Marked for Jayden Sweeney
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 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.