Cod Almighty | Diary

Four days to go!

1 August 2023

Mr Target Demographic writes: I'm not sure about other Town fans, but since my trip to watch us play against Lincoln last week I've held a good amount of optimism about our upcoming season. Going as far as to tell my 'Premier League only' friends that Grimsby should be the first name on their acca this weekend. I keep trying to calm myself down, saying that it was only Lincoln, and they did play a weaker side. Combined with only a handful of wins in pre-season some may speculate my optimism is misplaced. However, from the 90 minutes I did see from us against Lincoln I was absolutely loving it!

I'm sure many reading this will have already seen Town play more than once, at least, therefore I'll just give you my hot takes on why I'm so optimistic! Conteh's decision making is a level above the fourth division: he didn't give the ball away once against Lincoln despite what I thought was a high press. Our overall passing of the football overall is three times better than it was last season. And Harvey Rodgers. That's it. I mean watch him, he's just incredible. Also Toby Mullarkey is a much better option than Efete on the right-hand side. I know Michee is a fan favourite for many, however since his performance away at Harrogate last season I couldn't help but crave for a better right-back.

You know my girlfriend is from Stockport and thus, since becoming intertwined with football, is a fan of The Hatters, which comes with its own positives and negatives. On the one hand in terms of league position, they’ve bested us two years in a row. However, if you look at the head-to-head matches, we completed the double over them last season! Winning against County when our run of form would have suggested we shouldn't have stood a chance. What makes this even sweeter is that IF Stockport had beaten us in both head-to-heads and added six points onto their tally from last season, they would have been promoted automatically. The temptation to break up with my girlfriend everyday just for being a Stockport fan is dampened by this fact, knowing a key element to why they aren't in the third division this season is Grimsby Town Football Club.

It's a similar feeling to how last year's play-off win vs Wrexham felt. It was amazing that we had reached the playoff final, but it was made all the sweeter by the fact that we stopped Wrexham and made them wait another year. Part of me wishes that I could enjoy Wrexham's success because it's nothing to do with the club or the fans, but when a club steals so much media attention away from not just your own club but other clubs as well it becomes hard to like them. I believe all the pundits and people having Wrexham to finish in the top three this year could be surprised. Stockport are a much better team than Wrexham were when we all played in non-league and, although they reached the play-off final, they still didn't go up.

It will be an interesting season for sure and I'm confident many Town fans will agree and say beating Stockport, Wrexham and Notts County is achievable. We've seen us do it before. And if a team can beat those three then what's to say we can't beat them all?

UTM