Cod Almighty | Diary

I like my football on a Saturday

11 February 2026

Miss Guest Diary writes: Will this fixture disruption never end? Not only will there be no Saturday 3pm kick off at Blundell Park between 17 January and 21 March, our mid-week games this week and next are on a Wednesday rather than a Tuesday.

OK, I understand that, with Town playing Wolves on Sunday, shifting next week's game from Tuesday to Wednesday will give the team more time to recover, but that does not explain why tonight's game against Accrington Stanley wasn't played yesterday. It can't have been at Accrington's request, surely, as they didn't even have a game last weekend.

And whose fault is it that the cup game against Wolves isn't being played at 3pm on Saturday anyway? The constant need to feed the monster that is televised sport is ruining the experience for ordinary fans. Even if you weren't fortunate enough to be able to attend a lot of games, in the past you always knew when you needed to start checking the score on teletext (or it's modern-day equivalents). Earlier this season I messaged one of my fellow residents of CA Towers about a game and he admitted he'd forgotten it was an early kick off and was on the golf course.

I am fortunate enough to be able to rearrange things to attend games which are moved at relatively short notice or staged on days when Town don't normally play, but there will be others with family and work commitments who are so fortunate. That must be especially galling if you've forked out for a season ticket. With the game being tonight instead of yesterday, one of CA's own, BOTB Diary was denied the opportunity of seeing his beloved Stripeys before going under the surgeon's knife today. He will be missed in the Ocean Fish Bar, and in the back row of the Pontoon. We're sending him our best wishes for a full recovery and return to being a leading light in Grimsby's walking football scene.

So what are our prospects for a win against Accrington tonight? We've got off to a bad start with David Artell being shortlisted for Manager of the Month for January, though he hasn't actually won yet so that curse may not materialise. I won't speculate on the team line up as experience shows that what Artell says in his pre-match interview is generally designed to confuse the opposition rather than inform the fans.

Looking at the 'data' we seem pretty evenly matched with 12 wins apiece, and only two points and one place separating us in the table. Both teams have won three out of their last five games but, crucially, Accrington's wins have been their last three. Historically it's not looking too good either: so far this century we've played them eight times at Blundell Park and only won three times.

If you prefer to look away from the facts and engage in a bit of magical thinking – and who doesn't when it suits us – the omens are good. Today is the anniversary of the Wolds Panther's hattrick at Colchester in 2020 – the one where he ran the entire length of the pitch for one of the goals.

More of the same tonight, please Chaz!

UTM