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Our Fishy Friends

Apologies, I didn't realise the link I posted up thread was paywalled, here it is:

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Beware the charms of Ian ‘Hollowhead’, the manager with midas touch in reverse
Rod Liddle
Sunday April 11 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

There is a minute’s silence at most games these days. If the authorities ever run out of people to mourn, perhaps they will adopt my suggestion of a minute’s silence for all clubs who have been visited by Ian Holloway and are now, as a consequence, on a respirator, the clock ticking.

The latest mugs to buy into the man’s idiotic, grandstanding spiel are poor old Grimsby Town, who are desperate to consolidate in the Football League rather than rejoin those gently declining northern sides that will soon make up the entirety of the National Leagues.

Holloway arrived with the usual fanfare in December 2019. This was a superbly run club, he said. Not only would he be manager but he’d also take a seat on the board, invest £100,000 of his own money in their future and move house from Bristol to Lincolnshire. The fans — and you can blame them for this, given the bloke’s track record — were very optimistic. In the summer Holloway went about his important and familiar work of getting rid of all the good players and replacing them with people who were not any cop at playing football.

The results, as you might expect, bore testimony to his unique managerial approach. Down and down Grimsby went. Holloway did not put £100,000 of his own money into the club and still less did he up sticks from Bristol. Instead, he gave a series of ever more bizarre and querulous press conferences after the defeats piled up. Among other things, he blamed Covid for Grimsby’s lack of success, perhaps believing that — contrary to popularly held opinion — the virus afflicted not the entire world but just a small area of northern Britain immediately to the south of the Humber estuary.

Holloway left exactly one year after he had arrived (and three days after he had said he wasn’t going anywhere) with Grimsby deep in the relegation battle, third from bottom having played more games than the two clubs beneath them. They are now bottom, seven points from safety in League Two. After yesterday’s defeat at Bradford City they seem sure to be travelling to Boreham Wood next season.

They have my unrelieved sympathy. Holloway managed my club, Millwall, for a short time and was — by both common assent and indeed the stats — the worst manager in the club’s history. He pretty much ensured we would be relegated. Fans of Plymouth Argyle and Queens Park Rangers might wish to add their own reminiscences of Holloway at this point. He will be on the lookout for another side to ruin, as we are speaking. “By the pricking of my thumbs/Ian Hollowhead this way comes.” Beware all of you.

Of the clubs above poor benighted Grimsby, Southend United — who have also had a horrid time of it recently — look most likely to succumb. Colchester United and Barrow (promoted last season) sit just above them but keep your eyes on Walsall, who have been sliding downwards for some time. The worst form of the clubs towards the bottom is owned by Barrow’s promotion partners, Harrogate. But 50 points should be enough to give them another year in the Football League.
 
Good article that. Spot on about the way Holloway‘s press releases are ‘bizarre and querulous’...I always thought they were as such as a deliberate ploy to deflect the fact that he has not got a clue.
 
cherryexile said:
I hadn't quite realised the litany of disaster that has taken place in and around Blundell Park this season until I read this,

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/.../grimsby-town-payne-headbutt-holloway-5287223
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Litany of disaster is exactly right, you couldn't really make that up if you wanted to. It is symptomatic of a club in complete disorganisation from top to bottom, poorly managed at every level, and makes us appreciate just how good the structure is at Lincoln now. When we returned to the FL in 2017, Bob Dorrian and Clive Nates both spoke of the need to restructure the club to meet the increased demands and expectations - Liam Scully was the first sign of that intent, and an outstanding appointment. Grimsby seem to have done entirely the opposite. The momentum from their promotion in 2016 incredibly was lost inside a season, and they have struggled on and off the pitch ever since. Given the state of the town, the club and Blundell Park, they could be out of the League for a very long time if they do go down.
 
Scotimp said:
Litany of disaster is exactly right, you couldn't really make that up if you wanted to. It is symptomatic of a club in complete disorganisation from top to bottom, poorly managed at every level, and makes us appreciate just how good the structure is at Lincoln now.
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Whilst I've indulged in no small amount of schadenfreude at our fishy friends' expense, I wouldn't wish Fenty on any club that isn't MK Dongs. As I understand it (there's only so much Grimblish I can read without getting a headache) he stands to walk away from the club in pocket to the tune of £200-250K despite having been nothing but a monumental fuck-up during his entire tenure, and not showing an iota of remorse for the appalling state he's leaving them in. In short, the man is a complete and utter Tory.
 
