Cod Almighty | Diary
And all the world is football-shaped
16 January 2023
Miss Guest Diary writes: Swindon. I think, but I wouldn't swear, that Saturday was my eleventh visit to the County Ground since I started supporting Town. I have seen us win there only twice. Both games ended 1-0, the first in 2000 care of a Lee Ashcroft goal against a very poor Swindon side, and the second the infamous 'non-penalty' game in 2018 where we were awarded a spot kick after Harry Cardwell tripped over his own feet.
Saturday's 5-0 loss came nowhere near being my worst experience there – in fact, it was relatively painless by comparison. My worst experience was definitely the 3-2 defeat in 1994, referred to by BOTB Diary last week, where Town were winning 2-1 on 90 minutes but managed to lose 3-2 due to some egregious diving by Jan Age Fjortoft. It caused me to stand up and hurl some very unladylike words at Fjortoft, while Mr Butcher traumatised a small boy by furiously flinging open a toilet door in frustration.
It's never nice when your team suffers a heavy defeat but, to put yesterday in perspective, Rich Lord helpfully Tweeted a list of nine other 5-0 defeats away from home in the last 35 years. Three of these games pre-date my introduction to Town but I was present for four of the others and, again, Saturday's experience pales in comparison with the 5-0 drubbing at Crewe in 2017, where all five goals came in the first half an hour. Or even the Lincoln game in 2006 where Russell Slade gave his half-time team talk, complete with flipchart, on the pitch.
I am not trying to claim a medal here for the worst Town experiences; I think what I'm trying to say is that everything is relative. Yes, all of those losses – and even much narrower defeats – will have been painful at the time, but none has actually caused the club to go out of business or even, for the most part, to be relegated. As Paul Hurst said in his post-match interview, Saturday's game won't define Town's season. The club and the team go on and our hope is that they will try harder, do better and succeed in the next game.
If we truly are, as many claim to be, "Grimsby till I die" there can be no excuse for abusing the players, management or owners when Town lose a game. Sorry I went a bit preachy there, but I am genuinely appalled at some of the guff you can hear from so-called fans during games or read on social media afterwards. But I was both puzzled and amused on Saturday by the shout "Grimsby are the Millwall of the North". I have no idea what the shouter might have meant but was grateful for the laugh it gave me at the time.
The other stick with which the Town management are currently being beaten by some fans is the lack of signings in the January transfer window. Which makes it doubly unfortunate that the surprise arrival of 18-year old Mikey O'Neill on loan from Preston until the end of the season was rather overshadowed by the on-pitch events. With the change of formation following the sending off, it was difficult to assess him properly, but he had a few good touches and some neat passes and, a welcome change from our usual midfielders, he is quite tall. Let's hope he can show his worth at the weekend, though if he's been on the #gtfc hashtag on Twitter he might just have asked his parent club for a recall.
Oh for the days before the internet when Town news was a couple of paragraphs on teletext and a week-old copy of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph posted to us by a mate's dad. Maybe some of these brave keyboard warriors – often hiding behind anonymous accounts – who seem to believe they could do a much better job than the professionals at the club should get themselves down to Blundell Park for the fans' forum on 27th January and pose their questions in person.