Cod Almighty | Diary

Dream on Daisy

31 May 2016

One criticism sometimes levelled at the Grimsby Telegraph by Town supporters – including, at times, members of the Cod Almighty team – is that it can be over-cautious and unwilling to pursue stories that might upset the powers that be at Blundell Park. Let it be noted, then, that the Telewag has seemingly shown no hesitation in running with the news that high-profile Mariners fan Andrew Newman made his fortune as a ticket tout. True, there is no mention of Grimsby Town Football Club asking The Fishy website to remove from its popular messageboard a discussion about the nature of Newman's business. But let's give credit where it's due: this story was clearly run in the full knowledge that feathers would be ruffled.

Let's give some credit to Rob Sedgwick too. It can't be easy running the Fishy, and Rob has taken some stick for complying with the club's scandalous demand to close down a legitimate discussion on a third-party website. Since then, however, he has more or less admitted that he dropped a bollock with that. He has not repeated the mistake, allowing a new thread on the same subject to stand.

By far the greater blame lies with the club, which still seems to operate on the prehistoric, authoritarian basis that when someone says something you don't like, rather than win support for your position through dialogue and reasoning, you should just use your power to make everyone stop talking. Memo to the GTFC boardroom: the world stopped working like that years ago.

So while the Mariners have finally turned it round on the pitch, there's no sign of any progress in Blundell Park's corridors of power. This latest debacle is just another result of the same mindset that has resulted in many other public relations catastrophes over the past few years – from outright lies to supporters on the club's official website about a player's contract, and attempts to cover its tracks by deleting content, to John Fenty's serial humiliations at Radio Humberside and Ofcom. And until the club wises up, we can only live in fear of the next one.

Back to giving credit where it's due, though, and your original/regular Diary is cheered to note that GTFC may give captain and promotion hero Craig Disley some assistance in getting into coaching. Speaking to the Telegraph after extending his contract for a further year, The Diz said: "I had a chat with the gaffer the other day and he said there may be an opportunity for the club to help me down that road." It's unclear whether that help would be financial or logistical in nature – but either way it's better than a few years ago, when another club hero, Sir John McDermott, was seemingly regarded by the club as a boil that needed to be lanced. So well done for the improvement since then, Town.

If you're looking for further pleasant reading, I'll leave you with two links. Good Town-related stuff appeared over at World Soccer last week, where legendary football writer Brian Glanville welcomed the Mariners back to the Football League with an anecdote about Charlie Spencer (and issued a resounding body-slam to the disastrous, Fenty-endorsed proposal for B-teams in the Football League).

Finally, make sure you didn't miss the lovely piece about Cleethorpes that appeared in The Guardian at the weekend. It's about time some wider acknowledgement were made of how much nicer Meggies has become in the last few years – and it's great to see Charles Lumley at the fantastic craft beer-off Message in a Bottle get a mention and quote. Mine's a Magic Rock Cannonball, if you're getting them in. Cheers.