[12] Grimsby Town and Hull City were the only two professional teams which had official permission to play league football on Christmas Day because of the demands of the fish trade, but that tradition has now disappeared following the dramatic reduction of their trawler fleets in recent years.

[6][16] Three Grimsby Town players, forward Jackie Bestall, goalkeeper George Tweedy and defender Harry Betmead each received a solitary England cap during the period 1935–1937.

Grimsby reached the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1936, the game was played at Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road, but lost 1–0 to Arsenal,[17] with the goal coming from Cliff Bastin five minutes before half time.

Everything was measured, planned and perfected and you could not wish to see more entertaining football".Grimsby's aging team made a bright start in 1952–53 with five straight wins but eventually slipped and finished in 5th place.

He was reluctant to promote some promising reserves because of loyalty to the older players (a fault that was to resurface at Liverpool years later) and he finally resigned in January 1954, citing the board's lack of ambition as his main reason.

[citation needed] Arthur Drewry, a local businessman, married the daughter of Grimsby Town's chairman, and subsequently served as a director of the club before his own chairmanship.

[46][47] However, Crosland's decision to force the US foreign policy leader to fly from London to Lincolnshire for their Saturday morning meeting was influenced by his desire to stay in his constituency and watch his local football team.

[23] Grimsby Town's stay in the Second Division ended in 1987, having spent much of the 1986–87 season in the top half of the table, but a run of 8 losses and 2 draws in the final 10 games saw them fall from 8th to 21st before they could return to second tier again.

[57] The Mariners began to produce homegrown talent from the club's youth academy, including Jack Lester, John Oster, Gary Croft and Peter Handyside.

[59] During his tenure, Laws became famous for a changing-room altercation after a defeat at Luton with Italian striker Ivano Bonetti, which left the latter with a fractured cheekbone, and caused the popular player to leave the club at the end of the season.

[citation needed] The club had suffered from the losses of Gary Croft, who made a £1.7 million move to Blackburn Rovers and ever present goalkeeper Paul Crichton.

[66] A decent run of form had ignited the careers of such younger players as Daryl Clare, Danny Butterfield and Jack Lester who were becoming an integral part of the Blundell Park set-up.

The Mariners went on to dump Burnley out of the Football League Trophy Northern section area final, which would see the club book its first trip to Wembley Stadium.

[67] Town won the game 1–0 thanks to a first half Kevin Donovan goal which gave the club a historic Wembley double and the Mariners promotion back to Division One.

Everitt dismissed manager Alan Buckley just two games into the season, replacing him with Lennie Lawrence, who earlier in his managerial career had guided both Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough into the top flight.

[73] Despite Gary McAllister scoring a penalty following a David Beharall handball to put the Reds 1–0 up, loan signing Marlon Broomes equalised before ex-Everton youth player Phil Jevons hit a 35-yard strike into the top corner of Chris Kirkland's goal to give the club a historic victory.

Paul Groves, the skipper, was chosen to replace him and he steered them to a 19th in the final table, enough to avoid relegation, but a disappointing end to a season which had begun so promisingly.

The sudden collapse of ITV Digital had left the club with debts of over £2 million, £700,000 of which was owed to the Inland Revenue[76][77] and a further substantial amount to their bankers, Lloyds Bank.

Groves was dismissed in February 2004 following a poor stretch of games that had seen the club drop down the table,[80] his replacement Nicky Law was sacked himself only a few months later as Grimsby were relegated for a second consecutive season.

Former Leicester City chairman John Elsom also joined the board of directors along with racehorse stable trainer and owner Michael Chapman in December 2002.

During the 2007–08 season the club enjoyed a good run in the Football League Trophy and on 4 March 2008 Grimsby booked their place at the new Wembley Stadium after beating Morecambe in a two-legged Northern Final.

Following another slow start to the season, and despite previous backings from the Grimsby Town board, on 18 October 2009 the club's official website declared they had sacked Mike Newell due to "irretrievable breakdown".

[92] Almost immediately Woods was dealt a blow when the club decided to do a U-turn and sell captain Ryan Bennett to Peterborough United for £500,000 despite rejecting this offer in the summer and the player only recently signing a new four-year deal.

[100][101] Following an 11th-place finish in 2012, the Mariners enjoyed a positive cup run in the 2012–13 season FA Trophy and reached the final at Wembley Stadium where they played Wrexham on 24 March 2013.

On 5 May 2021, local businessmen Jason Stockwood and Andrew Pettit under their company 1878 Partners completed their takeover of the football club after buying out majority shareholder John Fenty.

[131] On 1 March 2023, Grimsby advanced to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1939 by beating Premier League side Southampton 2–1 away from home, becoming the first club in the competition's history to knock out five teams from a higher division.

This raised other problems, due to a rival proposal by the property developer Henry Boot, who are continuing with plans for their own retail park, which will be in direct competition with the Grimsby Town site and which has also been approved by the local council.

Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers and Boston United are three other examples of clubs who have shared some kind of rivalry with Grimsby in past seasons, whilst they were in the second and fourth tiers respectively.

[141] Actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen who is most widely known for creating and portraying the characters Ali G and Borat was spotted at Grimsby Town's home game against Cambridge United during the 2013–14 season.

Other famous fans include politician Norman Lamont, former professional snooker players Mike Hallett and Dean Reynolds, singer and songwriter Ella Henderson and BBC weather presenter Keeley Donovan.