Cod Almighty | Diary

Stuffed crust pizza trophy, let’s keep moving!

27 September 2022

Where do I start? Lots of happenings catching my attention, some little, some less so. Just a couple make me cross.

The Pizza Trophy and those foie gras, fillet steak guzzling rich boys are too busy with more important things to drop their kids off for a playdate until the 8th November. Bloody hell, that means a rearrangement of our reshuffled game against Crewe Alexandra. The explanation was convoluted and I can imagine just as frustrating for Town to write. On the one hand it doesn't affect me unduly as I will always boycott the trophy with B-teams involved, but it does affect our planning for games and must be extremely frustrating for Crewe.

I imagine clubs can't say much publicly but surely this is the kind of move that should again bring in to question the inclusion of 'top-flight' reserve teams in a competition for lower league clubs. Can we opt out next season? The Football League almost certainly loves cosying up to the 'big boys' but as ever the big boys dictate the terms. International call ups or not, if top division clubs are part of the competition they should be required to put out a team or withdraw altogether given the sheer numbers of players they have on their books.

Enough of that!

I read a tweet a couple of days ago about fans standing in front of others at the game, in this instance impeding the view of the disabled supporters. I agree with the tweeter, but who wouldn't? It's really not okay to stand in front of the disabled supporters blocking their view. There are other issues. When I used to be at matches when my children were small, it really frustrated me when fans stood for the whole game. It was usually at away grounds and they could see very little, if any, of the action.

I recognise some fans want to stand for the whole game and those who are able jump up at exciting points but things need to change to make it better for everyone. Is locating the seating for disabled supporters where others can't block their view a possibility? I understand there will be other disabled fans around the ground but it would be a start. Change might already be on the cards but it should be the priority. Introduction of safe standing in parts of Blundell Park would be a step in the right direction. Let those who want to stand do so. You never know, it might encourage a bit of atmosphere.

I'm in the Upper and, depending on the performance and the score, the last five to ten minutes see that group of fans who "want to beat the traffic" or "are sick of this and want to show their contempt" stand near the top of the stairs blocking the view of those in the first few rows of seats. The stewards do nothing. Some fans head down the steps near us and then stop because Town are suddenly on the attack again. We can see nothing but the two or three stewards nearby just ignore them. This happens in every stand as far as I can tell. Just bloody move them on. If you want to leave early, off you pop and don't cause an obstruction. You can't have it both ways.

There's a game tonight. Another rearranged one after the previous soggy encounter against Carlisle United. Unfortunately I can't attend but I'll be there in spirit.

UTM!