Grimsby and Wolves

Is there some kind of deeper connection between the clubs that I'm unaware of? There appears to be some history between the clubs with both the highest attendances at old Trafford and Blundell park being FA cup games between Grimsby and Wolves and our old floodlights were bought from Wolves. Is all this just coincidence?

Yes

Old Trafford highest attendance- FA Cup semi. Crowd was probably mostly locals. Bit of a quirk in reailty.

Blundell Park highest attendance- further we'd gone in the cup for quite some time when attendances all over the country were at their peak levels.

Floodlights- Wolves were in the market to sell and we were in the market to buy.

Town signed Steve Stout from Wolves in 1988  and he bought my house in Southern Walk in scartho ….
Good lad ……didn’t work out for him at town….
His best mate was Richard O’Kelly…..
I also met Derek Dougan ……before wolves got ripped off by him !

The 2 clubs do seem to have a history of memorable cup games.

There were the 3 big League cup games against Wolves in 1980.  Quarterfinals I think.  Kevin Drinkell hit the bar(from memory) at Wolves in the first replay.  We would have won the game if he had scored.

Lost the 2nd replay at Derby 2-0.  I was fortunate to go to both replays as on a course in Hereford.

Wolves had a star-studded team of household names.

We also beat Wolves 1-0 at BP when we were in Div 4.  Not sure if in league or cup. It was a very good win though.

Great days, went to all 3 of the games. Think it was Kev Moore who hit the bar at the Pontoon end, was right behind him in the Barretts. On a quiet night, the crossbar probably still vibrates...

The last game at BP before it became all seated was v Wolves 4th May 1999. Swin Jntr and I made the trip to stand in my old spot in the Pontoon one last time, got a lump of wood off the edge of the step in fact.

Quoted from immariner

Old Trafford highest attendance- FA Cup semi. Crowd was probably mostly locals. Bit of a quirk in reailty.

Blundell Park highest attendance- further we'd gone in the cup for quite some time when attendances all over the country were at their peak levels.

Floodlights- Wolves were in the market to sell and we were in the market to buy.

I had two uncles that went to that game. They told me that we took many train loads and charas. Afterwards they went to a dance in Belle Vue and got into fights with Wolves fans. They reckon that it took police horse on the dance floor to break it up!

Quoted from mimma

I had two uncles that went to that game. They told me that we took many train loads and charas. Afterwards they went to a dance in Belle Vue and got into fights with Wolves fans. They reckon that it took police horse on the dance floor to break it up!

Brilliant stories to tell! I'm sure there were thousands of Town and Wolves there but just for the time, I think it's unlikely there wasn't a huge proportion of locals. Would love to be told both clubs had 38000 travelling fans each! Haha

Quoted from Total Hawsehole

Great days, went to all 3 of the games. Think it was Kev Moore who hit the bar at the Pontoon end, was right behind him in the Barretts. On a quiet night, the crossbar probably still vibrates...

I remember it was the underside of the bar too, or maybe that’s the way I like to remember it.

Re the floodlights if memory serves me right Wolves where the first club to have floodlit games so did we buy the first floodlights from them?

Quoted from Ipswin

The last game at BP before it became all seated was v Wolves 4th May 1999. Swin Jntr and I made the trip to stand in my old spot in the Pontoon one last time, got a lump of wood off the edge of the step in fact.

Wondered where this sentence was heading at this point.

I thought from the dregs of my memory the last game standing at BP was against Barnsley but could definitely be wrong

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

We also beat Wolves 1-0 at BP when we were in Div 4.  Not sure if in league or cup. It was a very good win though.

It was in the cup, John Cockerill scoring direct from the corner if I remember right. The first win of our cup run which ended at Plough Lane.

Quoted from Manchester Mariner

It was in the cup, John Cockerill scoring direct from the corner if I remember right. The first win of our cup run which ended at Plough Lane.

Yep Steve bull and Andy Mutch were peppering sherwoods goal but he kept us in it, cockers did the rest!

Quoted from Ipswin

The last game at BP before it became all seated was v Wolves 4th May 1999. Swin Jntr and I made the trip to stand in my old spot in the Pontoon one last time, got a lump of wood off the edge of the step in fact.

I got kicked out at halftime by a nob of a steward for smoking in the ponny. Despite the fact, I was a non-smoker.  I was gutted. To be fair to the club though, I did get a refund when i made a complaint a few days later.

Don’t forget the 5-1 win over Wolves in the early 80s when Tommy Docherty said that Town had had their ‘final’ and ‘we’ll see who is where at the end of the season’. Wolves got relegated. 😆

The first Town-Wolves game I remember was the 1-0 FA cup game that really started Buckley’s wonderful cup run then the double promotions the following seasons .They had Steve Bull playing for them who went on that season to play for England despite being in the 3rd division.
I was lucky enough to get the chance to stand on their great huge old terrace in the early 90s ( which I believe was the largest in English football holding 30000) when we beat them with Dave Beasant in goal for us , I was in the side of the terrace with their fans as Town had sold all their allocation .
I Also remember us beating them at theirs in the early  2000s when Andy Todd scored.

The final game we had standing was against them and I stood in the pontoon and watched

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

The 2 clubs do seem to have a history of memorable cup games.

There were the 3 big League cup games against Wolves in 1980.  Quarterfinals I think.  Kevin Drinkell hit the bar(from memory) at Wolves in the first replay.  We would have won the game if he had scored.

