MICHAEL POWELL FOR THE TIMES
You could plot a journey through the most memorable moments in Grimsby Town’s modern history via the presence of an inflatable fish called Harry Haddock.
Ever since a shoal of about 2,000 made a splash in the away end at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane during an FA Cup fifth-round tie in 1989 — and Des Lynam produced one from under his desk on Match of the Day — the iconic inflatable mascots have been out in force at every big occasion.
The League Two club’s voyage to the fifth-round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1996 on Wednesday night certainly falls into that category. More than 4,000 loyal fans are set to make the 460-mile round trip to St Mary’s. And yet Southampton decided that, in line with top-flight protocols, inflatables would be banned.
It did not take the Premier League club long — 24 hours, in fact — to realise it might be wise to make an exception. Perhaps they were reminded of the time, in 2017, when Barnet banned Grimsby’s fans from bringing inflatables to a League Two clash, and supporters crowdfunded £1,000 to hire a mariachi band to play in the away end instead.
Barnet’s decision had been in response to a sea of blow-ups — crocodiles, champagne bottles, giant phalluses, even a zimmer frame — in the away end for a Conference game, in which I played, in February 2015. Grimsby’s fans were protesting, in their own way, at the rough treatment of a fan who had refused to hand over a beach ball at Forest Green Rovers a fortnight earlier.
I had only joined the club in January. When we scored a 90th minute winner at The Hive, and the Grimsby faithful spilled onto the pitch, waving a cornucopia of inflatables in the air, it was a scene of brilliant, bonkers, chaos. “I’ll never take them for granted,” Paul Hurst, now in his second spell as manager, says — and given Hurst’s achievement in hauling Grimsby out of the National League, for the second time, last season, the feeling ought to be mutual.
After finishing sixth, Hurst’s team scored a 96th minute equaliser in the eliminator round against Notts County, before hitting the winner in extra-time. A 119th-minute winner, in a 5-4 thriller against nouveau riche Wrexham, put them in the final against Solihull Moors at the London Stadium, where the winner arrived in the 111th minute.
And under the stewardship of Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit, who completed a protracted takeover in May 2021 after almost two decades of stagnation, hope and ambition have returned to Blundell Park. The pair are dyed in the wool Grimsby fans. Pettit, whose family owned a butcher’s shop in the town for almost a century, worked for Lehman Brothers, the global financial services company, and Clifford Chance, the law firm, before founding a private equity property business.
Stockwood is a “council estate kid” who read philosophy at university before becoming a successful tech entrepreneur, holding senior roles with Skyscanner, match.com and last minute.com. He authored Reboot: A blueprint for happy, human business in the digital age, and was recently a visiting fellow in transformational leadership at Oxford University.
They want the club to act as a cornerstone and catalyst for regeneration in the town — a vision that made Blundell Park an apposite place for the secretary of state for culture, media & sport, Lucy Frazer, to formally announce a white paper on football governance on Thursday.
“You know how important the football club is to the area,” Hurst says. “Every club says that. But it really has its place at the heart of the town. It’s a big part of people’s lives. Using the football club as a vehicle to reach out to the community is really important to them.
“My role is the football side. But we’re on the same level in terms of values. And the biggest thing we talk about is people. The culture of the place, which is where the success Jason and Andrew have had in the companies they’ve been involved in. First and foremost, we want honest, good people who work hard.”
Sales on day one of Grimsby’s new kit release surpassed those in the first month of the previous year. An extra 2,000 season-tickets were sold too, taking the figure above 5,500, the highest in the club’s history. The average attendance (6,677) this season is the highest since their first division days.
Hope breeds expectation, of course. Grimsby’s first season back in League Two — they are 17th after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with leaders Leyton Orient, albeit with two or three games in hand on most rivals — has been “OK”, Hurst says, “but OK is not a word I particularly like. You always want better. I’ve had one full season [out of five] at this football club that’s not ended in reaching the play-offs. We haven’t been able to find that consistency this year. That’s why this cup run has been so welcome.”
Grimsby dispatched Plymouth Argyle, the League One title challengers, 5-1 in round one, then defeated Cambridge United and Burton Albion, also from the league above, in rounds two and three. Harry Clifton scored the all-important equaliser against Luton Town last month that took the Championship high-flyers back to Blundell Park, and the first in a three-goal first-half blitz to send the Mariners’ through in the replay.
Clifton, who joined Grimsby aged nine, knows as well as anyone how important the club’s fortunes are to the town he grew up in. “When Grimsby did the double [Football League Trophy and Second Division play-offs] in 1998, my mum went to Wembley pregnant with me,” Clifton, who has eight goals from midfield this season, says.
“There’s pictures of my mum, about six months pregnant, my grandad, my uncle and my older brother, who was four at the time, going down there, and I suppose I was in the picture — in my mum’s womb.
“I mostly went to games with my grandad, Billy, though. He came to watch me play everywhere too — school games, reserve games, everywhere. He passed away 18 months ago. But it was the proudest thing for him seeing me playing for Grimsby.”
Rubén Sellés’s appointment by Southampton last week, until the end of the season, follows the departure of Nathan Jones, who, as someone who has managed in all three tiers of the EFL, Hurst was sorry to see dismissed just three months after joining from Luton.
There are parallels, perhaps, with Hurst’s experience at Ipswich Town, which also ended after 14 games six months after he led Shrewsbury Town to the 2018 League One play-off final, given that both managers worked hard in lower divisions for a rare opportunity in a higher one.
“You find yourself in a position where you’ve been an up and coming manager, and suddenly you’re [viewed as] a bang average one,” Hurst says. “It just shows how quickly things can change, I suppose.
“Working so hard to get an opportunity like that, and then getting the sack for the first time, I almost felt a bit embarrassed. It took some time [to get over]. But I always felt I would get another opportunity.”
Sometimes, though, a club and manager just fit. “I do think there’s something in that,” Hurst says. “I’m not one to break out the violins, but I was brought up in a council house, my mum and dad both faced times when they were out of work. I see value in hard work — and I think that fits this area.
“I get what the club means to the area. Plus, when you spend a bit of time anywhere, that relationship grows. I feel very fortunate. And I think there’s a lot of progression to come for this football club.
“Now we are going to a Premier League team, a nice stadium to visit, and it will be a great challenge for the players. And for the fans — they’ve had some good times here: trips to Wembley, promotions — but they’ve had some tough times as well.
“Hopefully we can make another memory.”
|
Site Home
News
Football
Season
Database
Club
POM
Contact
Home
Calendar
Search
Register
Login
Mariner John
Southwark Mariner
Logged
