A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE

GRIMSBY TOWN LEAVE THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Grimsby Town were formed as Grimsby Pelham Football Club in 1878, changed their name a year later, and moved to their current stadium, Blundell Park in 1898. An oddity is the ground actually being in another town, Cleethorpes. Neil Woods was made permanent manager on 23 November 2009 but under Woods they struggled and despite winning four and drawing one of their last six games to give them a chance of league survival going into the last game of the season, they were defeated 3–0 by Burton Albion, and thus were relegated from the Football League for the first time in nearly 100 years. They had even had flirtations with the elite of division 1 in the 1930’s and again in the 1990’s.

Our Match Programme, The Mariner, is one of the finest I have ever read and with 72 pages of glossy colour it’s no surprise that, on the front cover they are proud to announce a National Programme Winner and Programme Monthly Best Value Award. For a club with so much worry as to their League status it is so jam packed full of articles that are far too many to mention, suffice to say that going into their last home match v Barnet on Saturday 1st May 2010 in which they won 2-0, there was still hope of being saved from relegation and the Chairman in his forward recognises the magnitude of the task but a 0-3 defeat at Burton Albion on 8th May sealed it and they were down. Everyone at the club seemed to offer their views in articles and plenty of focus was given to Reserve, Youth Academy and even down to Under 11 teams. The Mascots got cover, Supporters trust and Community corner, profile on Barnet, a look back in the season, Match facts and league table plus, as I say, loads more that meant fans needing to take the Programme home to get full value of it £2.50. A brilliant read and historical record of the Mariners.

Grimsby Town fought hard to regain Football League status but were in the Football Conference until 2015 reaching third place when it became the National League from which they were promoted in 2016 through the play-off system but in 2021 relegation came their way again finishing last behind Southend United. Both were relegated to the National League, Southend United after 101 years. The never-say-die Lincolnshire spirit continued and once again, despite finishing 6th in the League, thanks to the play offs, Grimsby Town were elevated back to the Football League Two.

They are the only team in Lincolnshire to have played in the top tier of English Football.