Lost the 2nd replay at Derby 2-0.  I was fortunate to go to both replays as on a course in Hereford.

Wolves had a star-studded team of household names.

We also beat Wolves 1-0 at BP when we were in Div 4.  Not sure if in league or cup. It was a very good win though.

Went on the train to the replay at Wolves and the twatting train broke down in Lincoln, I think we were about 20 minutes late getting in.

I dated a lass who went to Uni in Wolverhampton.  I went to see her.  Coincidently, Town was playing them at Molineaux.  I didn't take her.  Previously, she went to Loftus Road and supported QPR because she liked their kit .  Tsk!

Quoted from mimma

I had two uncles that went to that game. They told me that we took many train loads and charas. Afterwards they went to a dance in Belle Vue and got into fights with Wolves fans. They reckon that it took police horse on the dance floor to break it up!

Neigh!  lad, twas a fox trotting on that did it

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I remember it was the underside of the bar too, or maybe that’s the way I like to remember it.

Re the floodlights if memory serves me right Wolves where the first club to have floodlit games so did we buy the first floodlights from them?

1956 Portsmouth v Newcastle was the first league game under floodlights but there had been cup games previously. Primarily only allowed to ease the backlog of postponed games.Wolves by this time had played a series of floodlit friendlies so Herts is probably right

Quoted from golfer

1956 Portsmouth v Newcastle was the first league game under floodlights but there had been cup games previously. Primarily only allowed to ease the backlog of postponed games.Wolves by this time had played a series of floodlit friendlies so Herts is probably right

Sounds like we’ve sent a bit of football history to the scrap heap , fortunately we still have the Main Stand which is older than the Coliseum

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Don’t forget the 5-1 win over Wolves in the early 80s when Tommy Docherty said that Town had had their ‘final’ and ‘we’ll see who is where at the end of the season’. Wolves got relegated. 😆

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My first memory of us playing Wolves was beating them 3-0 at BP, think it was a Tuesday night game, in the 95/96 Ivano season when we'd had a proper mid-season slump and were looking over our shoulders at relegation.

Don't know why that sticks in my memory. We got trounced at home by Sunderland 4-0, then were 5-0 down by half time at Palace... it threatened to turn into a car crash of a season, despite the cup run v West Ham and Chelsea, despite the Ivano factor and despite being 2nd in November.

That victory against Wolves came as a massive relief!

Did we trial floodlights at Abbey Park ground? seem to remember reading something, might be wrong.

Quoted from grimps

Sounds like we’ve sent a bit of football history to the scrap heap , fortunately we still have the Main Stand which is older than the Coliseum

But not as well preserved.

Quoted from toontown

I thought from the dregs of my memory the last game standing at BP was against Barnsley but could definitely be wrong

I think it was Wolves but it was in 1995, not 1999.  0-0 drab affair I think.

Remember the game at derby which was the designated "neutral" ground as it was the second replay. Its was only just over 40 miles from Wolverhampton but we still managed to take more fans. Also remembered some dubious refereeing decisions. Some things never change there then !!

Quoted from The Yard Dog

Did we trial floodlights at Abbey Park ground? seem to remember reading something, might be wrong.

I doubt it very much. Floodlights didn't come into use until the 1950's and we left Abbey Park in 1899.

I might have false memory syndrome.  However, as I did not go to the home game against Wolves in the League Cup Quarter final, I thought Kevin Drinkell that hit the bar at Wolves?  

There were 10,000 Tow; fans there.  Brilliant for a night match.  

Cannot believe it was a Cup Quarter final and we could easily have won it! 🤔

Quoted from The Yard Dog

Did we trial floodlights at Abbey Park ground? seem to remember reading something, might be wrong.

Definitely - 1899 - we were all asked to use the lights on our smart phones -remember it well !

Quoted from HertsGTFC

I remember it was the underside of the bar too, or maybe that’s the way I like to remember it.

Re the floodlights if memory serves me right Wolves where the first club to have floodlit games so did we buy the first floodlights from them?

I read somewhere that George best fell in love with football because of the twinkle of those floodlights! could be wrong... anyone confirm?

Quoted from RobDef1

I read somewhere that George best fell in love with football because of the twinkle of those floodlights! could be wrong... anyone confirm?

And not because of the twinkles in the eyes of all the birds he could shag from being a football star?!

Quoted from toontown

And not because of the twinkles in the eyes of all the birds he could shag from being a football star?!

George Best was virtually the first football superstar in the sense of being a fannymagnet.

Pretty sure we trialled some floodlights at Clee Park, before we even moved to Abbey Park. Could be wrong but I remember reading something about it in that Bob Lincoln book, which covers the formative years of GTFC pretty well (and with some humour). They were gas lamps, so clearly not the lights we all associate with floodlights today.

Worth a read if you can find a copy of it.

Took me a while to imagine where Clee Park was — it was somewhere near to where the Tesco Express is on Grimsby Road, roughly speaking. That area, stretching up to where the hotel used to be on the corner of Park St.

I went to Molineux once...... and...Grimsby happened to be playing there that game.

Definitely something going on.

Quoted from Mrbump53

Remember the game at derby which was the designated "neutral" ground as it was the second replay. Its was only just over 40 miles from Wolverhampton but we still managed to take more fans. Also remembered some dubious refereeing decisions. Some things never change there then !!

They had more fans than us a good following from us but they had more