Cod Almighty | Diary

Thanks for bearing with me

6 January 2023

It remains Middle-Aged Diary's favourite FA Cup third round saga, and I doubt anything will ever happen to dislodge it.

It was 7 January 1989. Town were away at top-flight Middlesbrough. Our revival under Alan Buckley had reached a position where we were formidable at home - the earlier wins over Wolverhampton and Rotherham had not been completely unexpected - but we rarely took anything from games away.

I was living in Lambeth at the time, scarcely earning a living, so getting to games other than in the South East was impossible. My flat mates humoured me in having the radio on in the front room. Just before half-time, it reported that Bernie Slaven had scored for Boro. There was some joshing of Duncan McKenzie. The Grimbarian was one of their match summarisers and had apparently predicted earlier in the show that Grimsby would reach the semi-finals.

The afternoon went on. No more news. It sounded like defeat with honour. Then Marc North equalised, and then he scored again. There are dozens of matches where I wish I could say "I was there". That 2-1 win at Ayresome Park is high on the list, but being in the front room of a council flat in South London was pretty good as well.

In the fourth round we went on to beat Reading and then it really was defeat with honour at the cup-holders Wimbledon. Taken literally, McKenzie was wrong. Figuratively, he was bang on the money. After some dark years, it was becoming possible to wholeheartedly take pride in being a Mariner again. That is what a run in the cup can do. Could do.

Next year, we might draw Man United in the third round, and beat them. It would make headlines but they would be undercut by talk of how many players they rested, how the big clubs don't take it seriously anymore. In the 1980s, the football world stopped for the third round. It was a gala, and if you weren't in it you felt small. If you were in it, and you won in it, you felt that anything was possible.

If we can beat Burton tomorrow I'll still feel like that. It's a nostalgic habit that I'm glad to have. No doubt younger fans get their sense of our impending triumph from other things. There is something right with a world where we did not cut Sean Scannell adrift and one day we will get our reward.

Bye.