Getting to know the Blue Square Premier : Grimsby Town

Our old "friends" Grimsby Town have been in the Conference for twelve months and it was an eventful year for the Mariners. They were the only club who Crawley didn't beat in the League but inconsistencies meant that they never really stood a realistic chance of the Playoffs.

Official Website - Fan Site 1 - Fan Site 2 

Much like our look at Darlington, I'm not going to focus too much on Grimsby's history due to the familiarity that most Imps fans will have with the Mariners.

The Imps and Grimsby were both in League Two as little as 13 months ago and to be fair, there were many reasons why a lot of Lincoln fans were pleased to see Grimsby relegated, for me personally is was because we had an awful record against Grimsby. In seventeen meetings both competitive and non-competitive (12 League, 2 Playoff, 1 LDV, 1 friendly and 1 Lincolnshire Senior Cup) since the summer of 2004.....Lincoln have won just three, the last of which was in December 2006 and City haven't even scored from open play at Grimsby since January 2005.....not that Grimsby leaving meant our points total improved as now the derby will be back after just a twelve month absense.

In the year they were gone, Grimsby became the only side that eventual Champions Crawley failed to beat as they also joined a rare club. Grimsby are one of only four clubs that have played all of the top five divisions in the country, the others being Carlisle United, Oxford United and Luton Town. Despite a good record against the Champions, Grimsby's problem was inconsistences and their season was summed up by the fact that they won their first two games of 2011 7-2 and 6-1 against Mansfield and Histon respectively, but they went on to win just six of their remaining twenty-five games in all competitions, including being put out of the FA Trophy at Chasetown when former Lincoln man Gary Birch scored.

Their season ended frustratingly as in their final seven home games, they threw away two goal leads to Gateshead, Tamworth, Kidderminster and Bath, not that it made much difference as they finished sixteen points off of the top five.

Much like Lincoln, Grimsby haven't signed any new players yet, although they have been heavily linked with several Boston players thanks to the arrival of former Boston managers Paul Hurst and Rob Scott, although the legal battle with Boston United might be a reason why nothing seems to be happening on that front.

Next season Grimsby will be hoping for a top ten finish, something they have only managed once in the last thirteen seasons......at least they finished top half in the 2010/11 season, something which they only managed once in their six years in League Two.