Norfolk Imp said:
What happened in 1920 mate, not sure I’ve heard about this before?
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Are you sitting comfortably? This is a good one.

Lincoln and Grimsby had to apply for re-election at the League AGM on 31 May 1920 after finishing second from bottom and bottom of the Second Division respectively. In the vote for re-election, Grimsby (20) polled more votes than Lincoln (7) despite having finished below them in the table, but both clubs were not re-elected in favour of Cardiff City from the Southern League (23 votes) and Leeds United from the Midland League (31 votes).

The election of Leeds United was controversial in itself because they were seen by many as Leeds City under a new name. Leeds City had been thrown out of the League and disbanded only eight months earlier for financial irregularities, and the immediate admission of the club formed deliberately to replace them was viewed as distasteful by some. Although the Leeds City players had been sold off at a famous auction (three purchased by Lincoln City including future England international William Ashurst), there was a clear overlap off the field.

Having said that, Lincoln would still have been replaced by Cardiff even without the presence of Leeds United. However, it didn't end there.

A proposal was then made to form a Third Division by taking over the Southern League First Division in its entirety. The move was voted through.

Then they noticed they were one club short because Cardiff had been elected directly into the Second Division (despite having only finished fourth in the Southern League). Because Grimsby had polled more votes than Lincoln in the original re-election bid, Grimsby were accepted for the new Third Division and Lincoln were basically told to sod off. The Football League promised that any future application for membership from Lincoln would be viewed favourably, but the decision meant that Lincoln were effectively relegated from English football's second tier to obscurity below the third tier in one fell swoop. It is the only time in the history of the Football League that such a thing has happened.

There should have been a second vote for Third Division membership, of course, instead of simply taking over the Southern League. Would Lincoln really have polled fewer votes than the likes of Merthyr Town and Newport County in such a vote? Interestingly, only Cardiff and Millwall of those elected in May 1920 had previously applied for Football League membership at all.

At the very least, there should have been a second vote to determine whether Lincoln or Grimsby should fill the remaining place in the new Third Division. One wonders how Lincoln would have fared in such a vote, given that Lincoln was an hour closer to every single one of the new (southern-based) Third Division clubs than Grimsby was. Using the original vote for re-election to the Second Division as the basis for election to the new Third Division was a crass thing to do because the circumstances were different, not least geographically.

At the end of all of that, would it not have been far easier simply to retain the Second Division as it was at the end of the 1919-20 season and just add the Southern League First Division including Cardiff as the new Third Division? Would it not have been more equitable to make Leeds City/United wait another year before admission? Apparently not, and Lincoln headed back to the Midland League to replace Leeds United (who had taken over the fixtures of Leeds City Reserves in October 1919).

Incidentally, there was another bonkers decision made that season by the Southern League when they did not permit promotion or relegation before their First Division was co-opted into the Football League - see our article on Mid-Rhondda for details.
 
Scotimp said:
Are you sitting comfortably? This is a good one.

Lincoln and Grimsby had to apply for re-election at the League AGM on 31 May 1920 after finishing second from bottom and bottom of the Second Division respectively. In the vote for re-election, Grimsby (20) polled more votes than Lincoln (7) despite having finished below them in the table, but both clubs were not re-elected in favour of Cardiff City from the Southern League (23 votes) and Leeds United from the Midland League (31 votes).

The election of Leeds United was controversial in itself because they were seen by many as Leeds City under a new name. Leeds City had been thrown out of the League and disbanded only eight months earlier for financial irregularities, and the immediate admission of the club formed deliberately to replace them was viewed as distasteful by some. Although the Leeds City players had been sold off at a famous auction (three purchased by Lincoln City including future England international William Ashurst), there was a clear overlap off the field.

Having said that, Lincoln would still have been replaced by Cardiff even without the presence of Leeds United. However, it didn't end there.

A proposal was then made to form a Third Division by taking over the Southern League First Division in its entirety. The move was voted through.

Then they noticed they were one club short because Cardiff had been elected directly into the Second Division (despite having only finished fourth in the Southern League). Because Grimsby had polled more votes than Lincoln in the original re-election bid, Grimsby were accepted for the new Third Division and Lincoln were basically told to sod off. The Football League promised that any future application for membership from Lincoln would be viewed favourably, but the decision meant that Lincoln were effectively relegated from English football's second tier to obscurity below the third tier in one fell swoop. It is the only time in the history of the Football League that such a thing has happened.

