Heroes & Villains – Grimsby Town
Heroes – FA Cup teams of 1935/36 and 1938/39
Both of these teams reached the FA Cup Semi-Final and is the furthest that any Grimsby Town side have ever got in their 142 year history.
Jackie Bestall, Harry Betmead and goalkeeper George Tweedy also became the first (and so far only) Grimsby players to get capped by England. They all only got one cap between 1935 and 1937.
Grimsby lost 1-0 to eventual winners Arsenal in the 1935/36 semi-final at Huddersfield Town’s Leeds Road. The semi-final three years later would be more famous though.
A record 76,962 fans crammed in to Old Trafford to watch Grimsby’s semi-final with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Thousands more were locked out when the gates were shut half an hour before kick off. This is still the record attendance for a match at Old Trafford!
The game ended 5-0 after Grimsby’s goalkeeper George Moulson got a nasty head injury midway through the first-half. An outfielder had to go in goal for the rest of the game and Moulson spent the next ten days in the Manchester Royal Infirmary Hospital. It was a sad end to a great Cup run and Grimsby have never got so far in the Cup ever since.
Villains – Lincoln City
Lincoln City are Grimsby’s biggest rivals and it seems fitting to have them down as the Villains for this article.
The two play out the ‘Lincolnshire Derby’ and the first match between the two was back in January 1885. Grimsby won that day and also have the better record in matches between the two, having won 44 of the 103 matches. Lincoln City have won 30 games and 29 games were drawn.
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