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No Plaice In St Mary's For Harry Haddock After Ban For Grimsby FA Cup Tie
Tuesday, 14th Feb 2023 10:47

Southampton Football Club have shown a distinct lack of a sense of humour by refusing to allow Harry Haddock into St Mary's Stadium for the forthcoming FA cup tie against Grimsby Town.

There is no Plaice for Grimsby Town fan favourite Harry Haddock when the Mariners travel South to take on Saints in the 5th round of the FA Cup.

Harry though is not a person but the iconic inflatable fish mascot that the Grimsby supporters like to display at big games.

Older supporters will remember the fashion for taking inflatable objects to football matches back in the late 80's, Manchester City are credited with starting the craze in 1987 with an inflatable banana and it all blew up from there (All pun intended)

Soon fans around the country were taking their own versions to games and that included Grimsby Town who took inflatable fish and soon Harry Haddock was born.

Grimsby has always been known for it's fishing fleet, so it was natural that they would adopt a fish as their inflatable and they would proudly display it even when the team on the pitch was getting battered.

Goals scored from chips were celebrated with hundreds of Harry Haddocks being waved by the Grimsby fans whilst their opponents got a birds eye view of proceedings.

Sadly are fishy friends along the M27 didn't get with the programme and did not attend games with inflatable skates.

But 35 or so years later it seems that the fun has gone out of football, Southampton FC have turned down an official request for Grimsby fans to bring in Harry Haddock en masse, with almost 5,000 of their fans likely to attend it seems Saints did not want 5,000 Harry Haddocks in St Mary's.

Grimsby Town confirmed this to their own fans saying that Southampton had turned down their request and informed them that they (SFC) had turned down similar requests from other clubs and that any inflatables found would be confiscated.

Grimsby Town had this to say:

"The Club have today received confirmation from Southampton that Harry Haddocks will not be permitted at St Mary's for our Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round tie.

"We share our supporters' inevitable frustration at this decision but we know you will support us brilliantly in our first FA Cup Fifth Round tie since 1996."

This all sounds a little bizarre and some reading this might feel this is a hoaxm but apparently not and on social media Grimsby fans have been venting their frustrations with phrases such as "joyless" and "boring", while one warned it would only encourage supporters to "organise something that will cause you a bigger headache".

This is not the first time that Harry has been banned, he was barred from Barnet in 2017, but this is perhaps the highest profile.

Personally I can't see the harm in it, Premium League football lacks true fun at Premier league level, in the main the support is bland and follows the same pattern and the same old songs, so although I was not a great fan of the inflatable craze back in the day, times have changed so what is the harm.

Certainly I can't see much from a safety point of view, these are light inflatable pieces of plastic, they can't be thrown very far and even if they could they would barely be felt if one hit you.

Saints will claim that they could flood the pitch, but that never happened back in the 80's/90's so can't see why it will happen now.

All in all Southampton FC have shown a lack of humour.

Photo: Action Images



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dirk_doone added 11:11 - Feb 14
Fisherman's Friends is on at the Mayflower Tbeatre so there may be a plaice for them there
1

Kingsland34 added 11:16 - Feb 14
We've only just got rid of Taffy's inflated ego.
0

wessexman added 12:02 - Feb 14
"Sing when you are fishing, you only sing when you are fishing". Poor show by the Saints bosses. Having said that, there is enough hot air in the Saints boardroom.
2

SaintPaulVW added 12:07 - Feb 14
Just imagine 5000 Haddock's and a world class light show.

People pay good money to go to Disneyland for that.
1

Ifonly added 12:17 - Feb 14
Ban the haddocks? You've cod to be kidding.
1

Boris1977 added 12:50 - Feb 14
Maybe sports direct are lining him up as a replacement for Jones. Thinking outside the box etc.
0

ItchenNorth added 13:32 - Feb 14
That's all very deflating
1

halftimeorange added 13:48 - Feb 14
As if things weren't overblown enough I could bring my kazoo along to promote the buzz of excitement. Has no-one on the board ever been to Grimsby? Their fans need something to get pumped up!
0

DellBoyWally added 16:02 - Feb 14
Well, just hope we don't get battered!
From Jones to Marsch........out of the frying pan into the........deep fat fryer!?!?
As it's Grimsby I don't suppose we'll be pressed in like..........??
Answers on a postcard to the Data Department, Sport Republic, The Dell.....ooops! Saint Marys Stadium, Britannia Road, Southampton, SO9 2Div!
-1

PaleRider added 19:28 - Feb 14
I think this is really embarrassing - how ****ing humourless have Saints management become? SR are wrecking the club and its identity.
0

LondonSaint76 added 22:25 - Feb 14
That decision sounds like a load of pollocks - as for the old trout who made the final decision, I don't think their sole is in the right plaice. If their fans do come up with some cunning alternative plan to inconvenience us we will have ended up making a rod for our own backs - talk about baiting the opposition supporters...
0

ThereIn76 added 14:34 - Feb 15
Looks like Saints have decided to roe back on this decision:

https://gtfc.co.uk/haddock-is-back-on-the-menu/
0


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