Wembley Blues
I have been lying in a darkened room since late on Sunday night, the effects of the alcohol have now warn off and the painful realisation of a sixth year in non-league football is beginning to sink in! I feel emotionally ripped apart and have no desire to leave Garibaldi House and venture into the real world - what happened on Sunday was worse than any defeat I've known. When we lost our league status that sad day at Burton, it had some inevitability about it but Sunday was despair snatched from the jaws of hope!
However bad Sunday was, there have been some huge positives this season and we have become a proper football team again, playing some excellent football peppered with the odd disaster - who wants to remember losing at home on a Tuesday evening 1 - nil to Southport and he had to score didn't he! There were the two local derbies against Lincoln, losing at Sincil Bank was bad enough but how we capitulated at home to them after going into the lead was a true horror show. It took us a few weeks to recover but it shows the players mental strength because they did recover and if there had been another fives games would surely have gained automatic promotion. Even though Barnet were champions I think the best two teams in the league were Bristol Rovers and the Mariners, in fact the best team to visit Blundell Park all season were Bristol Rovers. Barnet had an excellent goal scorer in John Akinde, but the Mariners did do the double over them, after they got off to a flying start to the season. I think one clear advantage this season was getting knocked out of the FA Trophy relatively early so it didn't become a distraction and lead to a fixture congestion in March/April.
The emotional impact of Sunday's defeat will be difficult to get over for the management, players and supporters. I know we lost to Wrexham on penalties in the FA Trophy final in 2013, but that was nothing compared to Sunday and many of us were more worried about losing fingers and toes to frost bite. I think it would have been easier if we had lost 2 - nil, it was the fact that we took it all the way and were clearly the better side. I have no idea why their goalkeeper was not sent off for handball, even though that apart he actually looked a good player, and their striker Taylor could easily have been sent off. The Grimsby support as usual were immense and even though Bristol Rovers (population of Bristol - 437,500) had twice as many supporters as Town (population of N.E. Lincolnshire - 159,800) we still drowned them out! Darrell Clarke their manager said all the right things about Grimsby Town (even with his shenanigans over the Grimsby Telegraph! I think its a right wing piece of shite), but it will be interesting to see how long he stays at Rovers.
Anyway, there's no point dwelling on it and we must move forward, so let us make 2016 our promotion season and get off to a flying start. This means that we need to get the vast majority of the players signed up as soon as possible (good luck to all those released, especially Ross Hannah). We need to build on both the excellent team spirit and support into an automatic promotion push. If we compare the squad as it is to all the other teams in the Conference then we are clearly better than the rest, obviously the two teams relegated have the advantage of parachute payments (we wasted our's years ago!) but I see Tranmere Rovers being the more dangerous of the two. However, it is likely that it will take time for them to adjust (as it did with Bristol Rovers) and we need to build up a good points gap (like Barnet this season) before they get used to the Conference. We also need to treat the FA Trophy with the contempt that the Conference administrators treat Grimsby. We should play a mixture of reserves and juniors, and play the first team only in league matches and the FA Cup. If they do well in the FA Trophy good luck to them and it will give them more experience.
We need to get the whole community behind the team so youngsters would rather watch the Mariners rather than Man United or Liverpool on television (I can't believe that there will be school children now who have never experienced Town as a league club). Those plastic supporters that you see in the precinct with their premier league team's shirt on need to remember football is more than Man United and Chelsea. It's clubs like Grimsby Town that make football what it is - it's not that long ago that the Mariners beat Liverpool at Anfield, or Manchester City and Chelsea at Blundell Park.
Come on people of North East Lincolnshire get down to Blundell Park, and make it into a fortress - let's make 2016 Grimsby Town's promotion season and build on what we did on Sunday!!
UTM
Captain Haddock.
Wednesday 20 May 2015
Saturday 16 May 2015
Welcome to the dis-United Kingdom! What on earth have the British people done? God help us all now we have a majority Conservative government. We now have a recipe for complete chaos with a small majority and moving towards an in-out referendum over our membership of the EU, and a Tory party obsessed with being anti-EU.
The dis-united nature of Britain can be seen with Scotland turning towards nationalism and away from UK politics altogether, large parts of the north of England turning towards the Labour party (can we join Scotland?), Wales bizarrely swinging towards the Conservatives. The polarisation between rich and poor ended up with the majority of London being Labour. The midlands and the south (middle England) turning more strongly towards the Tories than previously, and 60% of the entire population voting against them.
