Cod Almighty | Diary

The Cheltenham Booking Festival

29 September 2025

Miss Guest Diary writes: Many football fans exhibit pessimism when it comes to predicting the fate of their team, and I have long felt Grimsby fans to be the most pessimistic of all. But in recent years that pessimism has often turned out simply to be realism. On a bad run of form? Don't worry, that'll all change when you play us. Haven't won away from home all season? Come to Blundell Park and we'll gift you three points. Sacked your manager? We'll get the new one off to a good start for you. And then there's the immutable law of football which says when an ex-player – or, more gallingly, someone who refused to sign for you – rocks up they will play a blinder.

So before Saturday's game against managerless, bottom side Cheltenham, with Harry Pell the ex and Lee Angol the refusenik in the side, the chief Tweeter at CA Towers can be forgiven for their "we know how this ends" comment. When the worst side I've seen at Blundell Park for many a year managed to fluke a goal after Town had squandered several good chances, I wouldn't have been alone in thinking "here we go again – we're heading for a 1-0 defeat in a game which we are dominating". I had a gloomy 20 minutes before the two wonder strikes in two minutes from Jamie Walker.

That was when I pulled myself together and remembered that, since David Artell has got into his stride as manager, we are no longer THAT team. There has been a regular narrative when we have scored late winners or equalisers this season of "we would have drawn/lost that game under Hurst". Also the hoodoos recently broken by Artell's team have included finally beating Harrogate in the league and winning away at Gillingham, Tranmere, Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday for the first time this century.

After the initial satisfaction when Harry Pell got his comeuppance and was sent off, the pessimism reared its head once more, thinking back to the struggle earlier this month to play against the 10 men of BFS which led to shipping two goals in the second half. But even without the dismissal of Lee Angol a few minutes into the second half, there would have been nothing to worry about. On Saturday the team patiently kept possession of the ball to create openings which were rewarded by five more goals.

Artell's assessment of it was "a professional performance". The mistake made previously against 10 men had been to control the game but not try to score. This time Town controlled the game AND scored goals, having learnt from their mistakes and "gone one step further". It is this ability to keep moving forward and not get stuck into a negative pattern, not to dwell on past defeats such as the debacle at Barnet that might just be the thing that sees Town progress.

I can't go without acknowledging the success of my 'other' team – not football but Nottinghamshire Cricket Club. Last Thursday they won the County Championship for the first time in 15 years and I was fortunate enough to be at Trent Bridge when they did so. I have always maintained that I'm not that bothered about their successes and failures, that it's a nice day out and winning is just a bonus. But when the players and the crowd were capering around with joy on Thursday, I admit it brought a tear to my eye. Sport, eh – there's nothing like it.