Parallels With 30 Years Ago

Thirty years ago this season was Sir Alan's first season in charge of The Mariners. Anyone over 40 who regularly watched Town at that time will remember that Buckley's way of playing the game didn't meet with either instant success or universal appreciation by fans who had suffered five years of rapid decline. I vividly remember watching the team surrender meekly to a Rochdale side struggling to shake off the tag of perennial strugglers and the word consistency was never used in the same sentence as GTFC.
Then on one wet night in November something happened. A Donny side nearer the top of the Division 4 table than the bottom were put to the sword 5-0 in what was described by the Grimsby Evening Telegraph at the time as a scintillating display of attacking football. Within days runaway league leaders Wolves had been beaten in the F.A. Cup and there was a buzz around the club that saw renewed enthusiasm. Quite simply the Town had woken up to what they were seeing.
I would never risk making predictions-God knows we've had many a false dawn over the last decade or so but how great would it be if the next couple of months be of 2018/19 followed a similar pattern??

On last nights performance and the last hour of Saturdays game and the game v Mk Mongs we SHOULD be beating Chesterfield very comfortably and finding ourselves in the hat for the 3rd round, , , , ,, ,

but, , , , ,,

We are Town and things don't always go to plan

I was thinking the same the other day , we was near the bottom until our cup run started the season Sir Alan took over .
We went onto beat Wolves who was running away with the third division , Rotherham who would end up Div 4 Champs and Middlesbrough away who was 5th in Div 1 at the time and we  nearly made the play offs after getting to the 5th round of the Fa cup .
A good cup run could  just be the thing we need , pushing up the league with no pressure would also give this team the rest of the season to Gel and improve .
Town fans are right miserable illegitimates most of the time but when they can see a team improving and giving their best they’re the greatest fans in this league .
Dare we believe ?

The similarities are not lost on me. We just got better and better that year. Had Gilbert joined a couple of months earlier, I think we'd have gone up in the 88/89 season. We weren't far off...

That midfield was also run by an energetic, never-give-up midfield ball of energy who was also a local lad.
Bit early in Harry's career to make the Cockers comparison, but another exciting potential parallel.

A couple of more footballing wins on the bang and a decent 3rd round cup draw would certainly keep momentum going....

Loving the optimism around the club at the moment. It feels like it could be the start of something special, but whether it or it isn't, I think we deserve to dream after the s**t of the past twenty years...

A lot of clubs have overtaken us in the last 30 years in terms of facilities and fan base. The Bosman ruling has also made it a lot harder to hang on to decent players than it was then. 30 years ago Dembele would be still here for starters!

also similarily the game was played out a decrepit Blundell Park ...  

Quoted from grimps

I was thinking the same the other day , we was near the bottom until our cup run started the season Sir Alan took over .
We went onto beat Wolves who was running away with the third division , Rotherham who would end up Div 4 Champs and Middlesbrough away who was 5th in Div 1 at the time and we  nearly made the play offs after getting to the 5th round of the Fa cup .
A good cup run could  just be the thing we need , pushing up the league with no pressure would also give this team the rest of the season to Gel and improve .
Town fans are right miserable illegitimates most of the time but when they can see a team improving and giving their best they’re the greatest fans in this league .
Dare we believe ?

That same Rotherham side thumped us 0-4 at home in the League and was memorable in Town (I can`t remember but think it was 0-4 at HT) PULVERISED them for most of that game but couldn`t score and they were clapped off HT and FT and the attitude of most GY fans coming out the ground was someone is gonna cop a right hammering soon. It was a pretty bizarre reaction too be honest given the result and the Swins of the time used to write in scathing letters to the Telegraph demanding change and the following week saw plenty of letters. Those who had been and watched the game were rewarded though as the Buckley side clicked and swept all before them over the next few year`s playing a brand of football most could only ever dream of.Dare we dream history might be about to repeat itself?