However, I am proud of the good people of Grimsby voting in a local woman Mel Onn representing the Labour party with an increased majority. It was good to send that vile fascist Victoria Ayling out of town, hopefully to never return! I was disappointed to see our neighbours in Cleethorpes let us down and re-elected Martin Vickers instead of that good man Peter Keith. Apart from the area around Park Street which is virtually the East Marsh, many people in Cleethorpes see themselves as a cut above the working people of Grimsby. That's the problem with many who become self employed and move to Cleethorpes, see themselves as middle class and then vote Tory and support benefit cuts on the poor. However, they are quite prepared to fiddle the system claiming tax relief on as many things as possible! They should be happy now they've elected the Tories, but when the £12 billion of cuts begin and Grimsby is devastated and the uncertainty over the EU referendum kicks in, they'll have no customers and their businesses will go bankrupt!!
Now the Tories are in power they will be trying to introduce all manner of vindictive shit! They have said they intend to repeal the Human Rights Act - clearly they don't think the poor should have any rights. Say goodbye to the NHS, it was excellent while it lasted - just remember what it used to be like as you pay your GP. When you have no employment rights and your boss can dismiss you because he or she doesn't like the look of your face! When they remove a trade unions ability to take industrial action and undermine any rights that working people have, don't blame me! If you're a fox and you live near Brocklesby, my advice is move into town before the sick perverted Tories repeal the fox hunting ban, hunt you down and tear you apart with their dogs!! Then the £12 billion of welfare cuts are coming and when they do they will destroy people's lives, sending more people to foodbanks to survive, and pushing even more people to suicide.
Anyway, after the general election result I haven't had a particularly good week, the odd result apart (Mel Onn winning Grimsby and Ester McVile losing on the Wirral) but all eyes are now firmly focused on Wembley Stadium and the Mariners play-off final against Bristol Rovers. It's a shame the Conference's two best teams are meeting each other in the final - Barnet were inferior to both teams but with Akinde up front he took them to promotion. It should be a close game and hopefully Grimsby's recent experience of both the play-offs and Wembley will give them the edge. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend Grimsby Town FC will be back proudly in the football league, but if not the same as with the Tories we will fight on forever and never be beaten!!!
UTM and an end to this unwanted Tory government.
Captain Haddock.
The dis-united nature of Britain can be seen with Scotland turning towards nationalism and away from UK politics altogether, large parts of the north of England turning towards the Labour party (can we join Scotland?), Wales bizarrely swinging towards the Conservatives. The polarisation between rich and poor ended up with the majority of London being Labour. The midlands and the south (middle England) turning more strongly towards the Tories than previously, and 60% of the entire population voting against them.
However, I am proud of the good people of Grimsby voting in a local woman Mel Onn representing the Labour party with an increased majority. It was good to send that vile fascist Victoria Ayling out of town, hopefully to never return! I was disappointed to see our neighbours in Cleethorpes let us down and re-elected Martin Vickers instead of that good man Peter Keith. Apart from the area around Park Street which is virtually the East Marsh, many people in Cleethorpes see themselves as a cut above the working people of Grimsby. That's the problem with many who become self employed and move to Cleethorpes, see themselves as middle class and then vote Tory and support benefit cuts on the poor. However, they are quite prepared to fiddle the system claiming tax relief on as many things as possible! They should be happy now they've elected the Tories, but when the £12 billion of cuts begin and Grimsby is devastated and the uncertainty over the EU referendum kicks in, they'll have no customers and their businesses will go bankrupt!!
Now the Tories are in power they will be trying to introduce all manner of vindictive shit! They have said they intend to repeal the Human Rights Act - clearly they don't think the poor should have any rights. Say goodbye to the NHS, it was excellent while it lasted - just remember what it used to be like as you pay your GP. When you have no employment rights and your boss can dismiss you because he or she doesn't like the look of your face! When they remove a trade unions ability to take industrial action and undermine any rights that working people have, don't blame me! If you're a fox and you live near Brocklesby, my advice is move into town before the sick perverted Tories repeal the fox hunting ban, hunt you down and tear you apart with their dogs!! Then the £12 billion of welfare cuts are coming and when they do they will destroy people's lives, sending more people to foodbanks to survive, and pushing even more people to suicide.
Anyway, after the general election result I haven't had a particularly good week, the odd result apart (Mel Onn winning Grimsby and Ester McVile losing on the Wirral) but all eyes are now firmly focused on Wembley Stadium and the Mariners play-off final against Bristol Rovers. It's a shame the Conference's two best teams are meeting each other in the final - Barnet were inferior to both teams but with Akinde up front he took them to promotion. It should be a close game and hopefully Grimsby's recent experience of both the play-offs and Wembley will give them the edge. Hopefully, by the end of the weekend Grimsby Town FC will be back proudly in the football league, but if not the same as with the Tories we will fight on forever and never be beaten!!!
