Fixtures and results so far
Player profiles
Reserve team fixtures
Youth team fixtures
Articles
Features
Cod psychology
Mystic Mick
Al Wilkinson's poetry
Mat's tips
The Meek that was
Stats and analysis
Man of the match awards
Ballpark figures
Club finances
Season preview
Rough guide
Fans' predictions
Pre-season odds
Season review
The season in pictures
Euro 2004
Euro 2004 preview
What came before
Review previous campaigns covered by Cod Almighty
2002-03
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Next time round...
With the start of the season looming ever-closer, Cod Almighty asked a variety of Grimsby fans for their views on how the season will go. Over the next couple of pages you can read what they had to say.
Ian Vickers
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
A blow, certainly, but a chance to re-group and get rid of some dead wood. I think we’d become too dependent on loan players in a desperate bid to stay up, which was detrimental to the long-term progress of the club. Hopefully we can bring some of the younger players through in a less pressured, less money-driven division, and get back to Div 1 with a younger, more settled team.
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
Top six. (Fourth or fifth)
What will you consider to be a successful season?
See above.
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
With the same cheery mixture of blind optimism and dark foreboding as every year and, given my London location - mostly away from the Park and mostly in the South.
(Lord) Bill Brewster
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
A bit of both, though personally I was sick of watching a constantly struggling team in Division One.
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
Hopefully well, but we have failed to stay in this division for more than one season for the last 26 years or so. Which means… promotion or relegation.
What will you consider to be a successful season?
Play-offs.
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
By swearing a lot at Simon Ford.
Paul Ketchley
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
Disaster of course – look at the loss of money – losing Coyne, failing to attract Oster and making Wilko redundant. Relegation is always bad news and sadly it happened to us – although we’d played it close before hadn’t we?
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
We’d do well to make a play-off place – somehow I don’t see us doing that well though. I suspect we’ll end up in mid table.
What will you consider to be a successful season?
A play-off place will be a miracle. Can you see us doing better than QPR, Bristol City or Sheffield Wednesday, or even Brighton? So 5th or 6th would be a real achievement.
It would also be good to see some of the younger players showing some real talent – Ward looks the best of the bunch at the moment. As a rule we do well when we develop good young players and play football as it was meant to be played. Can Woods develop the young players like I think Wilkinson could?
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
I’m moving from Kent to St Albans in August – so I’ll be going to away games.
Mr Peter Kennedy
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
A chance to look forward. Every confidence in Paul Groves as manager.
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
Promotion, maybe via play-offs.
What will you consider to be a successful season?
Promotion.
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
Going to occasional home games and away games in the North West area.
Pat Bell
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
A blow - I think the odds are increasingly stacking up against smaller clubs, and it is going to get harder and harder for them to gain and sustain a place in a higher division. We are far from being giants in the second division - infact, midtable in the second division is probably about our natural station, based on attendances.
On the other hand, it has made it easier to get rid of one or two carthorses with nothing going for them but experience (not naming names...but Gallimore and Livingstone would be the ones I named if I was).
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
No idea, but I certainly can't see us gaining an automatic promotion place. Somewhere between midtable and scraping into the play-offs - a rare boring season, infact.
What will you consider to be a successful season?
Obviously if we do get promoted, that would be great, and a place in the play-offs would be fine. I'd actually settle for us keeping well clear of relegation and perhaps putting a decent run together in one of the cups, as long as we play (or try to play) some good football and see a few younger players establish themselves as genuine first team players, capable of better things next season.
That Tony Gallimore won't be left back and that whatever happens, we won't begin to look upon Livvo as a potential saviour is a step in the right direction (unless of course we re-sign Fostervold to take Gally's place).
I'd hate us to buy in to the philosophy that we need to hoof our way back to division one - and given we still only have midgets for strikers, it wouldn't work anyway.
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
Pretty passively, I'm afraid - public sector wages, a three year old son and not living that close to Grimsby takes care of that. Expect obsessive attention to the radio, Ceefax and various web sites, visits to most second division grounds in the North West and perhaps two or three trips across the Pennines from this corner of Urmston - Man Utd supporters for both my neighbours- this ain't no place to bring up kids.
David Burns
Sports Editor, Radio Humberside
Relegation – a blow for the club or a chance to look forward?
Definitely a blow, though I’d concede it might also be a chance to look forward. Much depends on whether the club are geared financially to take that chance.
I see it as a big blow for us a radio station, going to big First Division grounds every second week, meant big crowds and a big atmosphere and sound for our programmes, the Second Division will not provide the same.
How do you think the Mariners will do next season?
That’s the 64,000 dollar question, or in Town’s case the 64 dollar question!
As I write this I’m not sure, they still lack a keeper, a big experienced decent striker and enough quality in the squad. I also think they may regret letting Paul Wilkinson go, because I can only see the burden increasing on Paul Groves and Graham Rodger.
Much depends on the directors (essentially John Fenty, I think) giving them the resources to do the job properly.
It’ll also be interesting to see how the mind-set changes, from playing for survival every week to playing for promotion.
What will you consider to be a successful season?
Getting more fans back to Blundell Park; seeing the team play good entertaining football and being involved at the other end of the table... and finally having somebody convince me that the club will get a new stadium!
How will you be supporting the Mariners this season?
We’ve already paid a substantial sum to the club for commentary rights this season. We shall also continue to publicise the club and give them a chance to keep in touch with their fans by featuring them in our bulletins, on our programmes, by doing commentary on the radio and on the club’s official website. We also take them to a wider BBC audience, by feeding our stories to Look North, Ceefax and our own BBCi website.
Myself and John Tondeur will also support them by buying the odd pint and a sausage roll at Blundell Park and my son wants a season ticket for his 18th birthday. Guess who's buying it!
Click here for more pre-season thoughts.
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