My Plea

I thought i'd never lose my love for football, being a Town fan of 18 yrs. I must say the last 4 games and the events around the time have put a strain on my relationship with GTFC. I found myself willing Cambridge to score the other night because the thought of winning our first game of the season didn't feel right in the circumstances. Maybe i'd wish we would have won by playing 11 men off the pitch and 3 great goals scored. Never the less i found myself doubting my love for Town and that was the lowest point i have felt as a football fan. FENTY, SCOTT, HURST and which ever eleven take the field on saturday. Please make me fall in love with my beloved GRIMSBY TOWN. that is all i ask.  

bsp team playing bsp football eccept it. we beat wot was in front of us on tuesday we did not ask for im to get the red and it wasnt prety but is was this level of fottie we r at and is the same as the other 11 games that r playing in this poor league.(sorry for spellin)

It is not the league were in thats the problem, have you not seen us the last 10years im fully aware we have been on a downer, but i still loved football and Town. This season something has changed. Maybe one too many optimistic pre-seasons or we will do this and that and be the best Manager comments. Win Lose or Draw i still felt good to be a Town fan. I don't know what it is, but i'll know when its cured.3 points on saturday wouldn't go a miss tho!

For me it is the realisation that we are a genuine non-league club now, not just a league club paying a visit to the BSBP.
I think we all accept that finishing top is beyond us and the lottery of the play offs is our only realistic opportunity for promotion.
Bad results, dwindling attendances and impatient fans have become the norm. Each loss is met with despair, each win is met with elation but the worst aspect of it is that the fun has gone out of being a town fan.
We are all looking for someone to blame and we are all looking for heroes to get us out of this mess.
I'm sure most people on this board consider themselves real fans of GTFC but for me personally, I just don't enjoy watching us play anymore.
Its the constant moaning at players or Fenty or S&H during games that ruins it for me, yes, they may have faults but they're all we've got and you can only go to war with the army you are given.
I keep looking back and hoping somehow we'll find a Futcher, Gary Jones or Alan Pouton to inspire the players to over achieve and get out of this awful league but all I read is 'Elding must be good, he played for Leeds you know'.
Anyway, I've had my rant, come on town, top the league and prove me wrong.
UTFM

Quoted from Part Time Mariner

It is not the league were in thats the problem, have you not seen us the last 10years im fully aware we have been on a downer, but i still loved football and Town. This season something has changed. Maybe one too many optimistic pre-seasons or we will do this and that and be the best Manager comments. Win Lose or Draw i still felt good to be a Town fan. I don't know what it is, but i'll know when its cured.3 points on saturday wouldn't go a miss tho!

I think a lot of people are feeling the same way.Most of the regulars around me,myself included,just sit there in a state of acceptance,waiting for the opposition to score their customary goal or two and wondering if we have enough to get out of the mire we usually get ourselves in.

It's not very often we go out and control a game from the off.All teams,even those at the bottom have  at least one or two games when they go out and smash someone by 4 or 5,but we only do it infrequently.We always seem to be living on our nerves,struggling to come to terms with the opposition and i was fully expecting Cambridge to equalise on Tues night.They very nearly did of course and it just chips away your belief.

I'm already preparing myself for the inevitable Darlington defeat on Saturday.We haven't beaten them at home for years and that is just wrong,seeing as they have been in dire straits for a long time.

It would be great to see the team go out and play with confidence and that certain swagger that good sides have but i tell myself it's early days yet with the new two and i'm hoping (yet again) that they are the ones to turn us around.If they don't,i can see a lot of fans giving up as there is only so much people can take.

Quoted from Part Time Mariner

. I found myself willing Cambridge to score the other night because the thought of winning our first game of the season didn't feel right

Willing the opposition to score? Are you sure you are a football fan?

Quoted from BIGChris

Willing the opposition to score? Are you sure you are a football fan?

I don't mind the opposition scoring if they play good football, yeah I hate seeing Town lose but if I come away seeing a good game I'm not THAT bothered. I'd just rather see good games in the Championship or League 1 than the excrement we're in now.

Quoted from gtfcbean

bsp team playing bsp football eccept it. we beat wot was in front of us on tuesday we did not ask for im to get the red and it wasnt prety but is was this level of fottie we r at and is the same as the other 11 games that r playing in this poor league.(sorry for spellin)

There is a g in spelling

Take my hand
Take my whole heart too,
Cos I can't help falling in love with you....
GRIMSBY  GRIMSBY  GRIMSBY

Quoted Text

I thought i'd never lose my love for football, being a Town fan of 18 yrs. I must say the last 4 games and the events around the time have put a strain on my relationship with GTFC. I found myself willing Cambridge to score the other night because the thought of winning our first game of the season didn't feel right in the circumstances. Maybe i'd wish we would have won by playing 11 men off the pitch and 3 great goals scored. Never the less i found myself doubting my love for Town and that was the lowest point i have felt as a football fan. FENTY, SCOTT, HURST and which ever eleven take the field on saturday. Please make me fall in love with my beloved GRIMSBY TOWN. that is all i ask.

Probably the best and most succinct description of how many of the fans have felt over the years. I reached this stage 6 or 7 years ago (After over 40 years of going to BP) when I felt the writing was on the wall, and everything I feared would happen  - and has!
Perhaps the level of patience (or blind faith and optimism) of some on here has a relationship to age and the number of years they have followed town. There is no doubt many of the younger generation have no idea how good we were years ago and how bad it is now.
I like so many others don't bother going to games now because it's too painful to witness the continued decline, (it's liking waiting for the vet to come and put your faithfull 18 year dog o sleep) but still follow town and hope desperately for a change, but in reality have accepted the fact that, under JF, nothing will get better. In fact I still believe there is worse come.
The harsh reality of what is happening can be seen from Tuesdays attendance. 3 games into a season and to me that shows many have given up any hope for this season and the foreseeable future.  The harsh reality is that attendances at or around this level will threaten the clubs existence by Xmas - it effectively means a gate income over the year of around £400-£450k, which is about half of the 2009-2010 total. At 2600 the income from the paying fans (excl season tickets) barely covers the marginal costs of staging the game. Perhaps not that unusual in the lower leagues towards the end of a season when there is no hope of success left, but so early on in the season? This hasn't happened here since the mid/late 1960's.