we can't have a new shirt though, and the new one is likely to be released later this month. As Day admits "Unusually, it may be the only Town kit made for a season in which a ball was never kicked."

If I were the trust, I'd start a futures market on match-worn 2020-21 shirts. Just so long as the wealth we'd generate doesn't turn us into another Forest Green.

Postscript

My apologies: I've only just seen the entirely brilliant news that Grimsby Town Women have been promoted. I can't in any case add anything to the official site's coverage, except to add our congratulations to Dale Houlston and the players.