Cod Almighty | Diary

The reading habits of the football club director

9 March 2021

Yesterday, Middle-Aged Diary had two conversations about the reading habits of those who work at Grimsby Town. The first was provoked by a social media thread in which the person responsible for the club's media claimed not to know that Cod Almighty was still going.

We largely accept our place: the fact we can remember our articles being "Liked" by Craig Disley and Pádraig Amond shows how rare it is. Basically, we write to entertain, and if now and again we influence the influencers, that's a bonus. We don't expect anyone to be reading us at Blundell Park.

Egotistical as it is though, I can't help wishing someone had read the diary of 30 January 2018, the day when Russell Slade's team went on to lose at Yeovil. "The Conference is calling again. Win tonight at Yeovil and it might recede to no more than a distant tinkle... This year. It will still be there though, until we learn the lessons. Again."

The man credited then with having learnt the lessons on our behalf the first time was Paul Hurst. The esteem he was held in grew as we watched Marcus Bignot, Slade, Michael Jolley and Ian Holloway struggle with their brief in the four years after he left. If the last couple of weeks have reminded us what a frustrating manager he can be, Hurst's comments on Town's appointment of Kal Singh as the first team performance analyst restore his lustre.

After pointing out that the post of performance analyst is new only to Town, he goes on "While, 100 per cent it's about results on a Saturday, and we are desperately trying to improve those right now, part of the reason for coming back here was to try to develop the club... I guess that when I left the first time that was part of the reason, I've come back now and hopefully we can strengthen every department." If that isn't a dig - all the better for being so patently sincere - then my name is John Fenty.

Hurst's task, his player's task, tonight is to get something from a visit to Carlisle. The only thing left in the cupboard is superstition. Last week I didn't want to tempt fate by mentioning our good record against Leyton Orient and that didn't work at all, so this time let's remember we've pulled off some decent results at Brunton Park.

There is always huge kudos to those who make it there, whether back in the day when it was George Kerr going over to tell the loyal handful they must be mad, or the ones who had to hotfoot it from Wembley in 1998 when the Cumbrians refused to rearrange the Tuesday night fixture. Keep those thoughts in the bank for when fans, and travelling fans, are once more a thing.

My second conversation about Grimsby's boardroom reading was provoked by a tweet our soon-to-be joint-owner Jason Stockwood sent, thanking someone for a book recommendation, and promising to reflect on what he'd read in it. I mentioned this to a friend who said he has looked up the book in question. He wasn't impressed: full of assertions unsupported by evidence, or of the "no shit, Sherlock" sort: "people work better in supportive than unsupportive environments."

True, but still refreshing. I hate to think what Fenty reads, beyond the Fishy messageboard late at night. Asked about supportive environments, he would I suspect have said "I support my staff. I tell them they'll get a P60 if they fail, and that works wonders for their motivation." He might say it to the same sycophantic laughter and applause one could draw with a comment like "when did a fitness coach ever win three points on a Saturday" but he'd still be wrong. The evidence of the Fenty way is still all around us: witness club shop staff having to sort out a fundraiser to bring the online store into the 21st century. Stockwood can only be better.

Better still the news that Kris Green has been elected chair of the Mariners Trust, a person you can be sure will be there on a cold Tuesday in Carlisle and who surely does read Cod Almighty at least now and again. If you aren't aware of the role Kris has played in raising the profile and the effectiveness of the Supporters Liaison Officer and establishing the Sporting Memories Network, you still get her measure that she has responded individually to almost all the very many congratulatory tweets that have been sent her way.

It's like rising carbon dioxide emissions. You can't say a single storm is down to climate change, but storms become more likely as global temperatures rise. We won't win three points on Saturday because of Kris and a performance analyst, but three-point winning Saturdays will become more common. Eventually.

Keep the faith.