Cod Almighty | Diary

North v South

14 March 2023

20 April 1929 is, still, one of the red-letter dates in the Mariners' history, the day we won promotion to the top flight at Notts County. Everyone who could raise the money and take the time off work went to Nottingham to see it. That left the hard core, toiling on the Pontoon in the morning then cycling across to stand in the Pontoon and watch Grimsby reserves that afternoon. Midland League fixtures weren't just ways of giving fringe players some game time: they were full-blooded affairs usually played in front of a four-figure crowd. That day, the gate was a bit down.

Middle-Aged Diary likes to think of them that night, when the Notts day-trippers returned. Of course, they were glad to hear their tales, a bit frustrated at the emphasis on the partying that they had missed when what they really wanted to know was how the outside left had played. Then, after listening for a while, they'd work in, "Good game at Blundell Park today as well. That Welsh lad, Glover, he's going to be some player in a year or two." Forever after they must have boasted that the day Town went up they were watching the second string, like proper fans.

There'll be proper fans at Sutton tonight. My guess is that the away following will be well mixed with exiles, people who'll have found a quarter-final ticket impossible to come by. Quite how many fringe players will be in the side we don't yet know but they'll want to make a good impression, and it'll give the fans who are there bragging rights if they can pull off a result.

And what a perfect symmetry it should be at Sutton. You can't boil down our FA Cup run of 1988-89 to one match, but the peak performance was surely winning at top-flight Middlesbrough. Our goals were scored by the substitute, Marc North. It should have been his 20 minutes of fame, the clips of his goals endlessly replayed, interviews splashed across screen and print, but Sutton stole his spotlight.

As we were beating Boro the then non-League side were overcoming Coventry who two years before had won the FA Cup. After that, no one outside Humberside and Teesside much cared what had happened at Ayresome Park. North went on to have a decent two seasons at Leicester City, retired early and then died far too young, just 35 years old. If it hadn't been for Sutton he might have been, if not quite a household name, at least one instantly remembered.

So the message for whatever team we put out tonight is clear: do it for yourselves, do it for the fans who won't be there to see you do it on Sunday, and do it for Marc North.