Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system.
Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was founded as Grimsby Pelham Football Club in 1878, changed its name to Grimsby Town a year later, and moved to its current stadium, Blundell Park, in 1898. Grimsby Town is the most successful team of the three professional clubs in historic Lincolnshire, being the only one to play top-flight English football. It is also the only club of the three to reach an FA Cup semi-final (doing so on two occasions, both times during the 1930s). It has also spent more time in the English game's first and second tiers than any other club from Lincolnshire. Notable former managers include Bill Shankly, who went on to guide Liverpool to three League titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup triumph, and Lawrie McMenemy who, after securing promotion to the then Third Division in 1972, moved to Southampton where he won the FA Cup in 1976. Alan Buckley is the club's most successful manager; he had three spells between 1988 and 2008, guiding the club to three promotions and two appearances at Wembley Stadium during the 1997–98 season, winning both the Football League Trophy and the Football League Second Division play-off Final. In 2008, Buckley took Grimsby to the capital again, but lost out to MK Dons in the final of the Football League Trophy. The Mariners had also reached the Football League Two play-off Final in 2006 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, but lost the match 1–0 to Cheltenham Town. Later trips to Wembley in 2013 and 2016 saw them defeated in the FA Trophy final by Wrexham and FC Halifax Town respectively, having also lost at the venue in the 2015 National League play-off final to Bristol Rovers before finally gaining promotion by winning the 2016 final against Forest Green Rovers. Grimsby were again relegated out of the Football League in 2021, but secured an immediate promotion at the first attempt with victory over Solihull Moors in the 2022 National League play-off final at the London Stadium. In 2022–23, Grimsby Town became the first team in FA Cup history to defeat five teams from higher divisions following a 2–1 win at Premier League side Southampton to advance to the quarter-finals, before eventually losing to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Grimsby Town's relegation in 2010 made them the sixth club to compete in all top five divisions of English football (after Wimbledon, Wigan Athletic, Carlisle United, Oxford United and Luton Town, and before Leyton Orient, Notts County and Oldham Athletic). Grimsby's 1939 FA Cup semi-final attendance of 76,962 versus Wolverhampton Wanderers is still a record at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium. In 1954 they became the first English club to appoint a foreign manager, Hungarian Elemér Berkessy. The club's record appearance holder is John McDermott, who made 754 appearances between 1987 and 2007, while their leading scorer is Pat Glover, with 180 goals (1930–39).
History
Early years (1878–1918)
Grimsby Town was formed in 1878 after a meeting held at the Wellington Arms public house in Freeman Street, Grimsby. Several attendees included members of the local Worsley Cricket Club who wanted to form a football club to occupy the empty winter evenings after the cricket season had finished.
The club was originally called Grimsby Pelham, this being the family name of the Earl of Yarborough, a significant landowner in the area. In 1880 the club purchased land at Clee Park which was to become their ground until 1889 when they relocated to Abbey Park, before moving again in 1899 to their present home, Blundell Park. The original colours were blue and white hoops, which were changed to chocolate brown and blue quartered shirts in 1884.
In 1888 the club first played league football, joining the newly formed 'Combination'. The league soon collapsed and the following year the club applied to join the Football League, an application that was refused. Instead the club joined the Football Alliance. In 1890 the club became a limited company and in 1892 finally entered the Football League, when it was expanded to two divisions. The first game was a 2–1 victory over Northwich Victoria.
The 1901–02 season saw promotion to the First Division, having finished as champions; two seasons later they were relegated and within a decade they would be a non-League side again, failing re-election in 1910 and falling to the Midland League. However, they finished as champions at the first attempt and at the subsequent re-election vote, replaced local rivals Lincoln City in the Football League.
Grimsby Town and Hull City were the only two professional teams which had official permission to play league football on Christmas Day because of the demands of the fish trade, but that tradition has now disappeared following the dramatic reduction of their trawler fleets in recent years.
Inter-War years (1918–1945) This was the most successful period in the club's history. The first full season after World War I the club were relegated to the new Third Division; in the initial 1920–21 season they played against the former members of the Southern League who had been invited to form the new division, but after a year an equivalent Third Division North was created and Grimsby moved across to that. By 1929 they were back in Division One, where they stayed (with a brief break from 1932 to 1934) until 1939, obtaining their highest-ever league position, 5th in Division One, in the 1934–35 season. In 1925 they adopted the black and white stripes as their colours.
Three Grimsby Town players, forward Jackie Bestall, goalkeeper George Tweedy and defender Harry Betmead each received a solitary England cap during the period 1935–1937. They remain the only players from the club to have received full England honours.
Grimsby reached the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1936, the game was played at Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road, but lost 1–0 to Arsenal, with the goal coming from Cliff Bastin five minutes before half time.