There should have been a second vote for Third Division membership, of course, instead of simply taking over the Southern League. Would Lincoln really have polled fewer votes than the likes of Merthyr Town and Newport County in such a vote? Interestingly, only Cardiff and Millwall of those elected in May 1920 had previously applied for Football League membership at all.

At the very least, there should have been a second vote to determine whether Lincoln or Grimsby should fill the remaining place in the new Third Division. One wonders how Lincoln would have fared in such a vote, given that Lincoln was an hour closer to every single one of the new (southern-based) Third Division clubs than Grimsby was. Using the original vote for re-election to the Second Division as the basis for election to the new Third Division was a crass thing to do because the circumstances were different, not least geographically.

At the end of all of that, would it not have been far easier simply to retain the Second Division as it was at the end of the 1919-20 season and just add the Southern League First Division including Cardiff as the new Third Division? Would it not have been more equitable to make Leeds City/United wait another year before admission? Apparently not, and Lincoln headed back to the Midland League to replace Leeds United (who had taken over the fixtures of Leeds City Reserves in October 1919).

Incidentally, there was another bonkers decision made that season by the Southern League when they did not permit promotion or relegation before their First Division was co-opted into the Football League - see our article on Mid-Rhondda for details.
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There ends todays history lesson, who says you wont learn anything of football forum.
 
Screamager said:
Whilst I've indulged in no small amount of schadenfreude at our fishy friends' expense, I wouldn't wish Fenty on any club that isn't MK Dongs. As I understand it (there's only so much Grimblish I can read without getting a headache) he stands to walk away from the club in pocket to the tune of £200-250K despite having been nothing but a monumental fuck-up during his entire tenure, and not showing an iota of remorse for the appalling state he's leaving them in. In short, the man is a complete and utter Tory.
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From what I have read or perhaps my misunderstanding is, Fenty is making off like a bandit, with more than that in total?

Rumours abound about serious discord in the Cods camp and leaving behind a less than perfect condition dressing room in BD8 on Saturday.

Just what the club needs when fighting a massive rear guard action and needing 10/11 points out their 6 remaining games. It ain't gonna happen, is it?
 
Here's a bit more football history for those who like such things.

The integration of the Southern League First Division was designed to correct a perceived geographical imbalance within the Football League. The days when the FL was for northern clubs and the SL for southern were coming to an end, and the FL was becoming the more dominant. At the end of the 1919-20 season, 28 FL clubs were from the north (15 of them in the 22-club First Division), with only 16 from the south; if the Football League was to become the main English football league it wanted to be, that had to be corrected. However, all they succeeded in doing was create a southern bias instead - at the end of the 1920-21 season, 28 were from the north, 38 from the south.

They also realised there was no route into the Football League for ambitious northern clubs. In that sense, Lincoln were fortunate that the Football League decided to form a Third Division for northern clubs the following year. Had that not happened, Lincoln would have found it extremely difficult to break back into the Football League via the 1920 Third Division, given the southern location of its member clubs.

Even then, the formation of Division Three (North) was somewhat convoluted. Prospective members were invited to submit applications, and the League Management Committee invited fourteen of them to visit League headquarters in March 1921 to present their case. All fourteen were elected on that basis: the original Accrington Stanley, Ashington, Barrow, Chesterfield Town, Crewe Alexandra, Darlington, Durham City, Hartlepools United, Lincoln City, Nelson, Rochdale, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall and Wrexham.

Stockport were relegated from the Second Division and Grimsby were transferred from Division Three (South) at the League AGM, taking the total membership to sixteen. The remaining four places were subject to a vote, upon which Halifax Town (25 votes), Southport (25), Stalybridge Celtic (25) and Wigan Borough (34) completed the new twenty-team division.

The unsuccessful clubs were Blyth Spartans (9 votes), Castleford Town (18), Doncaster Rovers (6), Gainsborough Trinity (8), Lancaster Town (3), Rotherham Town (13), Scunthorpe & Lindsey United (3), South Liverpool (1), Wakefield City (4) and West Stanley (6).

