Cod Almighty | Article

by Steve Bierley

2 October 2014

It was in September 2010 that I parked in an Altrincham side street and, for the first time in my life, watched Town play away from home in the Conference. At half time a fellow Grimbarian, then living in Stockport (and County's horrible decline should bring a shudder to all Mariners), shook his head and bemoaned our non-League status.

"God knows how long it will be before we get out of this," he said. "It could be two or three years, I reckon." Ah, the optimism of Town fans.

But now I have had it. The bite Brodie delivered to the bum last Tuesday was a bite of blight too far. Paul Hurst has to go. John Fenty has to go. Roll on administration and let's start again.

Rubbish, of course.

The Southport match and result were an aberration. Those pulsating back-to-back wins over Gateshead and Alfreton were the real deal, and LJL will score 25 goals by the end of the season, no worries. Hurst knows exactly what is his best team is and will stop tinkering, so that by Christmas an unbridled optimism will have swept away all the doubts and doubters.

Rubbish, of course.

I hate myself for being negative but the pain of seeing Dull in the Premiership, and knowing that the Scunts are, self-evidently, a much better run club than us, hits home painfully hard. So what can be done? Let me quote Luton's John Still, from an article in The Observer at the beginning of this season.

"I found a desperate situation. There was a lot of negativity and nervousness about whether they would ever get out of that league. I had to find players with mental strength as well as physical strength. We try to include everyone in what we do. Everybody is included, whether it's the cleaner at the training ground. It's important to make people feel they are playing a part in your success – or failure. It was difficult initially. I hadn't been there long and I was walking off the pitch, and there was a guy with a cap on and he looked down at me and says: 'Still, you're a tosser.' That went down well!"

It is beginning to look as if we are institutionalised in the Conference, with neither our non-chairman nor Hurst having any clear idea what to do next

Ring any bells? Still turned Luton around in a season. And, so it appears, will Martin Allen at Barnet this time. After those successive play-off semi-final defeats by Newport and Gateshead, my faith in Hurst and his crew was low. Then, like an idiot, after the atypical 6-1 and 7-0 victories, I began to ignore all that had gone before – all the uninspirational dithering, the blind faith in LJL, and the inability to provide any real alternative (Pittman was a crock waiting to be crocked again) – and dreamed the promotion dream.

Ha! Just 11 goals in our other 11 matches. I don't think so. It is beginning to look as if we are institutionalised in the Conference, with neither our non-chairman nor Hurst having any clear idea what to do next. The management's call for Blundell Park to become a fortress was answered by Southport's win. Another season of desperate non-League disappointment beckons, even if we do limp into the play-offs again.

Oh, but remember. This is such a terribly, terribly difficult division to get out of.

No, it isn't. As well as players with mental strength, you need a manager with the mental strength to both lead and inspire them. Hurst does not have these qualities. So much is obvious. Fenty selected him. Neither does he.

No doubt back in our second division (Championship) days, we did punch above our weight – though it may be noted that the combined population of Grimsby and Cleethorpes is bigger than that of Burnley. Now we are a Conference old lag, unable to punch our way out of a soggy paper bag. This is dire beyond straits.

Will somebody – anybody – get a grip?

Does Steve speak for you, or do you still have reserves of patience to draw on? Use the Cod Almighty feedback form to let us know.

Photo: Alex E Proimos [CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]