Cod Almighty | Diary

Don't blame people with disabilities, blame the people who blame them

18 March 2025

On Saturday, Neil Woods, an eminent graduate from the Alan Buckley school of soccer science, had the familiar feeling of watching the better side lose 1-0 when Grimsby's under-18s played Hartlepool. Our former assistant manager, Anthony Limbrick, was also at the game, as Hartlepool's first team manager. No doubt they reminisced over a cup of tea about the bad old days at Cheapside, and achieved some closure.

The Hartlepool site describes their youths' win as "vital", a rare word in age-grade sport where the only thing that's really vital is to turn out young men equipped, if not for a career in the game, at least to enjoy it and to turn their hands successfully to something else. It is quite a change from the early 1970s; Newbegin Diary is still seeking closure from the early 1970s, the youngest in schoolyard games and so the scapegoat of choice whenever we let in a goal.

I gather the old ways persist with some parents, who stand on the touchline of their children's matches and holler abuse. They might do worse than listen to Doug Tharme's post-Salford interview (As mentioned by Miss Guest Diary yesterday) to learn how much our understanding of what is needed for people to flourish has improved over the last 50 years.

We can't all be professional players, but they also serve who only stand and cheer on from the sidelines. Or, regardless of their ability on the pitch, turn their love of the game and of the Mariners into a pleasure for all. This last week, I have done some work with GTFC Heritage, and, as ever, was humbled by the willingness of so many to turn their considerable ability - as researchers, artists, actors, video-editors, organisers - to Town's service, without any expectation of material reward.

It is a miniature of how the world should be: people rewarding the good faith they are shown by producing something far better than it would have been if an overseer stood over them while they toiled. Unfortunately, we can make that world for ourselves only in rare pockets.

The Amazons of this world trust only in their power to isolate and to command, and our politicians perform for our worst selves, the ones whose outbursts of anger turn sport into misery, and who always - but always - direct their blame at the weakest. We do better without scapegoating in football; we'd do better without it at all.