By Nathan Jackson
July 29 2008

Grimsby Town reside in one of the country's oldest sporting venues, Cleethorpe's Blundell Park. The Mariners have recent spent time in the second tier of English football and even caused a League Cup shock, but times have been hard on the Mariners recently. Grimsby Pelham formed after a meeting in a local pub in 1878. Originally playing in a blue and white hoped shirt, they changed to brown and blue quartered shirts in 1884. The club's first ground was at Clee Park before moving to Abbey Park in 1889, before moving to the modern day Blundell Park in 1899, making it one of the longest tenancies in world football.

Grimsby first joined the Combination League before joining the Football Alliance in 1890, entering the Football League in 1892 when they became one of the first members of Division Two. It didn't take long for the Mariners to win promotion, infact it happened ten years after their entry into the League. However, they were relegated two season later before being relegated into the Midland League in 1910. A season and a title win later saw them replace Lincoln City in the Football League.

The years after the War saw Grimsby become a successful club for the first time. Despite being relegated to the newly formed Third Division in the first season back after the war, they were in Division One by 1929, changing to their current black and white stripes in the middle of this period. 5^th place in 1934/5 saw their best ever finishing position and in 1939, they faced Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford, an attendance of 76,962 still remaining as the highest attendance at a match at that stadium.

World War II set in and upon their return, Grimsby were quickly relegated from Division One and they would never return. They instead spent most of the next 20 years winning promotions and relegations before they were relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in 1968. Their stay in this division lasted a few years before over 20,000 people packed in Blundell Park to see the club promotion as Champions.

They were relegated back before then winning two very quick promotions. Their return to Division Two was successful for several years before a rapid decline saw a return to Division Four. Alan Buckley was appointed as manager for the first time in 1991 and led Grimsby to successive promotions before leaving the club in 1995 to manage West Brom.

Brian Laws was appointed to replace the Mariners before when an incident in the dressing room left Ivano Bonetti with a broken cheekbone. It's safe to say that Brian Laws didn't last much longer. Grimsby were relegated a year later before Alan Buckley returned in 1997/8. The club gained double Wembley success as they won the Auto Windscreens Shield and the Playoff final just four weeks later.

The next few years were a struggle in the division before Grimsby shocked Liverpool in the League Cup in the 2001/2 season. They had beaten the Imps on the way to Anfield and despite Liverpool going 1-0 up, Grimsby turned the game on it's head as they scored two later goals to progress.

However, times soon became hard for the Mariners and they suffered two relegations in a row and went into the newly re-branded League Two. A troublesome first season saw the basis for the club's push for promotion in the 2005/6 season. The Mariners were challenging for promotion for most of the season, but they had to settle for a place in the Playoffs. They beat Lincoln 3-1 on aggregate in the semi finals before a lacklusture performance cost them a defeat to Cheltenham Town in the final.

Since then and the club has been generally average, achieving midtable positions before a Johnstone's Paint Trophy final defeat to MK Dons last season.