Cod Almighty | Diary

Que sera, sera

11 September 2023

Miss Guest Diary writes: Well it almost happened on Saturday – witnessing my first win at Valley Parade. Sadly it was not to be as Town couldn't quite see out the game after scoring just before half time. Lots of 'if onlys' in that one. If only Arthur Gnahoua's shot in the fourth minute hadn't been saved, or indeed his shot in the 72nd minute; if only the ref had been a bit more even-handed instead of booking two of our defenders in the first half hour; if only Mark Hughes hadn't brought on Gilliead to score their goal; if only Town could clone Toby Mullarkey.

Life is full of 'if onlys' but they are all pointless: it is what it is. A phrase in common use these days meant to signify resignation, and maybe a bit of frustration, with events that cannot be changed and must be accepted. Some Town fans obviously struggle to accept the realities of supporting a lower division football club with a limited budget and oblige the rest of us to witness their struggles on social media every time Town fail to win a game. These tend to go one of two ways: either questioning the manager's substitutions and tactics and calling for him to be sacked, or random suggestions for who Town could/should/must sign to replace members of the existing squad.

Despite only being seven games into the season there is already talk of "missing out on the play-offs" because we let a lead slip in our last two away games. Back in June when the doom mongers were predicting that Town would be lucky to get any points from their first few games I dipped my toe in the water and predicted that Town would beat Wrexham and have 14 points by mid-September. Well, they can't quite achieve that now – but if they do beat Wrexham next Saturday they will have 13 points.

When I read all the angst about league position and promotion I realise that I am simply not on the same wavelength as many Town fans. Maybe it's an age thing, or a gender thing, but I honestly don't mind which division Town play in as long as they win more games than they lose and play some entertaining football along the way. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that Town were promoted back into the league in their first season as I've had some great days out watching Town play in places like Woking and Altrincham and Halifax and was looking forward to visiting Dorking.

Or maybe it's because I'm from London and not a native of the area. I have had conversations with Retro Diary where he has tried to convince me that it is important that Town play in as high a division as possible because it says something about Grimsby to the wider world. I have never had the heart to tell him that when I first started dating Mr Butcher and told my family he was from the Grimsby area my sister asked me if that was near Newcastle and my mother asked me if he ate tripe and onions. A traumatic experience from being evacuated to Preston during the war, to which my response was "yeah, about as often as you and Dad eat boiled beef and carrots".

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, yes I was disappointed Town didn't manage to hang on for the win on Saturday but it didn't spoil my day. I got to see some friends, met three lovely Irish lads who had flown in from Dublin for the game and supported my team with over 1,700 like-minded folk, and that was enough.

UTM