Cod Almighty | Diary

Say it loud

22 March 2023

What's the frequency, Kenneth? Infrequent Diary here again to vary the frequency of my infrequency. I kept an eye on the scores last night and wondered why I did. Even winning our games in hand we would still be five points off the last play-off spot. On the other hand we're 14 points off the relegation places. I have no doubt that this team will still scrap for every available point because that's what we've become.

Tonight at Mansfield is the first of those games in hand. To be honest the result is now irrelevant, to the Mariners at least. For us it's the start of the longest end of season party on record, a chance for both fans and players to bathe in mutual admiration. It is well deserved.

It's all still a bit FA Cuppish isn't it? Through this glorious cup run and last year's play-off campaign the club has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of a funeral pyre built over 20 years by that man we wish to forget. I shouldn't keep harping on about the Fenty years but when I see what we have achieved in such a short time with proper stewardship, I could weep for the lost years.

Yes, 1878 have made the occasional minor error but their ethos is that the club is part of the community, and as such its successes reflect on the community, the town and its people. Oh those wonderful people, the real lifeblood of our towns. How they have supported, as though a love that was once unrequited has been rekindled, if that makes sense. It does to me. This deep feeling inside every Grimbarian and Meggie, I'm sorry I don't know what the word is, but there is this sudden urge to wear the black and white and to cry out Up the Mariners, to tell one and all that they support Grimsby Town.

The players deserve all the plaudits they receive; Paul Hurst can cup his ears whenever he wants, he is rapidly approaching Buckley status; and 1878 deserve our thanks for turning our club around and giving back to the community a club they can be proud of. But the real heroes are us, the fans who have lived through these torrid times and emerged from the other side with our chests swelling with pride. We may have lost a football match at Brighton on Sunday but in every other way we were huge winners and it felt brilliant.