Cod Almighty | Postbag
Talk about it and they might come
7 March 2015
This postbag is something of a new stadium special, but first, another venerable North East Lincolnshire institution...
The heir of the Croft-Bakers
I know Richard Croft-Baker who is, I think, the grandson (or maybe great-grandson) of the founder of the revered maternity home in Grimsby. Has he contacted you perhaps? I will forward your fanzine to him.
It made me laugh and I'm not from Grimsby!
from Bet Edwards
Where is the evidence for Fenty's Folly?
When I worked at the Royal Berkshire Hospital one of the most important hoops through which we had to jump was that all decisions whether clinical, managerial or site affected had to be based on evidence before they were proposed let alone implemented. I went on courses. They were called FEWs [Find the Evidence Workshops]. As a management tool they were very effective.
What I would like to know is where is the evidence that a new stadium is just what GTFC needs to be successful. Has anyone seen any evidence at all that such a decision is justified beyond a shadow of doubt or is it just self glorification on the part of our leader?
When the Willows project hit the wall at top speed I have to say it was with a sigh of relief that I thought thank God we don't have to think about this load of old tut again and we can get down to the business of creating a team that can play football to a standard of maybe holding its own in the second tier of English football at the very least. Yet here we are stuck in the Conference and our leader pushing yet again for a new stadium on Peaks Parkway.
We need to put our efforts in getting promotion. We need a new stadium like an attack of piles of gothic proportion.
Up the Mariners
from Felix Oliver-Tasker
Letters Ed responds: Part of the case for the stadium of course rests on the potential impetus to the local economy from renewable energy. This has led the Ukip parliamentary candidate to come up with a truly apocalyptic scenario...
What will happen when the renewable energy runs out?
Easy. I will vote Ukip.
from Phil Watson
Cash flows based on predicting Town attendances?
What I don't get about the whole new stadium thing is simply this – who is going to go there to watch football matches, pay for tickets and er... pay for it? I'm too lazy to read the FAQ or indeed look for it (it does exist right?) so maybe you could précis it? How do the Town gates jump from a few thousand to ten thousand say? I can't imagine the case for building a new stadium is based around it being either small and full or large and empty so what's happening? If we needed a bigger ground then surely Blundell Park would be jammed each week? Hmmm.
Also, who holds the debt? Is it the club or John Fenty? If John leaves does he take his stadium and lease it back? If it goes bad, gates stay low and we get in more debt, whose fault is that?
I'm confused.
from Rich Mills
Letters Ed responds: Of course, attendances for Grimsby matches are subject to variables that no-one born more than 25 miles from the Dock Tower is likely to understand...
The higher division, lower attendance paradox
Many thanks to Middle-Aged Diary for reminding us of Port Vale in 1994. It is truly remarkable that more fans saw non-League Town grind it out against Braintree last weekend than watched a wonderful Alan Buckley side with an outside chance of promotion to the Premier League. I am lucky enough to have been in the Pontoon for both games.
These days we're inured to the bleakness, but in the Britpop era I felt Buckley's pain. The home game against Charlton three days earlier had yielded Town's first sub-4,000 attendance for some years. My blood ran cold when I saw the figure. When the gate lurched to 3,200 for the Vale match I felt sick.
(Not quite as succinct as the Steve Bierley quote from the Guardian, but I also alluded to Grimsby's 'higher division, lower attendance' paradox in a piece for The Two Unfortunates a year or two ago.)
As tends to be the way, the absent masses missed a treat against Vale. Gilbert's second, a brilliant curling free kick from the edge of the box, got me so excited that I half-dropped, half-flung my cup of tea in celebration. My brothers were standing either side of me. Most of it seemed to end up on them. I like to think they understood.
from Pete Green
Letters Ed responds: Given the relative entertainment value of our recent matches at and away from Blundell Park, perhaps it would be better all round if we just agreed to play all our matches on the road...
The Braintree dirge
Tony B summed this game up brilliantly.
I was on duty and took numerous phone calls from ships on the Humber. Why the hell did I put myself through this boring dirge? I could have saved £16 and looked at my laptop all afternoon.
On reflection stay at home next time I'm on call and it's blowing a bloody gale.
from Martin Robinson
Letters Ed responds: Finally, a Town fan but Bradford local has had headaches all week trying to arrange local league fixtures when everyone wants to be at Valley Parade. But he still found time to reminisce about an earlier Bradford cup tie with a particular resonance for the Mariners...
When Bobby met Lawrie
This weekend’s FA Cup quarter final in Bradford is City’s biggest FA Cup tie since another quarter final in 1976, when they lost to eventual Cup winners Southampton. That tie had a particular interest for me, a Town fan living in Bradford, as it brought together Lawrie McMenemy and the man he replaced at Blundell Park, Bobby Kennedy who then managed Bradford.
We had had early notice that Bobby was going to join Town in the London Evening Standard but his move from Manchester City did not take place until a couple of months later, for a transfer fee of £10,000. It was Bobby who made use of our one time junior players like Dave Boylen and Harry Wainman and players signed prior to his appointment like Graham Rathbone, Stuart Brace and Mike Hickman. Players added by Bobby included Clive Wiggington, Jack Lewis and Alan Woodward with Dave Worthington and Stuart Gray appearing on the scene. The club had been strapped for cash for years and quality players such as Doug Collins, Matt Tees, Brian Hill, keeper Charlie Wright and Rod Green all left the club in the mid-sixties. Then we had the coup de grace. Matt Tees was re-signed from Luton Town and that was the final piece in the Bobby Kennedy jigsaw as his team ended the 70/71 season in 19th place but enjoyed a final run-in that produced 17 points from 11 games. (This was when there were only two points for a win of course.) The reward for such skilled management was the sack.
This is where Lawrie McMenemy came in. He had lost his job at Doncaster after being dismissed when his team were relegated. He came with a reputation as a good coach and motivator and there was no doubt this proved to be the case when the team were promoted as Division 4 champions in 1971/72. Ten of the eleven players in McMenemy’s first game were from the squad that played at the end of the previous season with Thomson a right half from Barrow taking over from Bobby Ross. The promising career of Alan Woodward was cut short after injury against Gillingham but I was fortunate to witness his superb display against Stockport earlier that season when we beat Stockport 4-1 and Alan bagged two goals. There were one or two unimaginative signings but then Lawrie bought Lew Chatterley and Alan Gauden who helped galvanise the Town to promotion.
Thus as a Grimbarian it was fascinating to see McMenemy, who had moved on to higher things at Southampton with trainer Jim Clunie, and Bobby Kennedy, who had inherited a team of seasoned professionals and a couple of youngsters , locking horns. Bobby managed once again to put together a team that earned him promotion the following season. There was the added bonus of being able to watch former Town keeper Ian Turner in the Southampton net. His permed locks flowed freely and his idiosyncrasy of rolling up the sleeves of his jersey always placed him apart from other keepers. The price of the tickets must have been high as seven thousand less tickets were sold for the quarter final than had watched the fourth round tie with Tooting and Mitcham.
The game itself was one in which City were denied any space with one shot of note. I am not sure how many people will recall the goal or remember seeing a video of it but the ball was flicked up by Peter Osgood and volleyed home by Jim McCalliog. Such a manoeuvre is illegal nowadays.
I do know that Lawrie McMenemy held Bobby Kennedy in high esteem, as he confirmed in an interview with Radio Humberside.
from Neville Butt
Thanks to everyone for your letters. Please send your correspondence using the feedback page.