Cod Almighty | Diary

Keep the faith

10 November 2020

There's a game going on today. It's one Casual Diary has no interest in. I have no desire to watch my team play the under 21s of a team I used to watch them play every season.

Some fans would have liked to see a couple of the players likely to feature in tonight's non-game involved last Saturday. Some fans have gone into meltdown after our exit from the FA Cup, others are more questioning. In a season when we anticipated at least a play-off push there is a nervousness creeping in, probably born from 16 years of failure.

Myths arise as the years pass, and it comes to seem as though all our successful sides cruised relentlessly to their end-of-season achievements. Yet the 1971-72 team won just one game between October and Boxing Day, slipping to 10th in the table. George Kerr's 1980 champions were sixth from bottom in late October. Fans were calling for the heads of both the chair and manager in 1997-98 when we were 21st. They had short memories as Alan Buckley's first stint as manager had not begun in a blaze of glory.

Anyone watching the game on Saturday had to have seen some signs of progress. Yes we made a daft error. Yes our final ball wasn't good enough, but we at least played decent, sometimes incisive, football, only rarely displayed even as we beat Barrow. We aren't the finished article and we won't storm to a title but there is progress, and by May we will end a damn sight nearer to success than we have been since we returned to the League.

It seems certain we won't be there to witness it. Yesterday parliament debated a petition with over 200,000 signatures calling for fans to be let in. That neither of our local MPs could be bothered to speak shouldn't come as a surprise. While they are both more than willing to take advantage of a photo opportunity with the prime minister, actually opposing government policy and speaking up for what the vast majority of fans crave is clearly not on the agenda. The MP for Grimsby has never shown any interest in the club to my knowledge, but Martin Vickers was a regular attendee at Blundell Park. Given that the Tory deputy leader of council is our major shareholder, you would have thought it was an ideal opportunity for Mr Vickers to give a vital insight into how small clubs are affected. But possibly there was a tax haven somewhere in need of his input.

To end on a worthier note, I must mention the tragic passing of Matt Tees. That his death was due Alzeheimer's makes it even more poignant for me. I began watching Town toward the end of 1967-68, accompanied by my mum, a woman who bled black and white. Over the next 13 years we would attend home and away together, before I began going with my mates. She continued to attend until the disease made her incapable and she died tragically young, before Buckley returned to resurrect us.

When Matt returned to Town I had never known anything like it. My mum could talk of nothing else, in the tones of a child anticipating a birthday or christmas. I couldn't wait to see this Matt Tees. He didn't disappoint. He became instantly my first footballing hero, cemented forever in pinnacle position by his heroics in 1971-72. I later regularly had a chat with my hero as we bought our papers from the same newsagent. Even at 40, I was still in awe: that he was such a genuine, warm, kind person, willing to discuss the current Town side was just magical. They say you should never meet your heroes. Well I met mine and he was as great off the pitch as he was on it. I'll never forget Matt Tees and if you're lucky enough to see the likes of him again in a Town shirt you'll be truly blessed. RIP