Friday, 11 January 2008
Fish out of water
We do things our own way in Grimsby. We have our own cuisine, which steadfastly excludes garlic, spices and other "foreign muck". We have our own language, as any visitor will know who has been told "giz a pag – I'm playing togger down the Ploggers". We have our own system of government, in which nimbyocracy has been replaced by Fentyism.
And just as our communication becomes suddenly less effective when we go to another town and ask at the bar for a pint of diesel, so some of the finest footballers in Mariners shirts have failed spectacularly to fit in when they have moved on to other clubs.
Tomorrow's visitors to Blundell Park are Wrexham, who supplied one of Alan Buckley's best signings when Shaun Cunnington arrived from the Racecourse Ground in 1988. Cunnington formed a powerful midfield partnership with John Cockerill, and after five years with Town was prized away by Sunderland for £650,000 – where he managed 60-odd games in three seasons and was voted by readers of A Love Supreme fanzine into the club's "all-time misfits XI".
Much of Cunnington's career post-GTFC was spoiled by injury – but the same can't be said of another his replacement in Town's midfield, Paul Groves. Despite scoring five times in only 30 starts for West Brom, Groves was never accepted at the Hawthorns, and his signing seemed a key factor in Buckley's sacking a few months later.
Groves was a huge success back at BP, but struggled again after leaving for a second time. "Weird how the names Donovan and Groves can evoke wistful longing for better times in some fans," a York fan told me recently, "whereas they strike fear into the heart of me in recalling probably the worst City team I've seen."
Kevin Donovan had a hard time at Barnsley too, where fans rated him one of the club's worst ever signings. Speaking of players who did a turn at Oakwell, Peter Handyside looked a Scottish international in waiting while a Mariner; three years after leaving us he was playing – while still aged only 30 – for Northwich Victoria.
At this point I would mention Darren Barnard, who left the Mariners on a Bosman when we were relegated in 2004 because he didn't want to play in the fourth division – and ended up having to join Aldershot in the Conference. But he wasn't much cop when he played for us.
So if non-Grimbarians look at us blankly when we tell them we're taking our grufty cloves to the bagwash, it's clearly their fault for not speaking English properly. And if Everton think they were robbed blind when they paid us £1.75m for John Oster, well, it's not our fault if other teams don't know the right way to play football.
And just as our communication becomes suddenly less effective when we go to another town and ask at the bar for a pint of diesel, so some of the finest footballers in Mariners shirts have failed spectacularly to fit in when they have moved on to other clubs.
Tomorrow's visitors to Blundell Park are Wrexham, who supplied one of Alan Buckley's best signings when Shaun Cunnington arrived from the Racecourse Ground in 1988. Cunnington formed a powerful midfield partnership with John Cockerill, and after five years with Town was prized away by Sunderland for £650,000 – where he managed 60-odd games in three seasons and was voted by readers of A Love Supreme fanzine into the club's "all-time misfits XI".
Much of Cunnington's career post-GTFC was spoiled by injury – but the same can't be said of another his replacement in Town's midfield, Paul Groves. Despite scoring five times in only 30 starts for West Brom, Groves was never accepted at the Hawthorns, and his signing seemed a key factor in Buckley's sacking a few months later.
Groves was a huge success back at BP, but struggled again after leaving for a second time. "Weird how the names Donovan and Groves can evoke wistful longing for better times in some fans," a York fan told me recently, "whereas they strike fear into the heart of me in recalling probably the worst City team I've seen."
Kevin Donovan had a hard time at Barnsley too, where fans rated him one of the club's worst ever signings. Speaking of players who did a turn at Oakwell, Peter Handyside looked a Scottish international in waiting while a Mariner; three years after leaving us he was playing – while still aged only 30 – for Northwich Victoria.
At this point I would mention Darren Barnard, who left the Mariners on a Bosman when we were relegated in 2004 because he didn't want to play in the fourth division – and ended up having to join Aldershot in the Conference. But he wasn't much cop when he played for us.
So if non-Grimbarians look at us blankly when we tell them we're taking our grufty cloves to the bagwash, it's clearly their fault for not speaking English properly. And if Everton think they were robbed blind when they paid us £1.75m for John Oster, well, it's not our fault if other teams don't know the right way to play football.
