43 years

We got into the Championship in the 1980s and the 1990s.  Got there on merit and stayed there for many seasons.  Even challenged for the equivalent of the PL.

Football has moved on since.  Big money and investment rules. Club management has generally got smarter.    Grimsby have struggled with all these key factors.  Not helped by the collapse of ITV Digital.

We need hope and dreams to sustain our support.  At the moment promotion to Div 1 looks a very tall order in the near future.

Staying in Div 1 looks equally difficult as getting there, if not more difficult.  Lincoln are a well run club with capital investment and good attendances.  Yet recently they reported that they need millions each season just to maintain their current position.

I think it’s clear 1878 need to attract other investors for us to move on at the same pace as some people expect, only problem is the word “investor” suggests they’ll get a return on their money, currently that’s hard to see how.

Reckon it’s going to be a longish haul before we realistically compete for promotion from L2, but supports will still support as that’s what we do.

Quoted from GibMariner

For sure we have gaps.

Hursty was allowed to bring in what he wanted to fix the problem and failed. Also took an age to play LJL and when he did think we it was his first win.

No it’s not the same.

One in one out if true could end up the same and of course no Covid.

Think it's a bit unfair to say he brought in what he wanted,

I would be amazed if Hurst's ideal shopping list included two players from the Conf. North (LJL and Coke),  two players who hadn't played for over a year in Habergham and Lamy, a lad on the comeback from a serious car accident (Bunney) and seeing what he could scrap together from the loan market?  

The only player I think was of any stock at the time and potentially had other options was Stefan Payne.  Ultimately he turned out to be more than useless.  The loan signings who did ok in the end (Menayese and Matete) were well on the fringes at their parent clubs.  

Going back to the original post...

There is a lot of psychology involved in supporting a football team, even though many of us don't recognise it. This also allows football and football results to impact our mood, mental health and how we interact with others. This can be changed but some of the 'rules' of supporting a team act against that change.

We have all chosen to support Grimsby and invest time, effort, money and emotion into the club. Some of you will already be reaching for your keyboards to say 'I didn't choose to support Grimsby etc etc' but that isn't true. Even if you are not consciously aware of it, you made a decision. And if that decision was made for you by a parent or significant other there came a point in your life where you could have made a different decision.

So, our delight or depression at Town's results is an emotional response based on the decision we made. It is also completely irrational - we allow our mood and interactions etc to be shaped by something we have absolutely no control over at all. Even if you go to every game and shout louder than anyone else in the ground, you have absolutely no control over the outcome of a game.

But we can make an opposite decision like not going to games or choosing not to allow our emotions to be influenced by something out of our control. Psychologists will often advise people to 'control what they can control' and ignore what is out of their control and that will make them happier, more fulfilled and feel more in control of their lives. Football is a game of emotions but 'the rules' of supporting a team allow the emotions to completely over rule our rational selves.

It is possible to recognise all of this, make different decisions and respond to football in a completely different way but the psychology of supporting a team says that you are not allowed to do this. And the vast majority of us follow those rules without question (primarily because we don't know there are rules and that we are following them!).

Thanks for the therapy session Hans Werner-Gessman ..…😉😂

Quoted from diehardmariner

Think it's a bit unfair to say he brought in what he wanted,

I would be amazed if Hurst's ideal shopping list included two players from the Conf. North (LJL and Coke),  two players who hadn't played for over a year in Habergham and Lamy, a lad on the comeback from a serious car accident (Bunney) and seeing what he could scrap together from the loan market?  

The only player I think was of any stock at the time and potentially had other options was Stefan Payne.  Ultimately he turned out to be more than useless.  The loan signings who did ok in the end (Menayese and Matete) were well on the fringes at their parent clubs.  

It was a patch job anyway you look at it and reminiscent of the transfer business we'd done all season, bringing in players who have not played football in forever, those from lower leagues and some mercenaries. Matete was the only one who turned out to be a bit of a coup, took a couple of games for him to get up to speed with first team football but once he did, he almost kept us up by himself and it was a rush of blood to the head from him as a young player that was the final nail in the coffin. He looked far too good for that level.

Stefan Payne had a reputation already for being a lazy journeyman living off league clubs giving him a chance on the back of two good non-league seasons so maybe we should have foreseen what would happen. Morais who was also bought in and involved in that on pitch fight seems like Coke where he was bought in with the hope of using an experienced head in the dressing room and moving him towards a coaching role as his career winds down, unfortunately never worked out that way.

But yeah lot of players bought in were not even ready for first team football, Habergham was a trier but he never looked fit in any game he played and was blown up after 15 minutes on the pitch. Bunney and Lamy looked completely hopeless with the former looking like he should have retired.

I seem to recall Day said something like money was available for players, but no cheques were signed. He never said how much was available, so make of it what you like.

As for the main subject of the thread: I'm going to keep supporting the club even though it's been rubbish for years now and we've become more of a high level non-league club than a league club these days. The game has changed a lot in the last 25 years with league football becoming more and more expensive to compete it, we aren't the only club who has been a league club for most of our existence to suffer from this. Getting into L1 feels so beyond what we are capable of right now, we'd never compete with the clubs there who are spending money bringing in players, we still struggle to compete in this league even if I believe we are attracting better quality players, we still have not invested as far as we have to for the top talent and I doubt we will anytime soon.

I think I've accepted the reality that the GTFC of now is not going to repeat the past of punching above their weight in the second division pushing for promotion some seasons, football has changed way too much for a club with lower paid but industrious players doggedly matching the big boys on the pitch, the gulf between players and styles of play has become much bigger too.

My love of football is tied to GTFC, I like it because I like supporting the club as frustrating as it can be at times. I didn't even really watch football as a kid until my dad took me to games, I never was interested in Manchester United on TV as a kid, I've never been a football hipster who likes going to random clubs to watch games, I just like supporting my home club because I feel forever connected to it as the place I was born and raised.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Think it's a bit unfair to say he brought in what he wanted,

I would be amazed if Hurst's ideal shopping list included two players from the Conf. North (LJL and Coke),  two players who hadn't played for over a year in Habergham and Lamy, a lad on the comeback from a serious car accident (Bunney) and seeing what he could scrap together from the loan market?  

The only player I think was of any stock at the time and potentially had other options was Stefan Payne.  Ultimately he turned out to be more than useless.  The loan signings who did ok in the end (Menayese and Matete) were well on the fringes at their parent clubs.  

So why did he sign them then, he may as well have tried with the squad we had. Some of those he brought in were clearly his mates.

And for those that say the players already here weren't good enough well despite bringing in what was it 11 players he still ended up with a worse record than Runaway.

Bobby Cummings Tackle said:
'There is a lot of psychology involved in supporting a football team, even though many of us don't recognise it. This also allows football and football results to impact our mood, mental health and how we interact with others’.

You can say that again!!!