The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Bloody 'ell, we're even getting furniture now

6 July 2021

"After three weeks of sales, an amazing 1740 season tickets for the 2021/22 season have been snapped up by Town fans". It must be admitted that over-enthusiasm about season ticket sales is a more reliable sign of summer than the appearance of swallows, but that is impressive for a club that has just been relegated.

Too often over the last 20 years, July has been the best month to be a Mariner. Grimsby's summer of love was 50 years after everyone else's, in 2018 when there was not a hospital bedside in north east Lincolnshire or a community project where new broom Michael Jolley could not be found. It was a holiday romance which scarcely survived being beaten 4-1 by Forest Green at the start of August. The very term "breath of fresh air" has been repeated so many times in the last five years it smells like it is being spoken after a heavy night, between gasps on the first fag of the day.

It's different this time? Middle-Aged Diary did not join the webinar with the new board yesterday but there is a comprehensive, and encouraging, summary on the Fishy. There are (at the time of writing) also still a couple of tables left if you want to meet Jason Stockwood, Andrew Pettit and Debbie Cook in person at the Mariners Trust Q&A on Wednesday. They'll be showing some football afterwards apparently.

Good histories love the telling detail, though, and this, from Jase Ives, speaks volumes.

"Bloody 'ell, we're even getting furniture now", coming from Dave Moore, tells us everything we need to know about the way Grimsby Town has been run in the past, and how it is starting to change.

Once, Moore's remark would never have made it into print and would have been lost to time. Future historians will have the opposite problem, sorting through all the social media chaff to find those ears of wheat. Mark Stilton has been doing some heroic sorting of his own, a job no one could envy but for which those future historians will earnestly thank him. He is well on with part four of the Fenty Years, which may hit your device screens later this week or early next.

Present-day historians are no doubt waiting with bated breath to learn the final make-up of Grimsby Town's shone in adversity XI: a team of players who performed well in relegation seasons. You voted for Billy Cairns to fill the last spot, so the team is: Danny Coyne (2002-03); Charlie Wilson (1931-32), Mike Edwards (2003-04), Georges Santos (2002-03), Kevin Moore (1976-77); John Oster (1996-97), Joe Waters (1976-77), Donal O'Riordan (1987-88), Jamie Devitt (2009-10); Clive Mendonca (1996-97); Billy Cairns (1947-48).

Farewell.