Lincoln City
The downfall of Grimsby Town Football Club
By theimps.tk
March 5 2009
Saturday's opponets Grimsby are certainly enjoying torrid times at the moment, slipping into the relegation zone on Tuesday night. It's a far cry from seven and a half years ago, so we now take a look on the events that turned Grimsby Town from a team on the verge of the Premiership, to a team that is quickly heading into the non-League.
September 1st 2001 has become a fading memory for the fans of Grimsby Town FC. The Mariners had started their season impressively and that date saw them go top after a win over Barnsley. City have won three of their five games in all competitions up until that point, including a victory over Lincoln in the Worthington Cup thanks to goals from Jevons and Rowan after Battersby's opener. However, it's been downhill ever since and soon after going top they started conceding goals for fun, including a 4-0 defeat at Manchester City, 5-0 at Crystal Palace and a 3-0 home reverse to Watford.
A rare highlight came not long afterwards with arguably Grimsby's finest ever performance, winning at Liverpool in the Worthington Cup, also coming from behind in that game. Times were still lean though and they only once twice out of the next twenty-one games and their promotion push had turned well and truly into a relegation battle, there was even a spell where the Mariners failed to score in sixteen out of twenty-two games, against getting beaten on several occasions by high scores, including a 4-0 defeat at Walsall.
However, the Mariners would survive the season with form coming just at the right time. They started finding the net on a regular basis and scored eight home goals in four days, beating Stockport 3-1 and Crystal Palace 5-2. A 6-2 home win over Wimbledon effectively secured their place in the First Division (as it was known then) and the Mariners lived to fight another day.
It was a season where they became one of the few teams in history to be both top and bottom of a Football League table during the same season. Paul Groves had taken over as manager but results during the 2002/3 season remained largely the same.
The Mariners failed to win until September 28th in what would turn out to be their last season in the First Division. However, entertainment was a-plenty with the Mariners. They lost 4-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers on October 26th, only to then beat Burnley 6-5 (yes, SIX-FIVE) at Blundell Park on October 29th. However, there weren't any victories similar to the Liverpool victory and Grimsby were relegated easily, finishing eleven points behind Stoke City, going down with Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton.
Many players left the club including Danny Coyne and George Santos. The Mariners struggled to adapt to Division Two and again found themselves on the end of numerous drubbings, including an 8-1 mauling at Hartlepool United and 6-0 at Oldham, the latter seeing Paul Groves sacked as manager. Iffy Onuora, amongst others was also deemed surplus to requirements and left the club. Grimsby suffered all season long and were relegated again, the second season running. John Fenty brought the majority shareholding of the club.
Grimsby's start to life in Division 3, rather the newly named League Two, wasn't exactly great. They were never really in danger of either relegation or promotion and the season passed rather quietly, with the exception of Russell Slade joining as manager and he started building a side potentially capable of promotion. Kalala, Croft, Reddy and Parkinson joined the club and they were challenging for automatic promotion in 2005/6. Despite this, Grimsby fans were surprisingly not pleased with Slade's management style, but the Mariners plodded again and went into the final day looking automatic promotion in the face.
They faced already promoted Northampton at home, whereas Leyton Orient, the only team who could get promoted instead of Grimsby, travelled to relegation threatened Oxford. Grimsby were heading up for the vast majority of the afternoon but then, with one minute to go in either game, the scorelines changed. Northampton equalised at Blundell Park and Leyton Orient scored, securing their promotion and Oxford's relegation, meaning that Grimsby were in the Playoffs and would face City.
The Imps had two goals disallowed early on in the first leg before Jones scored with a rare Grimsby attack. The first leg finished 1-0 to the Mariners but Marvin Robinson equalised for City in the second leg, securing his golden boat for the season. However, goals from Jones and Futcher sent the Mariners to the Millennium Stadium. A poor performance later and Cheltenham's Steve Guinan scored the goal to condemn Grimsby to another season in League Two.
Slade left the club after failing to agree a new contract, replaced by Graham Rodger. He signed Peter Beagrie, Phil Barnes and several others, but the Mariners still weren't having things their way, mainly due to Michael Reddy being injured on quite a regular basis. The inspirational forward never recovered from the injuries and neither did the Mariners. Rodger was sacked a few months later before Buckley returned to Blundell Park as manager, his third time in the hotseat.
2007/8 was only really memorable for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final appearance at Wembley, losing out to MK Dons as Paul Ince's men secured a League and Cup double. Grimsby every League game after that. Buckley left the club during the 2008/9 season after the worst start in the club's history and Mike Newell was appointed. However, Newell hasn't been able to rejuvenate Grimsby and they have now slipped into the relegation zone, that despite starting 17 points ahead two teams and 30 ahead of another.
Grimsby are certainly on a downward slide and if they do get relegated then it could put a half (well, another half) to plays for the Conoco Stadium, designed to seat 20,200 people.
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05/03/2009 22:11
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I would rather they stayed up though.
A good read Nathan.
To those on here were not around when that happened it was not nice , so ill pass on comments about grimsby going down
Last 2 home games 2600 and 3001 admin soon, i remember watching city in the conference tuesday night 1700 there.
Admin for them soon?
Quote:Helgy
But they are such a big club steeped in history they could not possibily go down.
Last 2 home games 2600 and 3001 admin soon, i remember watching city in the conference tuesday night 1700 there.
Admin for them soon?
Never that low mate, we only dropped below 2k once and that was 1st home game v Daggers.
Season before when we went down, the gates were embarrasingly low, including the lowest ever v Torquay which I attended.
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My first season supporting the imps after my conversion lol.
That season was amazing i always remember the Fisher Athletic full back as he looked like an extra from geronimo.
I was not going till today but my 2 eldest wanted to go to Gy.
I will say though the only thing Im grateful to them for is Bob Cumming and Nigel Batch(Great season,good times,but glad we did it over 20yrs ago!!)
And isnt that where the great Dave Felgate and Hobbo left us for and paid us pittance??Enough said!!
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