Grimsby Town
Also written as Grimsby.
The club
Grimsby Town were founded in 1878 and play at Blundell Park, which is not in Grimsby at all but in Cleethorpes, the neighbouring resort town in North East Lincolnshire. Capacity is 9,546. The club are known as the Mariners, after the town's fishing industry, and play in black and white vertical stripes.
Recent seasons
Grimsby have been climbing back from a fall out of the Football League. They were 15th in League Two in 2019/20 with 47 points, then finished bottom of the division in 2020/21 with 43 points and were relegated to the National League. They came straight back up, finishing sixth in the National League in 2021/22 with 77 points and winning promotion through the play-offs. Back in League Two they were 11th in 2022/23 with 61 points, 21st in 2023/24 with 49, ninth in 2024/25 with 68, and seventh in 2025/26 with 78 points from 46 games, 22 wins, 12 draws and 12 defeats, 74 goals scored and 50 conceded. That put them into the play-offs, where they lost to Salford City: beaten 1-2 at Blundell Park on 10 May 2026 in front of 8,115, Staunton scoring inside the first minute before Cesay and Oluwo replied, then drawing 2-2 after extra time at the Peninsula Stadium on 15 May, Green and Kabia turning the tie around before Cesay won it in the 117th minute. Salford went through 4-3 on aggregate. Jaze Kabia was the season's top scorer with 18 league goals and 23 in all competitions. 2026/27 is Grimsby's fifth consecutive season in League Two.
Honours and landmarks
Grimsby won the Second Division in 1900/01 and again in 1933/34, the Third Division North in 1925/26, the Fourth Division in 1971/72 and the Third Division in 1979/80. They won the Football League Trophy in 1998, and in the same year won the Second Division play-off final. They were FA Cup semi-finalists in 1935/36 and 1938/39, and reached the National League play-off final in 2016 and 2022. Record attendance at Blundell Park is 31,651 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup on 20 February 1937. John McDermott holds the appearance record with 754 games between 1987 and 2007, a total unusual even by long-servant standards. Pat Glover is the leading goalscorer with 180 goals between 1930 and 1939.
Notable scorelines
Wikipedia's club page gives Grimsby's record win as 6-1 against Barnsley in 2003/04. No record defeat is stated there and none could be established from other sources consulted, so it should be treated as unknown.
The match the club will be remembered for from the recent past is the EFL Cup tie against Manchester United at Blundell Park on 27 August 2025, which finished 2-2 and which Grimsby won 12-11 on penalties in front of a crowd of 8,747, the season's biggest home attendance. It is widely described as one of the largest cup upsets on record. Grimsby went on to win 1-0 away at Sheffield Wednesday before losing 5-0 at home to Brentford in the fourth round on 28 October 2025, their heaviest defeat of the season. They also reached the fourth round of the FA Cup in 2025/26 and went out of the EFL Trophy at the group stage, where a home tie against Everton under-21s on 4 November 2025 drew 404, the lowest home crowd of the campaign.
Head-to-head notes
Grimsby do not publish all-time head-to-head records on a site that could be retrieved; the old grimsby-townfc.co.uk domain now redirects to an unrelated commercial site, and gtfc.co.uk returned an HTTP 403 to automated fetches. No published all-time record could be established for any 2026/27 League Two opponent.
What can be stated is recent context. Grimsby lost the 2026 play-off semi-final to Salford City, who are in the same division again this season, and that tie is the most recent competitive meeting of any significance. Striker Josh Andrews joined Grimsby from Gillingham on 1 July 2026, so the two Gillingham fixtures have an obvious line. Exeter City, Port Vale, Rotherham United and Northampton Town all came down from League One and Grimsby will not have played them in the league recently. Grimsby beat Lincoln City 5-1 in a pre-season friendly at Blundell Park on 28 July 2026, but Lincoln were promoted as League One champions and are not a League Two opponent.
Right now (2026/27)
David Artell is the manager; the date of his appointment could not be established from the sources consulted.
Summer signings: centre-back Edon Pruti from Sutton United on 17 June, striker Josh Andrews from Gillingham on a free transfer on 1 July, striker Andy Cook from Bradford City on 1 July, right-back Joe Foulkes from Kidderminster Harriers on a free transfer on 1 July, and midfielder Cian Doyle from Bray Wanderers on 27 July. The confirmed departure is winger Darragh Burns to Derry City on 11 July. Fees were not published for any of these deals.
Pre-season form has been good. Grimsby beat Lincoln City 5-1 at Blundell Park on 28 July 2026, Andy Cook scoring twice on his first appearances for the club.
League Two begins on 15 August 2026. Grimsby's opening fixture is at home to Exeter City at Blundell Park on Saturday 15 August at 3pm, one of the four clubs relegated from League One. The EFL Cup first round follows later in August; Grimsby's run in that competition last season is the obvious reference point.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimsby_Town_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Grimsby_Town_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Grimsby_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Grimsby_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_League_Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_League_Two http://www.fchd.info/GRIMSBYT.HTM
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.