We go again... and again

by Steve Bierley

5 August 2015

"We are all born mad. Some remain so." Sam Beckett probably did not have Grimsby Town supporters in mind when he penned this but, fellow mad men, welcome to another season in the Conference asylum. And please, oh please, make it the last.

And it will be. Surely. The riptide of confidence that has surged through the club post-Wembley play-off must carry us back pell mell into the League because, dear loony friends, if it fails to do so then I am not sure we will ever return. For once, wouldn't it be just wonderful to have too much of a good thing?

There were times last season when despair took a throttling grip. With no outstanding team in the division, it was there for the taking. Yet a typically faltering start saw us 13th after ten matches – and for all the talk of fortress Blundell Park, it ended up the Alamo once again, with seven home defeats. Had we won any three of those, we would have gone up automatically.

This time it will be different. We have a system, and will not be enslaved by those negative tactics of others. Attack, attack, and let Hursty cry from atop the Dock Tower that no team shall bring us down, or despoil our right to be top of the heap. Let's give them all a good thegging from Aldershot to Woking. We are the mighty Mariners, and let nobody forget it.

And what a pre-season! Even Paul H could not remember another one like it – the poor man sounded almost disappointed (it's being miserable what keeps him cheerful). He is never going to be a second Lawrie McMenemy, but he has gone about his business seemingly shrewdly. The attitude of the players is good, and the team as a whole should be better than last season.

The pressure has never really been on Hurst since his split with Scott. Now it will be, because expectations have increased so dramatically

It will need to be. Town certainly improved in the second half, and yet still only managed 46 points from their last 23 games. This time we need to get away fast, and then accelerate accordingly. To me the squad still appears a little thin. Only one left-back, a lack of pace in central midfield, and already worries over the fitness of Pittman and Bogle. All the early confidence could easily be pricked. It is paramount we impose ourselves on this wretched division from the off.

The pressure has never really been on Hurst since his split with Scott. Now it will be, the more so because expectations have increased so dramatically. Town fans have been exceptional. Now, and rightly so, they will demand a return both for the money raised and the unstinting support. This season Hurst and his team need to be bad losers, because good losers lose too often, and we have never won a truly big match (the FA Trophy final and the various play-offs) under Hurst/Doig or Hurst/Scott.

I will not dwell on Mr Fenty. Suffice it to say that if I was a member of the Mariners Trust, I would be spending the majority of my time writing or talking to anybody who might bring money into the club to replace him (as, he has often said, he would be happy to see that happen). We have achieved nothing during his tenure. We are not a big club: we are a non-League club. And that is failure.

My dark Grimbarian thoughts for this new beginning are, I'm afraid, much the same as they were when Hurst was tinkering away through last season. One can only hope he has learned from his mistakes, and that he will let the strengths of his own team dictate his strategy, and not the other way round. Let him have the courage to act, and not react.

Above all let him be a lucky manager.

Up the mad men. Up the mighty Mariners.