20 Questions: Grimsby Town

Grab your bucket and spade as we’re off to Cleethorpes for a catch-up with the inimitable Tony Butcher

Mar 24, 2025

Monday 24 March 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Burton Albion – Saturday 29 March, 12.30pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Exeter City – Saturday 5 April, 3pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Grimsby supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Monday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

It’s an early start for me this morning, heading over to Stockport for another full day of walking. That means the Wrexham stuff will have to wait until tomorrow (I’m sure the vast majority of you wouldn’t have wanted to sift through that shite first thing on a Monday morning anyway).

Instead, we’re kicking off a new week on The Scarf My Father Wore with Grimsby Town. County aren’t in the same division as the Mariners this season, which means we can’t have any more childish photos of your editor riding Thomas the Tank Engine at the seaside.

It also means we’ve been deprived of any content from the fantastic Tony Butcher, of Cod Almighty fame. In the absence of any games with Grimsby this season, we’ve rectified that by drafting in one of our favourite writers to pen the next instalment of our ‘20 Questions’ series.

Today’s edition is sponsored by DT Plastering Services and Damp Proofing Specialists. A big thank you to David.

Thanks also to Pete at 3Q Industrial Supplies for sponsoring our Grimsby Town content on the website.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 240.07 miles

Total steps so far: 392,922

Total raised so far: £2,287

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

Grimsby currently play in League Two, which is the fourth tier of English football. What’s that like as a division?

Like it was when you were here except all the space cowboys and money bags have disappeared and we’re left with 24 characters in search of an author. There are occasional moments of clarity between the turgid drudgery.

Describe a typical matchday for yourself in Cleethorpes.

Ah yes, the perfect day.

Get up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head, find my way downstairs and drive off to Meggies for sausage bap and chips in Choc-O-Latte. Park in strategically placed relative’s drive, coffee, chocolate biscuits, and sigh deeply as the team is announced and 3 o’clock looms. And then there’s the game. It can’t all be fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.

And then more coffee, more biscuits and what more do you need? And then, when it gets dark, we go home.

Who are your club’s biggest rivals?

It rather depends what time of day it is. Lincoln and Scunny would be if we played them, but we don’t these days and Scunny’s near-death experience did take the wind out of those particular sails.

In divisional terms obviously it’s Donny, especially since Little Harry Clifton was lured by the bright lights of the big city and stopped being one of our own.

What’s your best memory following Grimsby?

For many personal reasons beating Everton at Goodison Park in 1984. First ever away game, and a last-minute winner.

But hey, you want to wallow in Wrexham’s pain and our glory, don’t you. Well, you had the pleasure of pipping them for that National League title, but that was nothing compared to our play-off campaign, topped off in the middle by the desolation of the smug.

The word surreal is overused and misused, but not for that game. It was an out-of-body experience, we lost sense of time and place. Most particularly with Waterfall’s winner which was absolutely in perfect line with all the Town fans. As soon as he headed it we could see the route through, the only flightpath it could have taken to go in. And it did.

Poor old Wreckers. Shocked. And stunned. Very stunned.

I know we only delayed the inevitable for a year, but what a delicious denouement. We’ll always have that moment against a very expensive pub team.

What’s your worst memory following Grimsby?

It isn’t the 8-1 defeat at Hartlepool, or the first relegation into non-league at Burton.

It is in the away end at Oldham, losing 5-0 at half-time, the entire team wilfully, cowardly sitting back and letting the player-manager, the legend, the all-round decent man, Paul Groves, try to hold back the tide all on his own as the crowd turned from sceptic to septic.

Rancid. Rotten.

If Grimsby Town was a TV show, which one would it be?

One that’s still on but people think finished years ago. People see it in the listings and think it’s a repeat and get confused that it’s not on the channel it used to be.

How about It’ll Be Alright On The Night - a random collection of mistakes and outtakes that people come across when channel hopping, hoping for some entertainment to fill in the dreary hours before bedtime.

What’s your ground called, and how would you describe it for someone who’s never visited before?

Oh c’mon, we’re like Rupert the Bear, everyone knows our name: Blundell Park.

