Cod Almighty | Diary

Bung a flake in it, while you're at it

30 November 2022

We were one ball from getting Liverpool away in the FA Cup third round. One ball! And who should steal that fixture from us? Why, none other than our old adversaries in the same competition from 1939! Those pesky Wolves will travel to Anfield while we play host to Burton.

Your West Yorkshire Diary knows it's pure luck, but it feels like such a waste when first division clubs play each other this early in the cup. Liverpool, Wolves, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd and Everton are all occupying each other when any one of the lower league clubs still left in the competition would've been delighted to have been paired with them. They don't want us playing them in the league, and now we can’t even play them in the cup. This is an exclusive shop for exclusive people!

A few years ago, purely by chance while enjoying a weekend break, I stumbled upon Stuart Roy Clarke's Homes of Football exhibition in Ambleside (now a semi-permanent fixture at the National Football Museum in Manchester). From there, my fascination with old grounds grew.

What I adore the most, and which Stuart captured perfectly in his photography, is their idiosyncrasies. Many grounds began as little more than a pitch you'd find in a local park. Grandstands were added, then terracing. Areas were joined together; others were developed in isolation. There was no long-term strategy on how it would all knit together. They developed when the money was available. They worked with their surroundings, which gave rise to odd shapes and unique quirks. It was a simpler time that reflected a culture of people making the best of what they had available to them. Grounds were, quite literally, shaped by their communities, built by their communities and, therefore, belonged to their communities.

These days, community stadiums are ten a penny but somehow that sense of ownership doesn’t prevail. Purpose-built tin sheds with the club's initials spelt out on seats doesn't cut it. Every time a Shrewsbury or Colchester moves into one of these stadiums it makes me even more protective of Blundell Park.

Having watched a few world cup matches over the past ten days, I couldn't tell you what sets one Qatari stadium apart from the other seven. I'm sure the players and management staff enjoy the comforts they provide, and I'm sure the superficial fans will say these pristine pitches encourage better football, but I'm not fussed about quality. I care more for drama, and that can happen in ramshackle grounds on churned-up pitches anywhere in the world. Bring back the goalmouth humps!

News is thin on the ground today. You’ll find lots of recycled quotes from interviews given earlier in the week, including Jason Stockwood's take on lifting the 3pm blackout (he's all for it), and we’re still a day short of media conferences ahead of this weekend's trip to AFC Wimbledon. The trajectories of both clubs since the turn of the century have been wild (the Dons' more so) but on Saturday we meet in the middle of the fourth division, just as we did when we first made our acquaintances in the late 1970s.

This will be the first Football League meeting between the two sides in almost 20 years. Hands up if you attended the last fixture, at Selhurst Park, where Town drew 3-3 in front of a pizza trophy-like crowd.

We met, of course, more recently in non-League, like ships passing in the night. The Dons were surging back to where they were before they had their place in the Football League stolen from them, whereas we’d lost our place in the Football League by being utterly shit for years.

The Dons have won four and drawn two of their last six league games, although they were knocked out of the FA Cup at home by Chesterfield on Saturday. I think it's safe to say the Mariners are much better on the road this season than they are at our charmingly idiosyncratic Cleethorpes-based ground, so this should be a good contest.