Cod Almighty | Diary

In place of fear

1 April 2025

It almost feels like an April fool hoax, for there is none of the angst which should accompany a promotion push. No obsessive scanning of the upcoming fixtures, no furtive use of a spreadsheet to calculate our rivals' prospects. John Tondeur tries to grill Dave Artell about our injury list, but they chuckle as they acknowledge that they are both just doing what they're supposed to do. Sooner or later, we'll know the Town line-up for tonight's game at Crewe, and the chances are it'll be one we are content with. Everyone has proved their worth these last few weeks.

We've got some of the most adept players we've seen in a Town shirt for many years, but Newbegin Diary will remember this team, above all, for its lack of fear. George MacEachran receives the ball facing his own goal with an opponent closing him down. There must sometimes be a temptation to get rid, and then curse the man who played him such a pass, for he knows that with one slip he could lose us the game, but always he tries to be positive. And that happens countless times in the course of a match.

In the same way, Denver Hume winds into a position where he can make a telling pass, and Green, Khouri and Svanthórsson bomb forward, the rewards outweighing the risk of leaving us short at the back. When Harvey Rodgers strode forward, exchanged passes and found himself with the ball at his feet on the edge of the penalty area we were watching total football: a fourth flight version, but something Johann Cruyff might have observed with an approving nod from his place in the stars.

After years of laying foundations, and months of hard work in training, Grimsby are on the cusp of an overnight success. We have come a long way since the autumn, when we'd wrap ourselves up in an ill-fitting straitjacket, plodding about at the back, at our most ponderous when we are one goal down and there were five minutes left to rescue the game. Now we make things happen.

It helps that we are in a position than no one expected. It doesn't feel like Town's continued existence depends on promotion, or that another season staying where we are would be an assault on our dignity. We may go up, or it may be that this time around another team is better. Whichever division we are in, next season will be harder. But until then, we are having a ball.