It’s safe to say that I’ve never exactly been a football fan. In fact, it may be more honest to say that I HATE football; this is something that has been particularly challenging throughout my 21 years as my dad and my big sister LOVE football. Not just ‘love’… adore and not just any football team… Grimsby Town. This has meant years of sitting in silence as the pair of them have their eyes glued to the TV, or Saturday afternoons alone with my mum (who is also not a town fan) as my dad and sister attend every match they can, home and away. Every time my dad’s phone goes off I hear the blaring sound of his Grimsby Town ringtone and at 5.30pm every weekend during the season we wait in anticipation to see whether he will come home in a good or bad mood according to whether town have won or lost.
It’s no surprise, of course, that my dad has been somewhat disappointed that he has only been able to brainwash one of his children and thus has often attempted to get me to attend a town match, something which he had never been successful in. This all changed, however, when I was taken ill with Encephalitis in October of last year and put in hospital for three months, all of which I have no recollection of. My dad visited me regularly during this time and sometimes spent 5 hours sat by my bedside even though I had no idea that he was there. When I began recovering and started speaking again, I asked my dad whether he still went to football matches to which he replied yes. He then asked if I would go to a match with him when I was out of hospital and for some bizarre reason I agreed (bare in mind I was on a LOT of hard drugs which I think were 100% to blame.)
Along came 18th March and town were at home against Crawley, the big day was here. What had I got myself in to? Thankfully, there was one perk to attending the match – my dad had won a Mariners Trust competition in which the prize was a meal at Mcmenemies before kick-off. So I donned my crutches and made my way up the steps to the restaurant with the help from my dad and his friend Mick Wilbur (an ex Grimsby town apprentice). We were greeted by David Smith, town’s commercial manager who escorted us to our seats and told us that we could sit inside Mcmenemies to watch the match if we wished as the steps in the stand would have been a challenge to me and it was quite a cold day. However, we decided that for me to have the full Grimsby Town experience we would sit in the upper Findus stand in order to absorb the entire atmosphere. We then tucked in to some excellent fish and chips and were joined briefly by ex-town player Dave Boyland who had made a visit to my Grandma’s (also a huge town fan) 90th birthday the previous year.
Next, we made our way to our seats in anticipation of the game starting. Although I can’t remember many individual details, names or moments in the game, I do know that Sam Jones scored for Grimsby and someone else scored for Crawley so the game came to a draw, so I guess I wasn’t the lucky charm that my dad had hoped for. In general it seemed as though Grimsby fans were much livelier than Crawley fans although I don’t know if this was a result of it being a home game. A particular favourite chant of mine was the simple and poignant ‘clap clap clap…fish’. I recognised this one as my big sister, Hannah, has it printed on a t-shirt. As well as this, I noticed that the fans I was sat amongst were nowhere near as rowdy as football fans are depicted to be in the media… although something tells me my dad and his friend were on their best behaviour as a result of my presence.
Whilst I cannot say that I have been converted to football fanaticism, I can appreciate how this is an important hobby to many as it brings people together to support a common cause and ignites a sense of excitement and having something to look forward to. Furthermore, had it not been for Grimsby Town my sister and her fiancé would most likely have never have met and definitely wouldn’t have hit it off like they did and for that I can say that I am nothing but grateful for my dad being an ancient mariner and indoctrinating my sister with black and white from a young age.
Lucy Dawson 