Cod Almighty | Diary

Behind closed doors

21 December 2022

The good news is that yesterday Grimsby beat Scunthorpe 3-0, and so progress to the semi-finals of the Lincolnshire Cup. But it is a sad reflection on the state of the Iron and the status of the so-called Senior Cup that, to keep costs down, the tie was settled behind closed doors between two under-18 teams. Our Victorian ancestors would be aghast.

Supposing that we have seen the last of Jordan Maguire-Drew in a Town shirt, he will have left one indelible moment in our hearts and our memories: the full-stretch prod a yard from goal that sent the ball into the roof of the net and Grimsby back into the Football League. As Humphrey Bogart so nearly said, we'll always have Solihull.

It is one of the pleasures of the game that sometimes the hour takes hold of the most unlikely heroes. We might easily have been in a position as desperate as Scunthorpe's if in 2016 at Braintree Marcus Marshall had not almost absent-mindedly beaten two men, eventually leading to the penalty from which Pádraig Amond levelled the play-off semi-final. Middle-Aged Diary's fondest memory of Tony Gallimore is of him ruefully accepting the congratulations of a team-mate after his hesitant run and dribbling cross had set up an equaliser against Watford. He'd been having a difficult season but that goal sparked a relegation escape.

I hope you'll share your own favourite instances of brief turns in the limelight. Our postbag editor is indisposed while he settles into a new home and a new job, but your emails are being monitored and, in the absence of a more ethical alternative where Town fans would find us, there is still Twitter.

I'll delve into history for a couple more and then leave you to it. Rob McIlveen is no doubt preparing to tell the story of Wally Ponting, who made just fourteen first team appearances and scored three goals for Town between 1930 and 1936. One of those goals sealed the Division Two championship. Five years earlier, Norman Wright, a fitfully effective reserve outside left, laid on the two goals that won promotion to the top flight at Notts County, sending a huge away following into raptures.

Bye.