Football Season Guide

Grimsby begin another quest for promotion in the upcoming season which is their fourth in a row in the Conference. The Mariners are too big a club to remain out of the Football League and the prerogative for the season is to really push on and make the final step to promotion. The team made it to the play-offs for a second season running last year but were eventually pipped by Gateshead in the semi-finals in controversial circumstances. Paul Hurst and the players had every right to feel aggrieved but the manager will use that as a motivational tool in the coming campaign. The manager knows that he is under big pressure to deliver in the coming season and will try his best to meet the required target. The signings so far have been decent but not really the ones that will up the level of the squad from last season. Scott Brown and Aristote Nsiala excelled in a struggling Southport side last year while Jack Mackreth is one of the better wingers in the league and may prove a decent signing too. Alex Rodman is a sizeable loss on the wing but the rest of the starting 11 from last year is staying put. One of the main problems last year was the lack of a proper goalscoring striker and the manager has not really addressed yet. Jon-Paul Pittman is the only striker signed up to now but he has been anything but prolific in recent seasons and is unlikely to be the answer to the problems that the team has. Grimsby will be relying mostly on their muscular and solid midfield and mean defence but that is not enough for a proper title charge. Therefore, they may have to go through the play-offs again as that looks their most likely destination.