On 20 February 1937, the club's record attendance of 31,651 was recorded when the club met Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup.
Grimsby also reached the semi-final of the FA Cup on 25 March 1939, Grimsby played Wolverhampton Wanderers, in a FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford. The attendance of 76,962 remains Old Trafford's largest ever attendance. The Mariners lost the game 5–0 after goalkeeper George Moulson was injured early in the match. With the rules forbidding substitutes for injuries, Grimsby had to play with 10 men and an outfield player in goal.
Post-war decline (1946–1970)
With the resumption of the Football League for the 1946–47 season after World War II the club was relegated at the end of the 1947–48 season and has never returned to the highest level. Much of the 1950s and 1960s were spent alternating between the Second Division and the Third Division North, later the Third Division. From July 1951 to January 1953 they were managed by Bill Shankly. His main problems were that Grimsby had been relegated twice in recent seasons, dropping from the First to the Third Division, and some good players had been transferred before he arrived. Shankly believed he still had good players to work with and was able to buy some additional players on the transfer market for low fees.
Grimsby made a strong challenge for promotion in 1951–52 but finished second, three points behind Lincoln City (only one team was promoted from Division Three North, with one from Division Three South).
Grimsby's aging team made a bright start in 1952–53 with five straight wins but eventually slipped and finished in 5th place. In 1953–54, Shankly became disillusioned when the board could not give him money to buy new players. He was reluctant to promote some promising reserves because of loyalty to the older players (a fault that was to resurface at Liverpool years later) and he finally resigned in January 1954, citing the board's lack of ambition as his main reason. Shankly's record in league football at Grimsby was 62 wins and 35 defeats from 118 matches. Shankly went on to win the Football League, FA Cup and UEFA Cup with Liverpool.
Grimsby became the first English football club to appoint a foreign manager with the appointment of Hungarian Elemér Berkessy in 1954. The appointment did not work out, and with the club in danger of having to apply for re-election, Allenby Chilton joined from Manchester United as the club's first player-manager. While Chilton was unable to stop Grimsby from finishing 23rd, they were comfortably re-elected with 49 votes, and the following season, Chilton led the club to the Third Division North title. Chilton continued as manager at Grimsby Town until April 1959 when he joined Wigan Athletic.
In 1968, Grimsby slipped into the Fourth Division for the first time. The following season, the club once more had to apply for re-election to the league, having finished second from bottom. It was in this season that the lowest-ever attendance for a Football League match at Blundell Park was ever recorded; 1,833 saw a 2–0 defeat to Brentford. Arthur Drewry, a local businessman, married the daughter of Grimsby Town's chairman, and subsequently served as a director of the club before his own chairmanship.Our Association Football Correspondent. "Mr. Arthur Drewry." The Times, London, 27 March 1961, pg 19. Drewry became President of the Football League and Chairman of the Football Association after Grimsby, before he was elected as the 5th president of FIFA.
Revival of the 1970s (1970–1980)
Grimsby Town broke their transfer record in 1972 with a fee of £20,000 for the signing of Phil Hubbard. In the same year 22,489 people witnessed a home victory against Exeter City that saw the club promoted as Division Four Champions. This turnaround was credited to the appointment of Lawrie McMenemy as manager.
The club stayed in Division Three until relegation in 1977 but were promoted again in 1979. A year later they finished as Third Division Champions under the stewardship of George Kerr and returned to the second tier of the English game, a level they had not been at for 16 years.
A popular myth has it that in 1976 the local Member of Parliament and then Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland invited the then United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to watch the Mariners play Gillingham. Despite this being widely reported in the media, with some outlets claiming Kissinger subsequently became a Grimsby fan, in reality Kissinger's Boeing 747 simply stopped off for a two-hour breakfast discussion with Crosland on the issue of Rhodesia at nearby RAF Waddington before flying directly to Nairobi. However, Crosland's decision to force the US foreign policy leader to fly from London to Lincolnshire for their Saturday morning meeting was influenced by his desire to stay in his constituency and watch his local football team.
Return to the Second Division (1980–1987) The first season back (1980–81) saw the club finish 7th. Work started that year on a new £1 million stand, originally called the Findus Stand (now known as the Young's Stand) after the former Barrett's Stand had been declared unsafe, the stand opened for the first time on 29 August 1982, as the Mariners played hosts to Leeds United. In the 1983–84 season the club finished 5th in the Second Division after spending most of the latter part of the campaign in the top three promotion places. This was their highest league finish since the 1947–48 season. Grimsby Town's stay in the Second Division ended in 1987, having spent much of the 1986–87 season in the top half of the table, but a run of 8 losses and 2 draws in the final 10 games saw them fall from 8th to 21st before they could return to second tier again.
Initial decline and double promotion (1987–1997)