Of those unsuccessful clubs, only two ever made it to League membership in their own right: Doncaster replaced Stalybridge in 1923 and Scunthorpe were elected in 1950 with the expansion from 22 clubs to 24. Rotherham Town merged with existing Third Division (North) club Rotherham County in 1925 to form today's Rotherham United.
 
Meanwhile, back at the Theatre of Incompetence....

21. Mansfield P41 Pts46 (GD -6)
22. Colchester P41 Pts41 (GD -20)
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23. Southend P41 Pts37 (GD -29)
DOOMED Grimsby P40 Pts34 (GD -28)

Really between the bottom three now. Grimsby need Southend to beat Colchester, they are down if Colchester win that game. They now need four wins to stand any chance of staying up.
 
Scotimp said:
Are you sitting comfortably? This is a good one.

Lincoln and Grimsby had to apply for re-election at the League AGM on 31 May 1920 after finishing second from bottom and bottom of the Second Division respectively. In the vote for re-election, Grimsby (20) polled more votes than Lincoln (7) despite having finished below them in the table, but both clubs were not re-elected in favour of Cardiff City from the Southern League (23 votes) and Leeds United from the Midland League (31 votes).

The election of Leeds United was controversial in itself because they were seen by many as Leeds City under a new name. Leeds City had been thrown out of the League and disbanded only eight months earlier for financial irregularities, and the immediate admission of the club formed deliberately to replace them was viewed as distasteful by some. Although the Leeds City players had been sold off at a famous auction (three purchased by Lincoln City including future England international William Ashurst), there was a clear overlap off the field.

Having said that, Lincoln would still have been replaced by Cardiff even without the presence of Leeds United. However, it didn't end there.

A proposal was then made to form a Third Division by taking over the Southern League First Division in its entirety. The move was voted through.

Then they noticed they were one club short because Cardiff had been elected directly into the Second Division (despite having only finished fourth in the Southern League). Because Grimsby had polled more votes than Lincoln in the original re-election bid, Grimsby were accepted for the new Third Division and Lincoln were basically told to sod off. The Football League promised that any future application for membership from Lincoln would be viewed favourably, but the decision meant that Lincoln were effectively relegated from English football's second tier to obscurity below the third tier in one fell swoop. It is the only time in the history of the Football League that such a thing has happened.

There should have been a second vote for Third Division membership, of course, instead of simply taking over the Southern League. Would Lincoln really have polled fewer votes than the likes of Merthyr Town and Newport County in such a vote? Interestingly, only Cardiff and Millwall of those elected in May 1920 had previously applied for Football League membership at all.

At the very least, there should have been a second vote to determine whether Lincoln or Grimsby should fill the remaining place in the new Third Division. One wonders how Lincoln would have fared in such a vote, given that Lincoln was an hour closer to every single one of the new (southern-based) Third Division clubs than Grimsby was. Using the original vote for re-election to the Second Division as the basis for election to the new Third Division was a crass thing to do because the circumstances were different, not least geographically.

At the end of all of that, would it not have been far easier simply to retain the Second Division as it was at the end of the 1919-20 season and just add the Southern League First Division including Cardiff as the new Third Division? Would it not have been more equitable to make Leeds City/United wait another year before admission? Apparently not, and Lincoln headed back to the Midland League to replace Leeds United (who had taken over the fixtures of Leeds City Reserves in October 1919).

Incidentally, there was another bonkers decision made that season by the Southern League when they did not permit promotion or relegation before their First Division was co-opted into the Football League - see our article on Mid-Rhondda for details.
Click to expand...
I take comfort from the way football's authorities learn from their mistakes
 
The remaining fixtures - we can take Walsall out of the equation after tonight's win:

Saturday 17th:
COLCHESTER v Walsall
Exeter v SOUTHEND
GRIMSBY v Bolton
Orient v BARROW

Tuesday 20th:
BARROW v Port Vale
COLCHESTER v SOUTHEND
GRIMSBY v Morecambe

Saturday 24th:
Cheltenham v COLCHESTER
Oldham v GRIMSBY
SOUTHEND v Orient
Tranmere v BARROW

Tuesday 27th:
Exeter v GRIMSBY
Forest Green v BARROW

Saturday 1st May:
BARROW v SOUTHEND
COLCHESTER v Salford
GRIMSBY v Port Vale

Saturday 8th May:
Cambridge v GRIMSBY
Exeter v BARROW
Tranmere v COLCHESTER
SOUTHEND v Newport
 
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