It’s a heritage ground, with heritage views and heritage seats. Higgledy-piggledy, full of character and restricted views for the away support. Come on in for some of that Olde Time Religion.

Football as it was once seen, as it should be seen.

What’s your thoughts on Stockport County?

Challinor will never be forgiven for what he did to Martin Pringle and how he acted afterwards. It’s just a fact.

Generally, erm, no real gripes (apart from that open end). You’ve had your troubles and the fanbase don’t seem to be up themselves like some when money and success arrives by accident or design. You’re doing very well for yourself, but just be careful what you wish for: there’s a limit to what can be achieved and the cost of success may be too great.

Just enjoy yourselves when you can and don’t forget where you came from. I’m sure you won’t.

Have you ever visited the town of Stockport before?

For non-footballing reasons? No way man!

The last time? To see Town in 2022. And we won as we waited in that open end for the rain to come. I’d have gone again in 2023 but flooding on the A1 meant I was stuck in a death loop on the B roads of Sherwood Forest. There you are, the last time I went to Stockport I nearly went to Worksop instead. I know which is worse. Do you?

The Mariners last won at Edgeley Park in October 2022 (Photo credit: Grimsby Town FC)

What colours do you play in, and what’s the best ever kit Grimsby have had?

Black and white with red bits all over. I’m not a kit person, Reggie, I tend to remember those kits I dislike, which is frequently where the balance between black and white goes awry, especially too much white.

Apart from the shorts – far too small, so small they’d definitely have interested Leggy Mountbatten – quite a few of the kits in the 80s were dandy, like the one in which we beat Everton in 1984.

If Grimsby were playing in the next FA Cup final, who’d be at Wembley as your celebrity fan?

Town in the cup final? You cheeky chappie. OK, we’ll indulge your fantasies so you can fill space and time…

Dame Lucy Worsley, ‘cos her dad’s from Town and she went to a game once? Lady Patricia Hodge ‘cos she’s from Grimsby and never knowingly been to a game? One can hardly call Lloyd Griffith and Little Tommy Turgoose celebrity fans, for they are supporters, they go regularly.

After Grimsby’s defeat at EP last season, Thomas Turgoose and Lloyd Griffith ended up in Bask with some County fans

On a cold, dark midweek night, one can still see the ghost of Norman Lamont drifting along the back of Main Stand, they say.

There’s also some American bloke who’s latched on to us, Adam Richman - not that he bothered to include our fish and chips in his latest series about English football food.

What’s the most interesting fact about Grimsby Town we might not know?

How do we know what you don’t know?

Unlike Man United, Town have played in the games with the highest and lowest official attendances at Old Trafford (v Wolves in the 1939 FA Cup semi-final and v Barrow in an FA Cup replay in 1969).

Our chairman, local wholesale fish merchant Arthur Drewry, was president of the Football League, chairman of the FA and then the fifth president of FIFA in the 1950s. Yeah, really. Yeah. Really.

Who’s your all time Grimsby hero?

I don’t do hero worshipping, far too old and grizzled for that, seen so many false idols and false number 9s.

We look fondly upon many, we frown at a few.

Each decade had a monumental figure, sometimes two. I’m too young to appreciate the impact of Lawrie McMenemy (who, anyway, was rude to my grandad when Big Lawrie went to the council to complain about his bins). We like stayers and tryers with grit and a little bit of polish: Joe Waters, Paul Groves, Craig Disley, Alan Buckley were the sticks of rock running through some great teams and great days.

What sort of attendances do you get, and how would you describe Grimsby’s fanbase?

We’ve hit a ceiling, but in historic terms it’s a high ceiling of season ticket holders since the Defentystration and renaissance under Stockwood and Pettit, the 1878 Partners. We’re averaging in the middle 5,000s, which is not too bad, all things considered.

Ah, the fanbase. Our away support remains staggeringly persistent, no matter what the state of the team, no matter where we are. It is rare indeed for us to take less away than opponents bring in the return games.

And we take more away the worse we’re doing, which is indicative of the level of devotion from those who have caught the bug. So, we’re like everyone else but with knobs on, everything turned up to 11. Especially the black and white humour. We’re never happier than when we have something to groan about, of course.

