Cod Almighty | Diary

There goes the summer

26 June 2024

The new fixtures are out, bringing the promise of relief from the forlorn vacancy of our summer Saturdays. Let's for now ignore the smallprint about games being rearranged for the benefit of people who like to have lower-League football on in the background while they eat their Sunday lunch. Revel in the prospect of a November visit from Colchester, for only competitive club football will do.

A friendly against Mansfield is all very well, but it is not the real thing. Some news can fill the void, fuelling speculation and opinion but, judging from the absence of a Fishy thread, not the club's decision to part company with our women's team manager. If you have been reading CA long enough to get the reference, insert your own Hope Powell rumour here. And it would be a relief for everyone if England were to resign and let teams prepared to show a smidgeon of flair contest the Euros. So let's look ahead to August.

Along with the record attendance at Old Trafford and being able to make the case that Grimsby share with Coventry City the distinction of having played in the six divisions of the Football League (it depends on defining the league we joined in 1920-21), Newbegin Diary has another favourite fact. I have been jealously proud of our having played all the other clubs among the 92 ever since I first read about it in the 1970s.

Our regular spells in the fourth flight allowed us to efficiently tick off clubs newly admitted but when we dropped into the Conference it created a hiatus. We've played competitive games against Fleetwood and Bromley before, but not in the League. So after we open the new season at Fleetwood, ink in 21 September as the date we will once more stand tall among the fullest members of the Football League.