UTM and an end to this unwanted Tory government.
Captain Haddock.
Tuesday 5 May 2015
Captain Haddock's Election Blog
We are on the verge of the 2015 general election and all of the opinion polls are saying we are in for a close result. However, there is only one real choice, between David Cameron who has nothing in common with the people of Grimsby, and Ed Miliband who represents working people. Grimsby is a poor working class town that has suffered over the last 5 years at the hands of this evil Tory-Lib Dem coalition. At least with the Mariners going to Wembley we have something to look forward to locally.
In Grimsby it looks like the election will be battle between Labour's Mel Onn and the vile Victoria Ayling representing Ukip this time - how can you trust a creature like Ayling when she moves from one right wing party to the next, National Front to Conservative and now Ukip. Those of you thinking about voting Ukip, if they win, Grimsby will be come an irrelevancy at national level.
Our neighbours in Cleethorpes have an interesting battle between Vickers the current Tory MP who in 5 years will be remembered for nothing he did for Cleethorpes, apart from voting for the bedroom tax, and the Labour candidate Peter Keith. A vote for the Lib Dem 's is a waste of time, and a vote for the Greens or TUSC will just split Labour's vote and benefit the Tories. How on earth can you take TUSC's Cleethorpes candidate seriously - Malcolm Morland was the Lib Dem candidate in 2010, what a joke!!
This is the only time every 5 years when we are equal and my vote is no less importance than any wanker who runs a big business and rants on in the Tory press about how good the Tories are - yes for greedy exploitative money grabbing bastards like them! Anyway, if it's good enough for that right wing piece of shite, 'The Sun' to endorse a political party then so can I (and unlike Murdoch I actually live in the UK and have a vote here, whereas, that undemocratic bastard just makes comments). The right wing media don't control social media!!! On the 7th May it's important for the future of North East Lincolnshire, and Britain that people (and all you good trade unionists flirting with TUSC) vote Labour. People of Grimsby vote for your locally born Labour candidate - Mel Onn, and those of you in Cleethorpes vote for the Labour candidate, Peter Keith. It's going to be a big week for the area with hopefully a new Labour Government, and a Mariners victory over Bristol Rovers in the play off final and a return to the football league were we belong.
UTM and Vote Labour,
Captain Haddock
We are on the verge of the 2015 general election and all of the opinion polls are saying we are in for a close result. However, there is only one real choice, between David Cameron who has nothing in common with the people of Grimsby, and Ed Miliband who represents working people. Grimsby is a poor working class town that has suffered over the last 5 years at the hands of this evil Tory-Lib Dem coalition. At least with the Mariners going to Wembley we have something to look forward to locally.
In Grimsby it looks like the election will be battle between Labour's Mel Onn and the vile Victoria Ayling representing Ukip this time - how can you trust a creature like Ayling when she moves from one right wing party to the next, National Front to Conservative and now Ukip. Those of you thinking about voting Ukip, if they win, Grimsby will be come an irrelevancy at national level.
Our neighbours in Cleethorpes have an interesting battle between Vickers the current Tory MP who in 5 years will be remembered for nothing he did for Cleethorpes, apart from voting for the bedroom tax, and the Labour candidate Peter Keith. A vote for the Lib Dem 's is a waste of time, and a vote for the Greens or TUSC will just split Labour's vote and benefit the Tories. How on earth can you take TUSC's Cleethorpes candidate seriously - Malcolm Morland was the Lib Dem candidate in 2010, what a joke!!
This is the only time every 5 years when we are equal and my vote is no less importance than any wanker who runs a big business and rants on in the Tory press about how good the Tories are - yes for greedy exploitative money grabbing bastards like them! Anyway, if it's good enough for that right wing piece of shite, 'The Sun' to endorse a political party then so can I (and unlike Murdoch I actually live in the UK and have a vote here, whereas, that undemocratic bastard just makes comments). The right wing media don't control social media!!! On the 7th May it's important for the future of North East Lincolnshire, and Britain that people (and all you good trade unionists flirting with TUSC) vote Labour. People of Grimsby vote for your locally born Labour candidate - Mel Onn, and those of you in Cleethorpes vote for the Labour candidate, Peter Keith. It's going to be a big week for the area with hopefully a new Labour Government, and a Mariners victory over Bristol Rovers in the play off final and a return to the football league were we belong.
UTM and Vote Labour,
Captain Haddock
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