What’s your manager like?

He’s a Yorkshireman, what more do you need to know?

Dour and dry, of course, but underneath it all he’s a pragmatic dreamer and schemer, a man with a thousand plans to let his students flower and flourish. He’s a head coach, not a personality driven ego-manager.

What are your owners like?

Splendidly sensible chaps, the complete opposite of what came before. Empathy, understanding, a long-term plan, the courage to stick with their plans yet without the ego to dogmatically believe that they know best.

They are not glib, they don’t tell fibs. There is no panic, no pomposity, and every sane Town fan has no concerns.

What’s it like for a night out in Cleethorpes?

I have no idea, I don’t live there, and haven’t for nearly 40 years. It used to be a swinging place where you’d be dodging flying pints and fists, a pub on every corner with the densest concentration of bars in Britain.

But now it’s a bit of a ghost town by comparison. Sure, sure there’s still bars and many a lad seeing stars, but it’s not what it was. It’s a bit like everywhere else, but with more chip shops (but less than there used to be).

What’s the best thing about being a Grimsby fan?

You’re never more than six feet from one. We’re everywhere!

What’s the worst thing about being a Grimsby fan?

Other Town fans. No matter how witty, magnanimous, self-aware, honest and realistic the majority are there’s a complete tosser no more than six feet away, ready to drag you down with their moronic, trite, copycat crap.

Plus ça change, they’re everywhere.

What are your hopes for the rest of this season?

I don’t have any. We’re safe, we’re sound. The rest of the season? Well it’s a bonus in’t it considering where we were last year and thought we’d be this.

➡️ Enjoyed today’s article? Click here for all of the other ‘20 Questions’ features we’ve published.

Time for a spruce up at home?

DT Plastering Services and Damp Proofing Specialists are a reputable company offering specialist plastering and damp proofing services covering Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

If you’re looking to have a spruce up ahead of the summer, now’s a good time to think about external render repairs and render painting, with the photo above showing a fine transformation on a recent client’s house.

➡️ Visit dtplasteringanddampproofing.com for further details.

Photo of the day

Blundell Park, Cleethorpes

Our 3-1 victory at Grimsby last season was the 100th consecutive County league game for Dave Harris.

A few words from 3Q Industrial Supplies

3Q Industrial Supplies Ltd is a business inspired by quality, delivering engineering products to the end user market, in a way which differentiates 3Q from its competition.

Formed in 2002 and having many successful years in business, a fact we would very much like to thank our customers for, 3Q have built a reputation on Quality Service, Quality People and Quality Products.

We pride ourselves in building long-term relationships, which has resulted in us developing a list of customers who we have been doing business with for many years.

We provide services in three specific areas:

Industrial Supplies
Stores Management
Engineering Solutions

Our experience covers the following areas:

Renewable Energy
Bio-Diesel
Petro-Chemical
Food Production

We have a highly experienced team of Stores Management specialists, providing managed stores facilities for industry leading companies across the UK. Our growth has been driven by our flexibility and experience in delivering exactly what the customer needs, by offering a profitable solution for both parties.

➡️ Visit 3qind.co.uk for further details.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

Two films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Sing Sing (15) at 6.15pm, followed by Nickel Boys (12A) at 8.30pm.

➡️ Click here for tickets.

🍟 Food and drink

Happy Hour at Covent Garden Café (SK1) between 1.30pm and 2.30pm. If you spend £20 or more you get to roll the dice, and if you roll a 6 your bill is half price!

Enjoy a coffee and a cake for just £6 at The Dog & Partridge (SK2). The perfect excuse for a catch-up! 12pm - 4pm.

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8). Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Alexandra (SK3), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), Flute & Firkin (SK12) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks or a bite to eat.

🎶 Free jukebox

The Nelson Tavern (SK1). From 6.30pm.

Random snippets from old County programmes

#28 - County v Bristol City, 17 April 1999

A double-page interview with Jim Gannon ended with this lovely quote.

“I don’t feel as though my career is petering out. I still love the game now as much as I always did. I don’t look for much in life, just good family and friends and job satisfaction, and at the moment I’ve got it all.”