Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 20 December 2012

20 December 2012

Typical Grimsby. Every time they go top of the league, it's always just before the end of the world.

Hello and welcome to Thursday with your original/regular Diary, still slightly raddled after all these years. There's an air of giddiness around the GTFC community just now, what with black and white Santa suits in the offing and away tickets for the sold-out Boxing Day fixture at Lincoln rumoured to be changing hands for £60 at a time.

Bank holiday derbies, of course, are one of the several oft-overlooked silver linings of non-League status. Back in the fourth division our Boxing Days were notable only for trips to Accrington and Macclesfield. Ticket prices are another. We largely consider ourselves hard done by to be paying 16 quid for a seat at Blundell Park. But if Town were still top of the second flight, we'd be halfway towards that black market figure for a Lincoln ticket. And that truly would be the end of the world.

Though it's always good to witness a bigger crowd and a bit of atmosphere at BP, I really can't buy into the way some Town fans are trying to turn Town v Lincoln into a hate-fest. It isn't. History certainly warrants the Imps a greater claim to our attention than the relative noobs of King$ton Communication$ FC and Plucky Scunny. But historically there's no real loathing in this fixture. What we're hearing now is the sound of people trying too hard to conform to the template of the Modern Football Supporter. "Linscum"? Really? Take a long look at yourself.

It's not offensive, no. Whether it's desperately lame wordplay, or people in glass houses throwing misspelt allegations of inbreeding, it's anything but offensive. Like Roy 'Chubby' Brown, it's not offensive: it's just boring. Take Me Out, now that's offensive.

Staying with our ten-fingered cousins down the road as we dip into the Diary's inbox, we have an email from John Pakey of the Lincolnshire Echo. "You guys get a mention in part of our pre-match coverage in tomorrow's Echo," writes John, quoting from the paper: "The managerial partnership of Paul Hurst and Rob Scott, aka Shorty and Shouty according to the Mariners' web fanzine www.codalighty.com, are doing a tremendous job at Blundell Park." Thanks, John - nice to know, and good to get the credit for coining the name, what with FourFourTwo having nicked it and everything. Do you still have time to correct that URL before you go to print?

Next up, this from Graham King, who has sent the Diary an image from what he describes as "the worst advent calendar ever".

"My Dutch friends here in New York found it most amusing as they were expecting Marco van Basten under the tab for Tuesday 11 December. Imagine their disappointment!" chuckles Graham, adding: "Happy Christmas to the Cod Almighty team - keep up the great work!" Thanks mate - have a good one yourself, and don't have nightmares about Menno Willems' tongue piercings.

Before we renew acquaintances with Lincoln, lest ye forget, there's the much bigger deal of a promotion six-pointer against Wrexham. If the two best football teams in last season's Conference Premier had gone up, the north Walians would now have been doing their thing with York back in the Football League. But there you go: life's unfair and it's not a perfect world. I'd have much preferred to have seen Town play Wrexham than Lincoln, but I can't because it's been moved to a Friday night. Give my love to the last train out of town.

One significant feature of Wrexham's visit to BP is that it'll be the last game in the loan spells of Ross Hannah and Scott Neilson. Shorty and Shouty™ are, of course, working their magic to secure the influential duo on permanent contracts. But even if this comes to pass, neither player will be eligible to appear for Town again until the new year. The management have clearly had one eye on the small print of the transfer regulations and another on the Mayan calendar, as the official line is that Hannah's and Neilson's departures "won't be the end of the world". Still, if the worst happens and the doom-mongers are right, at least there's somewhere else for us to go and live now.