There’s been a party atmosphere around Blundell Park for the last three weeks. It reached it’s crescendo at 3pm and 26 seconds on Sunday 10 May. Around three minutes later, it came to a crashing end, and now David Artell’s Grimsby Town side have one last chance to rectify that in Friday night’s return leg in Greater Manchester.

This Mariners side have been here before. Following last month’s defeat at Chesterfield, the Mariners’ course looked run, another play-off near miss beckoned. But the 2025/26 season has been full of twists and turns, and there were more in the bag. The Spireites dropped points at Fleetwood, Town racked up a 4-1 win at Gillingham, meanwhile Swindon (who at one point looked nailed on for an automatic promotion position) were in freefall.

The real test came from a rearranged trip to Cambridge United. The U’s had their own automatic promotion bid on their minds and with just one home defeat at that point in the season. Yet the Mariners rallied to triumph through Cameron McJannet’s injury time winner. Now they were in pole position for the play-offs. Swindon were the visitors to Cleethorpes next, play-off candidates in their own right but never has a match against a top seven side been more of a formality. There was no way the Robins, with former Mariners’ boss Ian Holloway orchestrating his own drama at their helm, were going to come to Blundell Park and get anything.

Parade preludes procession

Town fans were silently baying for the former QPR man’s blood. There would be no better way to exact revenge than stick another nail in the coffin of Holloway’s own promotion aspirations. The pre-match parade down to Blundell Park had a carnival atmosphere – it preceded a procession on the field. It is rare that a 4-0 scoreline fails to underscore the superiority of one team over another, but in truth had Town hit double figures against Swindon then it would have been thoroughly deserved.

So that brings us to Sunday’s semi-final first leg against Salford City. Did the Mariners get ahead of themselves? There was something of the Cheltenham 2006 about this one. It was easy to point to two fairly convincing victories over the Ammies during the course of the season – those results obviously counting for nought at this stage. There was talk of a ‘tinpot’ opposition who failed to sell out their own allocation, and offered the Mariners the bare minimum in reply for the second leg. The walk down from Cleethorpes High Street to Blundell Park saw a fervent atmosphere almost at fever pitch. Reece Staunton’s superb opener – a cushioned volley from distance inside the first 30 seconds – threatened to send the old ground into orbit.

And then it all came crashing down.

An uncharacteristic performance

Salford were level within the opening five minutes. It was uncharacteristic from Town; not one, not two, but three defenders got drawn to the ball on a simple throw-in. It left Daniel Odoh with the simple task of rolling the ball to team-mate Kallum Cesay who slotted home calmly into the bottom corner. Never before have I heard the collective air suck out of Blundell Park so dramatically – it was the most almighty crash back down to earth that would have had the Artemis II astronauts holding their collective breath in fear.

It perhaps translated to the pitch. Town were simply not on their game. Gone was the side that swept past Swindon and Crewe and Barrow, in its place was the one humbled by Harrogate. Salford largely dictated the pace with swift counter attacks, although Jaze Kabia had the best chance for the Mariners, spooning over from six yards following great work by Geza David Turi – it looked easier to score.

Artell’s defence looked shaky. Player of the Year Harvey Rodgers struggling to make inroads down the right side, Maldini Kacurri and McJannet being exposed for pace, and Staunton being pulled all over out of position. Town often struggle in front of sell-out home crowds and the downside of scoring so early is it gives the opposition 89 and a half minutes to regroup, which they did in fine fettle. Then came the talking point. A corner from the left was swung in by Luke Garbutt and met by the head of Adebola Oluwo. It took a flick off McJannet and seemed to travel in slow motion into the goal. The Mariners players immediately surrounded the referee – they thought there was an offside. TV replays showed Salford’s Haji Mnoga clearly stood in front of Town stopper Jackson Smith, thus blocking his line of vision. A clear offside. The protest fell on deaf ears. The goal stood.

The red mist rolls in

Disbelief turned to outrage. Artell uncharacteristically lost his head, berating the officials all the way to the half-time whistle. Mr. Cool had seen red but the Mariners needed to turn that anger into the positive energy that at least levelled proceedings in the second half. They couldn’t do it. Plan A of the long ball to Andy Cook in the hope of flick-ons for Kabia and Justin Amaluzor wasn’t working. There didn’t appear to be a Plan B; substitutes Charles Vernam and Darragh Burns failed to have the desired effect. Meanwhile Salford seemed to flit between systems and formations at will to frustrate the hosts. The noise was coming from the ‘tinpot’ following in the Osmond.

It was difficult for Artell. Do you stick or twist? Salford’s threat on the break meant that if Town pushed too many forward in search of an equaliser, the tie could be over as a contest – the Ammies have really hurt the Mariners at Blundell Park in the past. In the end, the manager has probably tried to do both – grab an equaliser to make it a one-off game at Moor Park, whilst keeping things tight to ensure there’s still hope in the second leg. And that is the thing to remember, it is half-time in this tie. Very few expected the Mariners to go to Cambridge and get something, they came away with all three points. They have a fairly good record at Salford, and Hull City have already shown in the Championship play-offs that the tie is not over after the home leg.

Hopefully there’s nothing to distract the club from the mighty task at hand between the end of Sunday’s game and Friday’s big clash…