The Fishy - Grimsby Town FC

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Who will go down?







Please not nine!
Please not nine!

History of the Wrong Kind

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 24/05/2008

SHOULD Grimsby lose their first game of 2008-2009 they will beat a club record for consecutive defeats. The Mariners lost their last eight games of 2007-2008, something that they only have done once before - exactly 100 years ago, in 1907-1908.

Alan Buckley's third spell has seen the worst two losing streaks in the last 80 years. The first was at the start of 2007 season and culminated in an infamous 4-1 defeat at Torquay. The second and current one of course includes an appearance at Wembley Stadium in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy against MK Dons.

All the other bad sequences occurred when Town were playing two divisions higher in the league, as can be seen below.

SeasonLosing RunDivision
1907-19088Division 2 (old)
1909-19107Division 2 (old)
1919-19207Division 2 (old)
1926-19277Division 2 (old)
2006-20077League Two
2007-20088League Two

Not all the omens are bad however. The good news is that long losing runs tend to be followed by purple patches.

Town broke their losing sequence on 11th January 1908 in a 0-0 draw with Bristol City, and then went on to enjoy a tremendous run of results until the end of the season, losing just 6 games in the next 21, and avoiding what looked a near certain relegation back at Christmas.

Town's spell was of course broken back in 2007 with an amazing 6-0 win at Boston, and they went on to win 7 out of the next 8 games and lift themselves away from relegation trouble.

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