“There’s a hard way, there’s an easy way … and then there’s the Grimsby way.” The commentator on BT Sport called the final whistle and our team, Grimsby Town, were promoted to the EFL after an almost unbelievable sequence of playoff games.
We finished the National League season in sixth position and entered the playoffs very much as underdogs. In our first eliminator, we equalised against Notts County in the 96th minute before winning in extra time; in the semi-final, against the expensively assembled squad of Wrexham, a 119th-minute goal took us to the final at the London Stadium versus Solihull, where it took us until 111 minutes to complete a Grimsby fairytale. On 5 June, 12 months since relegation and after 14 months of our ownership, we were back in the EFL.