Labels: aldershot, barnard, barnsley, buckley, cockerill, cunnington, donovan, everton, groves, handyside, northwich, oster, parochialism, smalltown, sunderland, transfers, west brom, wrexham
Saturday, 3 November 2007
You're not bothered any more
Last season I was at Rotherham to report on their match against Forest. It was a 1-1 draw and a fine match, really enjoyable for the neutral fan. There was a great atmosphere too, with a lot of 'banter' between the two sets of fans. I just didn't expect that most of it would be based around an industrial dispute that took place more than 20 years ago.
Younger readers may be surprised to learn that many British people were quite recently prepared to fight against injustice rather than just shrug and say "whatever" and put Strictly Come Dancing on. They may be equally surprised to learn that many British jobs quite recently involved things like digging coal out of the ground, rather than making PowerPoint presentations about leveraging your envisioned outshoring gains to facilitate the delivery of excellence.
So in 1984, when the Government announced plans to sack 20,000 miners, they went on strike. The strike was not widely observed in Nottinghamshire, though, and the bitterness this caused in neighbouring Yorkshire persists to this day, to the extent that Forest fans were being denounced as "scabs" last season by thousands of Rotherham supporters – some of whom wouldn't have been alive while the strike was on.
Perhaps this demonstrates that the young people of South Yorkshire have an admirable awareness of their local socio-economic history that is all too rare in these days of globalised consumer culture. Perhaps, on the other hand, it just shows that they'll use any term of abuse they can lay their hands on.
And the great danger with taunting opposition fans about the collapse of their town's key industry is that it can cut both ways. When Barnsley employed Gudjon Thordarson as manager the other year, they were clearly still sore about Town fans singing "You're not mining any more" in the 1980s, and were subtly reminding us about being trounced by Iceland in the Cod Wars.
Either way, these taunts aren't quite so out-of-date as the Yorkshire Ripper songs that are still performed by a section of the Town support. Blundell Park is not notably populated by people listening to Bucks Fizz or wearing lemon yellow suit jackets with the sleeves rolled up, so there is no good reason to retain a chant that lost any relevance it might have had when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981.
Nor, of course, is it so morally dubious to berate another community for breaking ranks during an industrial dispute as to make fun out of their having suffered multiple murders. If you're going to abuse the other team's fans then try and do it in the spirit of working-class solidarity rather than by evoking the name of a local serial killer, that's what I always say.
Younger readers may be surprised to learn that many British people were quite recently prepared to fight against injustice rather than just shrug and say "whatever" and put Strictly Come Dancing on. They may be equally surprised to learn that many British jobs quite recently involved things like digging coal out of the ground, rather than making PowerPoint presentations about leveraging your envisioned outshoring gains to facilitate the delivery of excellence.
So in 1984, when the Government announced plans to sack 20,000 miners, they went on strike. The strike was not widely observed in Nottinghamshire, though, and the bitterness this caused in neighbouring Yorkshire persists to this day, to the extent that Forest fans were being denounced as "scabs" last season by thousands of Rotherham supporters – some of whom wouldn't have been alive while the strike was on.
Perhaps this demonstrates that the young people of South Yorkshire have an admirable awareness of their local socio-economic history that is all too rare in these days of globalised consumer culture. Perhaps, on the other hand, it just shows that they'll use any term of abuse they can lay their hands on.
And the great danger with taunting opposition fans about the collapse of their town's key industry is that it can cut both ways. When Barnsley employed Gudjon Thordarson as manager the other year, they were clearly still sore about Town fans singing "You're not mining any more" in the 1980s, and were subtly reminding us about being trounced by Iceland in the Cod Wars.
Either way, these taunts aren't quite so out-of-date as the Yorkshire Ripper songs that are still performed by a section of the Town support. Blundell Park is not notably populated by people listening to Bucks Fizz or wearing lemon yellow suit jackets with the sleeves rolled up, so there is no good reason to retain a chant that lost any relevance it might have had when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981.
Nor, of course, is it so morally dubious to berate another community for breaking ranks during an industrial dispute as to make fun out of their having suffered multiple murders. If you're going to abuse the other team's fans then try and do it in the spirit of working-class solidarity rather than by evoking the name of a local serial killer, that's what I always say.
Labels: banter, barnsley, fans, forest, history, industrial action, mining, rotherham, striking, work, yorkshire
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