Scunny

Never hated any club apart from dirty Leeds when they were dirty barstools.

Always enjoyed our derby games with sunny and Lincoln and more so when we had won.

Always tried to ignore the trolls when they come on here but have bitten a few times.

It's not nice going out the league and it is getting harder and harder to get back so hope sunny are here to play us for years to come.

That's if they can keep up with us as we go up the league's .😀

Quoted from Lee Hodges Burger

On a side note, I've noted surprise from some regarding how BIron didn't resort to taunting.'

Welcome! You make some very interesting points.

I would just say though, that while Biron has made many measured and well meaning comments on here, his early posts included calling some of us 'Bitter Codheads'.  He also gloated about 'the look on our faces' when you scored at BP, and also said that he 'loved every minute' of us being out of the league. So his halo might be slipping slightly! But he was very generous about my highly inaccurate post, and so I think I'll forgive him the occasional resort to the dark side!

I think both of our clubs will face an interesting time ahead, and it will be good to share perspectives from both sets of fans. The games between our clubs are always major local events that we all look forward to and I would much rather watch us play you, than the likes of Stevenage, Morcambe and other non entities masquerading as football clubs.

I have never really seen Hull as our rivals as we are so seldom in the same division, and Doncaster just doesn't seem to have the same interest. So when I think of local derby's its really your lot and the imps. Always a good day out, providing of course that we win!      

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

That is a fair enough post but you will also appreciate that a lot of Town fans with longer memories have seen the Mariners being well above Scunthorpe on every level for decades.

That's precisely what I meant when I said our paths diverged after the early 70s. Hard to keep that much of a rivalry going when there are few fixtures and no means of easy communication between fans.

Ron - Fair. I am only aware of comments made in this thread, which seem reasonable.

I'd go easy on the likes of Morecambe and Stevenage. While not clubs I particularly care about, and clubs which don't get the pulses racing when facing them, I have respect for them in that they made it into the league based on hard work without being a vanity project in the mould of Forest Green or Salford. Plus, I have a friend who supports Morecambe.

We have a bit of history regarding Stevenage which you may not be aware of. Serious mistreatment of some of our female fans by their stewards a while back. So we really want to see them go.

Out of interest, would you consider that your club has been something of a vanity project for Wharton and Swann? I ask because I understand that they have both pumped in many millions recently.

Oh yes, I remember that now you mention it. That was shocking.

Wharton was quite good with not letting finances run away with things, so I don't think he deserves bracketing as a chairman who flashed the cash. Swann has pumped money in the hope of improving our lot, while touting a new ground/redevelopment to make things more sustainable. It hasn't come to fruition, at least not yet, but can see the parallels with Crawley and co. It is a concern, but would argue that Swann has now stopped the endless pool of money, so our status as the 'lower league Man City' was never going to last.

All this ignores the major cause. That being the issue of spiralling costs. In a sport driven by a desire to succeed, it is becoming more costly to fund a team capable of success. This leads to fans demanding more money, more money is reliant on having rich owners willing to splash the cash, with increased risk of failure (e.g. Darlo, Bury), and the decreased likelihood of teams succeeding based on anything more organic. You only have to look at the league tables, especially in league one and the championship, to see the big clubs/recently relegated clubs often doing well, while smaller teams suffer. All because they can afford the best players. In the 90s Crewe, Bury, Stockport, Walsall, Port Vale and yourselves all saw 2nd tier glory. In the 00s there was Gillingham, Doncaster, Crewe still, Colchester and ourselves. This decade there has been Peterborough, at the start of the decade and with some backing, Yeovil, very briefly, and Burton, but no others. Look at the top spots now and with the exception of Wycombe it's all big clubs or recently relegated clubs like Rotherham. The feeling that a little club can pull off a shock is diminishing, leaving clubs vulnerable to overspending to succeed. Fleetwood have a chance of the playoffs, but with substantial investment. Thirty years ago Fleetwood could have had a chance of success without the same investment (admittedly they'd have needed some given the stature of their town and fanbase, but not at the gulf as it is today), not so now, and the competitiveness of the sport is worse for it. As is the health of club ownership, as clubs try to spend more to please the fans eager for success or end in oblivion like Bury.

Some good points in there Lee Hodges Burger, regarding Darlington's downfall, I think that it was a couple of things, The Chairman at the time, was according to some of the Darlington fans only involved because of the development opportunities that could have come with the new ground. A ground that was far too big for Darlington (30,000) on the gates they could get and when the development opportunity went so did the Chairman., leaving them with players they couldn't afford.

Lee Hodges Burger, not being derogative or anything but ‘Lower league Man City’ Now that made me laugh.😂😂😂😎
UTMM

Quoted from Lee Hodges Burger

Another civil Scunny fan here.

Looking forward to the game in a couple of week's time. I have never understood the desire from some of our fans to see you suffer and get relegated from the league. I want Scunny to do well and doing well while beating you lot would be the icing on the cake. I'd rather have us challenging for promotion, from league one say, with you lot on the fixture list than playing the likes of Crawley Town instead. Rivalries make football more interesting, but you can't have rivalries if you never play each other.

I am a relatively young fan, most of my time (since the late 90s) has seen us eclipse you, so I have been accustomed to you being poorer than us. However, my Granddad would drill it in to me that Grimsby are the one, stemming from his time in the 60s and early 70s when it was a regular fixture. Unfortunately since fortunes have been different for both clubs and the games became far more rare  a sense of rivalry was lost until the dawn of the internet allowed bickering between fans to happen, even though many Scunny fans would have longed for the days when we were comparative so that we could play our derby game again.

In the meantime we've had Hull in the late 90s/early 00s. Such games were highly anticipated, though it always felt like we were trying too hard to make something click between the clubs, especially as Hull fans always seem to have their eyes fixed on Leeds for their hatred. Such games were enjoyable, because we'd often win and listening to whinging Hull fans bemoaning a loss to a small club was always funny.

Our rivalries v Donny and Lincoln don't seem to ignite that same feeling.

So, Grimsby it is, and hopefully it will become more regular, and in a higher division, to make the seasons that more exciting.

Nice to see another Scunny fan on here! Lee Hodges was one of my favourite players growing up, he befriended my Dad and we actually went to his house once and Andy Dawson and Brian Quailey were there cooking tea!  

UTI

Quoted from BIron

Nice to see another Scunny fan on here! Lee Hodges was one of my favourite players growing up, he befriended my Dad and we actually went to his house once and Andy Dawson and Brian Quailey were there cooking tea!  

UTI

Ahem!  Sorry to break up the Iron love-in, but general chit-chat between you two should be left to another board, don't you think?!

You've been told.

UTM

I actually want to know what Andy Dawson was cooking. I can just see the brother of Michael and, er, the other one with a poached egg in front of Home and Away.