B is Blundell Park, the home ground of Grimsby Town. With a capacity of 9,546, all of which is seated, Blundell Park is slightly smaller than Sincil Bank and is literally a stone throw away from Cleethorpes beach. Infact, it is one of the few grounds in the UK that isn't located in the place that the club is named after, along with grounds such as Nene Park (Rushden and Diamonds - the ground is in Irthlingborough) and Vale Park (no such place as Port Vale)

As you can see from the picture on the right, the view from the top row of the away end is near non-existent and you're barely able to see the half way line.

C is for Cod Almighty, one of the finest unofficial football websites in the country. It contains a regularly updated blog, a mail section from the readers and a number of fantastic articles - www.codalmighty.com
 

D is the Decade of Downfall for Grimsby. Very few Grimsby fans will ever look back on the 2000-2010 period as a period of good times for the club. They have only finished in the top half of any table once since the turn of the century, other than that they have been relegated twice and narrowly avoided relegation in six of the other eight seasons.

Since finishing 4^th in 2005/6, Grimsby have finished lower and lower with each passing season, infact, that season was the one time they've finished in a higher position than they had done the year before. If this trend continues then they will go down this season as they finished 22^nd last season.

E is for Ever Changing. Only one Grimsby player that is at the club has played more than 100 games for the club. Danny Boshell passed the 100 mark against Northampton last week, Nick Hegarty is ten behind on 90. Ryan Bennett has played 103 games but is effectively no longer at the club as he has been loaned out to Peterborough with a view to a permanent move.

Danny North is the current highest goalscorer out of everyone at the club, scoring 17 goals in 77 games.

F is the Final Minutes of the Final Game. Going into the final minutes of the final game of the 2005/6 season, Grimsby were up. They were beating Northampton Town and Leyton Orient were only drawing at Oxford United, a combination that would ensure the Mariners would finish above Orient.......but then it all changed.

Northampton were already up, Oxford were effectively down, so neither had anything to lose. Near enough at the exact same time, Northampton and Leyton Orient both scored, meaning that Oxford were definitely relegated and Orient secured a promotion along with Northampton. Grimsby went into the Playoffs.

Good record over City. City have recorded just three wins over the Mariners since Grimsby came into the division in 2004. Those all came within the first five League meetings, the wins being 4-2, 5-0 and 2-0. On the right you can also see Jamie Forrester scoring the winning goal in City's last win of Grimsby Town. 

Grimsby's first win was a 3-0 victory at Blundell Park on a very cold Tuesday evening back in December 2005, the Mariners scoring all their goals before half time.

Two wins in the Playoffs against City saw them progress to the Playoff Final, whereas a penalty win over City in the JP Trophy helped them progress to the next round. Their first double over the Imps came in 2007/8, winning 2-1 at Sincil Bank and 1-0 at Blundell Park, then came last season's 5-1 win at Blundell Park. City haven't beaten Grimsby since December 2006.

H is for Hartlepool, a side who have a habit of scoring quite a lot of goals against the Mariners. Although Grimsby beat them earlier this season in the JP Trophy, the Mariners have lost to the men from Victoria Park by scorelines of 8-1, 4-1 and 2-0 twice within the last six years.

I is the Impact on the Playoffs. In 2004/5 Grimsby faced Southend United on the final day. A draw on the final day with the Mariners forced Southend into the Playoffs, otherwise it would have been Swansea going into the end of season lottery. Southend would eventually beat City in the final.

Two seasons later and Grimsby Town were the final team to ever play a League game at Shrewsbury's Gay Meadow. The Imps were set to face Shrewsbury in the Playoffs if results stayed the same. The Imps had a great record over Shrewsbury, so things were looking good. However, a late Grimsby goal placed Shrewsbury one place further down, forcing City to face in-form Bristol Rovers.

So in effect, Grimsby were responsible for City going out of the Playoffs twice as we would have otherwise faced teams we had excellent records against.

J is Jevons, as in Phil, scorer of what has been called the best Grimsby goal of all time. See L for the game it was scored in.

K is for Kingsley Black. The midfielder joined the Imps on loan from Grimsby in 2000/1 before joining permanently the following summer. Other players to have played for both this century include Ciaran Toner, Matt Bloomer, Gary Croft, Martin Gritton, Andy Smith, Adam Buckley and Ian Hamilton.

L is Liverpool. Grimsby's reward for beating Lincoln and Sheffield United in the Carling Cup was a trip to Anfield in the third round. With the score 0-0 at full time, Liverpool took the lead with McAllister hitting a penalty. Broomes equalised minutes later. With the game heading into penalties, Phil Jevons popped up and scored in added on time to secure Grimsby a famous victory, and easily the highlight of this decade for them.

