Cod Almighty | Diary

"Football pyramid" sounds better than "nested football ladder-fork"

20 July 2020

Trentside Diary writes: As we crawl towards the end of season, teams in the exalted upper echelons of our football pyramid (I've never really understood why it's called a pyramid) are slugging it out for their final positions. Why would the fortunes of the rich kids interest us Town fans? Because the Hullie Gullies are going down, barring a footballing miracle, and for some of us "older" Mariners the Taargers were our local rivals for many years. We're not yet in the same league but this is the closest we've been for some time and the trajectory is good for Town. There's a lot of good feeling around Holloway being in charge. Promotion at the end of next season isn't too much to ask is it?

The powers that be are encouraging us to think positively and look forward to a return to attending live sport. At the same time they announced they were devolving responsibility for future lockdowns to local councils to decide and implement, with specific mention of powers to close premises, shut outdoor spaces and cancel events. If any of the local media outlets get the opportunity, could you ask our major shareholder how he is going to reconcile this new power with being the majority shareholder of the football club, please?

A football match would be a major event. John Fenty is deputy leader of the council so I'm assuming his colleagues thought he could bring something important to the table. He took a "backseat" in the operational running of the club in February and, on balance, Philip Day has been doing a much better job at keeping fans informed during this strange period. However, I don't doubt that Fenty will be there for any major decisions to be made. We would all hope that any decisions made by the council are for the best of those living in North East Lincs and for the health and wellbeing of those attending matches but, even if he can convince himself that any decision he makes is completely neutral, it can't be.

He can declare an interest all he likes in meetings. It doesn't mean he isn't influencing his group and he's basically putting himself in a very dodgy position. It's about time he sold up or stepped down as a councillor. UTM!