When the final whistle blew on the final day of 2024/25, and Town had missed the play-offs by two agonising points after defeat to AFC Wimbledon, disappointment barely had time to settle before minds at Blundell Park turned to what came next. 

That’s when the ‘P word’ began to reverberate around Blundell Park — one that continues to this very day. Not promotion. Not play-offs. Not potential. Progress; a true sign of the leadership, mentoring and desire for continuous development that has been so prevalent during David Artell’s tenure as Town boss.

Not promotion. Not play-offs. Not potential. Progress

Having returned to the Football League in 2022, the Mariners enjoyed an eleventh-placed finish and the FA Cup Quarter Finals in their first season back in the 92 but then the wheels threatened to come off the bandwagon. Previous management duo Paul Hurst and Chris Doig admittedly struggled with the club’s preference for a data and analytical approach to player recruitment. There were whispers of unrest in the dressing room. Players struggled to adapt to Artell’s approach in his first few months in charge.

The manager was resolute though; he trusted his process, asking fans and players alike to do the same. The data that the club’s owners had put their faith in so resolutely showed that the Mariners were on the right course, even through home drubbings by the likes of Walsall and Doncaster Rovers. They just needed to get the right players in the right places and the correct mindset to drive things forward.

Going down to the crossroads

Town had been at this crossroads before, 20 years’ previously when they finished fourth in League Two but lost out in the Play Off Final to Cheltenham Town at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. If we’re brutally honest, in hindsight the writing was on the wall on that long trip back from South Wales. It was obvious that manager Russell Slade was going to move onto pastures new and take several of his best players with him, whilst attempting to entice even more to the West Country and Yeovil’s Huish Park.

This was a Mariners set-up that didn’t have a plan nor the resources to stop the inevitable slide down the division. A miraculous midtable finish in 2006/07 (having twice looked completely doomed during the course of the season), was followed by a Wembley appearance in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy the following season — a 2-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons. The alarm bells were ringing when Town finished that campaign with seven successive league defeats, and the emergency chute was deployed when the next season started with a similar run of results that culminated in manager Alan Buckley departing the club for a third time.

High-profile appointment Mike Newell was a disaster on the Hindenburg levels. You could see it coming; a flurry of unmotivated journeymen signings, clubs like Rotherham and Bournemouth (who had both started the campaign with minus 17 points) streaking past the Mariners in the league rankings. The eventual climax to the season that saw Town fans pouring onto the pitch after a loss at Bournemouth, and partying in the streets of Cleethorpes after a stalemate at home to Macclesfield on the final day of the 2008/09 season, as the side limped their way to safety in League Two. This was a proud club that 15 years earlier had been battling it out in the top half of the second tier, now they were trumpeting their very existence. 

Continuing on the downward spiral

The downward trajectory had continued — fourth, 15th, 16th, 22nd — you surely know what happens next? But after sweeping all before them in meaningless pre-season tournaments and non-competitive friendly matches, the talk coming out of Blundell Park was about the play-offs — not progress — not a steady improvement to mid-table, before building something for the next season. Fans and officials alike had convinced themselves that a lop-sided squad of mercenaries and a disinterested management team that spent more of their time in the pubs of rural Lincolnshire than the training ground was capable of mounting a serious promotion challenge.

That of course could not be further from the truth. Town plummeted to the foot of the League Two table and never looked outside the bottom three. Blundell Park became a happy hunting ground for most of the division, the Mariners leaked goals for fun on the road. Newell’s long-awaited departure in a flurry of chair hurling, tie-wiggling mayhem did little to halt the onrushing tsunami; Neil Woods won none of his matches in caretaker charge of the club but was handed the job on a permanent basis. He put his faith in youth but struggled to turnover a bloated, under-performing squad. Despite a valiant effort in the closing weeks of the season, the inevitable happened and the Mariners were relegated to the Conference on that fateful day at Burton Albion in May 2010.

Newell’s long-awaited departure in a flurry of tie-wiggling mayhem did little to halt the onrushing tsunami

It took the Mariners six long years to return to the Football League, and under the stewardship of Paul Hurst’s first spell as Town boss, it looked like they finally had a plan to cement their Football League status. But the former Rotherham favourite departed for League One Shrewsbury in October 2016, and the wheels quickly came off the bandwagon. There seemed to be a new manager each season at Blundell Park, accompanied by a gang of new signings; Town were content to mill around the lower reaches of the table to increasingly muted cries of ‘this year will be our year’, before the trapdoor inevitably opened again, as it did in 2020/21.

A new era

But with new owners at the helm in the shape of Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit, a swift return to the Football League was secured at the first attempt thanks to one of the most dramatic play off runs in memory. The new wave of positivity surrounding the Mariners saw the club do away with the blind optimism, finger crossing, and braggadocious attitude that had plagued the club for over a decade. So when the downward trajectory began to emerge again, the club’s owners did something about it, analysing the data at their disposal and entrusting their new manager, David Artell, to coach players who fit a system (and perhaps more crucially fit a culture and vision) that is instilled in them every day.

Perhaps the most telling quote of an enjoyable season for the Mariners came immediately in the aftermath of the Swindon home game, where Town secured their League Two Play Off place. With a microphone thrust in his face immediately after the final whistle, it would have been easy for the former Crewe boss to start championing his side and talking about potential semi-final opponents, and a potential date at the Wembley arch. His five-word response spoke volumes about his philosophy, the culture change that has taken place at Blundell Park, and the seismic shift that still needs to take place in the English game; “we haven’t achieved anything yet”. No empty promises, no chest thumping, no champagne spraying. It’s the sort of approach that saw Michael Olise (now one of the world’s best players) ridiculed for refusing to celebrate goals or one that made Gareth Southgate so hard to accept by a vocal majority of English fans — one that is borne away from the training ground and the traditions of the Beautiful Game but one that the Mariners seem to have embraced to tremendous effect — the realisation that there’s a difference between progress and achievement, and it takes lots of the former to get to the latter.

“We haven’t achieved anything yet”

The scenes following the final day draw at Tranmere spoke volumes. Fans of the Wirral side poured onto the pitch at the final whistle. The reason? They were celebrating the fact there were two sides worse than them in the division. That used to be Town — those hollow victories at Bournemouth (even though it was a defeat) and Barnet celebrated like a World Cup triumph. Not anymore. Whatever happens over the course of the two legs against Salford City, the Mariners can look back upon a season where they once again progressed. An incremental step into the top seven. Artell will know exactly what is needed to get his side to the next level. Perhaps for the first time in a generation, so do Grimsby Town. Rest assured, it won’t involve ripping up the playbook and bringing in another two dozen players.