Cod Almighty | Postbag

Postbag: with added letters

4 December 2011

Matches from the distant, not-so-distant and very recent past are the theme for this postbag. That and our treatment of the Mariners Trust.

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When Town lost to a keeper's clearance

Can any historians help my memory about a match played, I think, in the late 50s? I believe Town played a friendly at home to Dynamo Prague and, on a very windy night, the goalie scored from a kick out of his box.

Cheers

from Ken Wright

Letters Ed responds: The incident is described on page 29 of Grimsby Town: a complete record by Les Triggs, David Hepton and Sid Woodhead (Breedon Books 1989): "One highlight of the season [1958-59] was the visit of Prague Dynamo for a friendly. No-one who was present will forget the mighty clearance by Doeljst in the Prague goal. The ball soared the length of the field, landed in front of the advancing Malcolm White in the Grimsby goal and bounced over his head into the empty net". This was the only goal

More memories of Plough Lane

I went down to Wimbledon with mates - armed with Harry Haddocks - and as we approached the ground I got very excited as I noticed in the next car Gerry Sinstadt, at the time a revered BBC commentator. He started gesticulating to us, our driver wound down the window and Gerry said: "Are you going to the match." We said 'yes' to which he replied: "Well follow me in lads, cos I'm off there as well." What a fine man!

Fantastic memories and when Keith put us 1-0 up everyone somehow knew it was never going to be enough - the sense of 'storm brewing' at half time was palpable; we sort of knew the Wimbledon 'steamroller' would do its stuff in the Second half. This cup run was part of a lengthy period of gradual improvement; Buckley, God that he is, took some time to turn the juggernaut round through strong self-belief, strong principles and a mixture of youth/experience and excellent forays into the transfer market.

I think the parallels with S&H are uncanny - but instead of one bloody-minded non-league boss coming to GTFC we have two. I think they will sort this mess out and have already started that process.

from Nigel Devereux

Wallowing in bad news?

Hi

Tony Butcher does a great job. He keeps me alive, over here in rainy Spain. Yet I can't help but be confused by recent events. Two consecutive victories, and no reports by anyone. I hate to point to consipracy theory, but can we only read about disasters? I'd love to know what our scribes thought about the 7-0 job, at the very least.

The web page is wonderful, and you do a great job. But very disappointing to have no reports on the last two games.

Best

from Phil Ball

Letters Ed responds: Sorry we haven't been able to cover our recent matches. Tony was not at the Kettering match, and work and trade union commitments do not allow him the time to report on midweek games, especially on the eve of a public sector strike. We are always keen to hear from people who can fill in when Tony is not there, so if anyone wants to try their hand at writing a report, do get in touch: a deep knowledge of prog rock is not compulsory. We do have some feedback from one of the missing matches, t

More from the man of faith

Hi,

Forewarned is fore armed as they say. Thanks to Cod Almighty, we knew Grimsby would be crap , but I think they took being crap to a whole new level against Newport. What did we do sat in the Upper Findus for the first 75 minutes? We watched the ships sailing up and down, plus the odd sea gull doing aerobatics. Much more interesting than Grimsby's dire attempts at football.

Many a new supporter would have packed them in. Not us. We went back for more! We're made of sterner stuff! Next stop the Port Vale replay, and Grimsby were great! A good game and a great night out.

They may not be the best in the world, but we will support them no matter what. They are our team and we love them. Rather be a season ticket holder at Grimsby Town than a season ticket holder at a premier league club. Overpaid, huge egos to match and the ruin of English football, that's the premier league!

Up the mariners!

from Richard Satterley

Too hard on the Trust

Morning,

Just a quick one to say that the Diary of Thursday 1 December 2011 was rubbish. If it was meant to be amusing, it failed. If it was meant to be helpful to the Trust, it failed. If it was meant to helpful to GTFC or anyone connected with GTFC, it failed. Not sure what the point of it was at all. A few cheap shots at people trying to do something constructive to secure the future of the club and a series of unfunny references to an old woman were all I could make out. Please try and stick to what you are good at in future.

Got any Newell t-shirts left?

UTM

from Charles Lumley

Letters Ed responds: Guest Diary responds: And good day to you too Charles! The Diary that made you so heart-pumpingly cross was, as I mentioned, in homage to the late, rather great, Dave Peasgood who wrote the Fred and Bert columns. As for my Mum, well she does exist, is a Town fan, and that is more or less word-for-word what she had to say. The elderly don't get much of a say in the modern football world and there's an awful lot of 'fans' like her who never go, never have gone but never fail to

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