Cod Almighty | Diary

Matchday, play acting and being a decent person.

18 April 2023

We have a home game tonight. That seems like a good place to start. I'm hoping for a repeat of the second half from Saturday, not the first. It felt like all of a sudden we had our mojo back. Whatever Hurst said at the break, added to his substitutions and we looked like a completely different team. I have to admit that by half time I was wondering why I had bothered driving over. Mansfield were really nothing special and we just let them get on with it. The transformation in the second half got the crowd going and it felt like a different match. Funny old game.

One of my pet peeves is the amount of time that teams spend time wasting. It's always happened but the added complexity of halting the game for any head injury means that it's become just another way to stop the opposition from attacking on the break. I don't know what the answer is because I think paying more heed to head injuries is the right way to go, but it's just being abused. I wonder if every match should have an independent medic who has to assess the player thoroughly off the pitch whilst the game goes on. A temporary sub could cover for them but players might stop feigning head injuries if they knew they would miss five or more minutes after the game restarted. Wouldn't work though would it, it would still be abused. Time wasting isn't new though as this article confirms. Spoiler alert, there are no solutions suggested here either.

One of the things that Town do really well is involvement with the community. The players really seem to engage, especially with the youngsters who stand at the edge of the pitch watching them warm up. Players often pop over for a chat and a selfie and leave behind little 'Mariners for life' who will remember those moments for ever. Even more so with those lucky enough to be mascots. Both my boys have done it and the players and staff went out of their way to look after them and make their day extra special. Contrast that with the little girl who was mascot at Arsenal, asking for autographs on a shirt. I'm sure there was more to her day but none of the players engaged with her; they mostly didn't even speak but just signed it and walked away. Maybe they are so important that they don't do basic human interaction. It really contrasted with how it is with our club. Let's cherish what we have.

Have you noticed that now Town are pretty much settled into a mid-table finish with no chance of major excitement, silly season has broken out on social media? Not that it isn't silly season every day of the year with some accounts. I know sometimes Grimsby and Cleethorpes can feel like a big village with people knowing each other but I’m amazed how people peddle their rumours as "fact straight from someone at the club". If we were to believe all of the rubbish then those who actually work at the club could hardly have five minutes downtime, the amount of time they spend gossiping. The wildest speculations or most unpleasant accounts are usually anonymous. Wouldn't the world be a better place if they had to put their name to their musings?

Anyway, if we haven't signed Erling Haarland, broken ground on a new stadium and are running the hospitality and office completely with AI robots by the start of August, the club will have completely failed and I'll be very disappointed. Only kidding on the last one by the way; we're lucky to have some very decent people behind the scenes!

UTM!