Marked for Darragh Burns
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Charlie Carrick damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Zak Gilsenan breaks a bone — 89 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Grimsby Town did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Shea Connor is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Christy Pym in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.45 on the card, and the Grimsby Town support went home talking about one name.
Market28 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 5.00, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Sep 2026
Bristol Rovers are out and Grimsby Town go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Grimsby Town do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Christy Pym was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Leandro Wauters gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leandro Wauters has just signed for Grimsby Town, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zak Gilsenan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ollie Wright gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Grimsby Town are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.59 on the card, and the Grimsby Town support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Chizzy Ezenwata at 18 — 7.72
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chizzy Ezenwata did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jonatan Reis in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Christy Pym
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Darragh Burns at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Grimsby Town.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Cambridge United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Will Merry and Grimsby Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market14 Sep 2026
Will Merry is 20, and Grimsby Town have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Géza Dávid Turi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Zak Gilsenan reports back to Grimsby Town with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jonatan Reis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Darragh Burns named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Darragh Burns is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.12, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jamie Walker, and the manager let it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Grimsby Town will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Chesterfield came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tyrell Sellars-Fleming did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Grimsby Town have 3 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Wycombe Wanderers pay $560.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A move Esteban Pourcher would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Esteban Pourcher is living that version at Grimsby Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jonatan Reis in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tyrell Sellars-Fleming has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Grimsby Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.69 for the rest of it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Gillingham made Grimsby Town work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jonatan Reis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Maldini Kacurri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.84. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Grimsby Town are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Charlie Carrick falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Jonatan Reis, 37, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” George Evans commits to Grimsby Town for another 3 years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jonatan Reis in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Darragh Burns at his very best
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Grimsby Town.
Squad17 Aug 2026
George Evans has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Grimsby Town know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Grimsby Town will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darragh Burns and Grimsby Town agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Grimsby Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Vernam is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grimsby Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Grimsby Town signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.