Cod Almighty | Diary

Expressive silence and thoughtless noise

4 February 2026

Back in the day, Neil Woods gave pathos to the years of John Fenty and Mike Newell. He might have been a character in a Chekhov play, the one who maintains his dignity and hope as around him a slow tragedy unfurls.

Not that last night’s youth team defeat by Luton was a tragedy: defeat by a single goal in a close-fought game. But afterwards, Neil Woods – his accent one part Yorkshire, one part Alan Buckley and now wholly Grimbarian – in his interview confirmed that while his charges lacked nothing in effort, their opponents shaded the tie.

You could tell as much from our social media account, which likes to accentuate the positive. When Town are playing badly, a quarter of an hour can go by without an update, broken by the terse statement that our opponents have scored. Last night wasn't that bad, but it never read as though we were creating more than half-chances.

No such problem on Sunday afternoon. Every time Newbegin Diary updated the feed, it brought news of another near miss as Grimsby Town Women tried to extend their lead in a top-of-the-table clash with Dronfield. When you don't actually know what is going on, you fall back on the superstition which some pundits pass off as "expert" analysis. We might regret not taking these chances, I cliched, and sure enough, Dronfield equalised the first time an attack of theirs was mentioned.

Not knowing what's going on also gives the game a random excitement: pressing refresh is like watching a roulette wheel. In the next few minutes, Grimsby had a goal disallowed, a player sin-binned and scored from a penalty. After that, the feed died, and only later was it confirmed that we had won 2-1.

That "we" rolled unconsciously from my keyboard, even though I am yet to watch Grimsby Town Women play. I must make good that omission.

One hopes that by now, with a female CEO and a female club secretary, we would all know that our sex has nothing to do with the ability to judge a game of football. But did the chant "You're not fit to referee" come too readily last Saturday?

The penalty decision was shocking, to us. Replayed on Match of the Day, I suspect Alan Shearer would have opined "There's a definite touch... He had every right to go down." After that, it was a rip-roaring game, aided by Kirsty Dowle's ability to let the game flow.

Like our social media account manager, we see and hear what confirms our biases. I was surprised to read someone suggest that at the weekend we were outsung by our opponents' followers. Now admittedly they could bring about world peace and prosperity and I'd still not give them credit, but I was struck by how muted they were, and how animated the Pontoon.

I personally didn't hear anything which was explicitly sexist, but I'm glad the club have called it out, though I'd expect nothing less. When, not if, a decision is made next Wednesday which we dislike, let's make sure that when we express our displeasure we play the ball, not the person.