Michael Reddy is M- A striker who was hotly tipped for big things after a brilliant 2005/6 season. The former Sunderland striker, who at the time wore the longest shorts in football, was the main catalyst for Grimsby's only promotion chasing season since they came into League Two back in 2004. Although he wasn't the leading goalscorer at the Mariners, he was a real handful and battered the Imps in a 3-0 win for the Mariners, scoring one and setting up another.

However, he soon became riddled with hip injuries and after 3 surgeries, left Grimsby Town having scored 22 goals in 70 appearances, also featuring in the 2005/6 League Two Team of the Year.

His former Grimsby manager, Russell Slade, did give him a trial during his time at Yeovil Town, nothing came of it though. He has since retired from professional football, that despite rumours that he played in Greenland. He has also recently completed his UEFA B coaching licence.

N is for Neil Woods, the current caretaker manager at Blundell Park. He took over from Mike Newell several weeks ago.

O is for "Oi! Watch Out for that Plate." After a 3-2 defeat at Luton in 1995/6, Brian Laws was outraged at his side and in particular, Ivano Bonetti. Laws thought the Italian hadn't tried and told him in the subtle way of throwing a plate of chicken wings at the Italian. Bonetti left almost immediately, Laws left in November of the following season.

P is for Pelham, the original second name of Grimsby.

Q is Quite a Change. Much like Hartlepool, Grimsby's kit suppliers in 2006/7 were Nike and they changed the kit from the traditional black and white stripes to halves, not a popular decision. It was quickly changed back. Grimsby's kit was originally blue and white stripes, then plain white, plain red, white shirts with red and then the black of white came into play in 1910.

R is for the only manager to gain Grimsby a top half finish during the last ten years, Russell Slade. Slade was brought in after a successful spell at Scarborough in 2004 and when he left in 2006, he had won near enough 40% of his games in charge and had taken Grimsby to within one game of promotion twice during the 2005/6 season. Despite being easily the statistically best manager in charge of Grimsby this decade, the fans didn't rate Slade, he left three days after the Playoff Final after allegedly failing to reach a contract agreement.

He has since been sacked from Yeovil and Brighton.

He is also a big fan of Scott Kerr having been his manager at Scarborough. When Kerr's contract expired at the McCain Stadium he was offered a deal by Slade at Grimsby, but he joined the Imps instead. He was sent off in City's 1-0 defeat at Grimsby two years ago (seen left)

Shankly, as in Bill, a former Grimsby manager who went onto become one of the best managers in English history. Ironically he had failed an interview for Liverpool before being appointed by Grimsby in 1951, leaving Carlisle United. He rebuilt Grimsby after a period of poor form saw them fall from the top division to the English Third Division, including getting 20,000 crowds flocking to Blundell Park.

He eventually quit after becoming disillusioned at Blundell Park due to a lack of board ambition. He later went on to describe that Grimsby team as the best he had seen since the war.

T is for Toner, a Northern Irish midfielder who became one of the few men in history to play in a fixture two seasons running, but scoring for both teams. Toner joined the Imps in 2004 from Leyton Orient, but he struggled to get in the first team until an injury to Peter Gain gave him his chance. He certainly took it and scored his first goal for the Imps in a famous 4-2 win at Grimsby in January 2005.

He went on to become a vital part of turning City around that season from a midtable team to a side that eventually made the Playoffs, but he had long gone by then. Rumours, and I will stress rumours, started circulating that he and Marcus Richardson had gotten into an argument during training and it alledgely involved racist slurs from both parties.

Although the club obviously never confirmed these rumours, nor did they even confirm whom the players were, many people put two and two together when he and Richardson were never seen in a City shirt again.

After a loan spell at Cambridge, he joined Grimsby and set about helping them reach the Playoffs before leaving last year, including scoring the first in a 3-0 win over the Imps in 2005 (seen above).

He Recently seen playing his guitar in the Rochdale changing rooms on The Football League Show.

Up the Mariners is an annoyingly catchy song about Grimsby Town that was sung by The Pisces in 1978. The song can be found here - http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?page=up_the_mariners

V is Very complicated to think of a decent phrase for.

W is Wembley. The Mariners made two trips to Wembley in just a matter of weeks. The first was against Bournemouth in the Football League trophy. Kingsly Black scored an equaliser before Wayne Burnett hit a golden goal. A few weeks later and the Mariners were in the Playoff Final against Northampton Town. Kevin Donovan hit the winner and the Mariners returned to Division One.
 

X is for the eXception. The 2005/6 season is the only season since they won promotion at Wembley that they have managed a positive goal difference, +20 to precise. Other than that, they have "achieved" -12, -16, -19, -22, -37, -26, -1, -16, -11 and -18.

"You're Deluded".....two words that I am now infamous for following a huge rant on Youtube following our 5-1 defeat at Grimsby Town
 

Z is zero, the amount of goals a lot of fans will be scored by either team on Saturday.

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