NATIONAL LGE PROMOTION FINAL PREVIEW
SOLIHULL MOORS v GRIMSBY TOWN
Today, Kick-off 3pm
IT is testament to the miracles Paul Hurst has worked since his return to Grimsby Town that victory over Solihull Moors in this afternoon’s play-off final would mark just the fourth time in 20 years that a club has bounced straight back to the Football League.
“I actually had a glance at clubs who’ve been in our position over the last ten years,” says the Mariners boss. “Who went up, who performed, who didn’t. So many haven’t even got close to the play-offs. A lot have struggled full stop.
“So even if we’d just fallen short of getting into that top seven, I don’t actually think we’d have done a bad job. The players have performed brilliantly to get us in this position. Now I just hope they can do it one more time.”
Hurst, too, is hoping for a repeat performance. In 2016, the 47-year-old orchestrated a 3-1 victory over Forest Green Rovers in this very fixture, ending the Mariners’ sixyear absence from the EFL.
He would go on to enjoy considerable success at Shrewsbury, somewhat less so at Ipswich and Scunthorpe, then made a surprise return to Blundell Park in December 2020.
By then, Grimsby were a laughing stock. Flailing in League Two. Bloated with deadwood. Seven days before Hurst’s arrival, manager Ian Holloway had spoken of buying the club, then quit amid a war of words with owner John Fenty.
It was Fenty who sent the SOS to Hurst, but by the end of the campaign he’d sold up to current owners Jason Stockwood and Grimsby were down.
“It’s only my opinion, but when I came back to the club I genuinely think it was a mess,” says Hurst. “The make up of the squad, the quality of the players – there were far too many people in that dressing room.
“It was a massive challenge to turn it around. A lot of credit must go to the new owners but, as I say, the biggest credit must go to the players themselves. They’ve grafted. They’ve listened.
They’ve stayed together. It’s a different club these days.”
Grimsby, who finished fifth, beat Notts County and Wrexham away from home to reach the final, scoring an injury time equaliser against the free-flowing Magpies before edging a chaotic 5-4 thriller against the Hollywood-backed Dragons.
Surprise
On paper, a fixture against Neal Ardley’s overachieving Solihull would appear to be the easiest assignment of the lot, but Hurst isn’t buying that.
“I’m nothing but complimentary about Solihull,” he insists. “In my eyes, they start as the favourites. They finished third. They’ve lost one game in 24. It doesn’t get much better than that.
“Neal has done a great job there. Knowing the league, It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve found themselves in the play-offs. Some people maybe hear an unfamiliar name and don’t really understand how it happened, but that’s just naivety or a lack of knowledge.
“It’s a club that wants to do things the right way and is looking to build some history.
We’ve already got that on our side, but as we all know that doesn’t count for anything in a final.”
Nor, in Hurst’s opinion, does the fact that Solihull beat beat Grimsby in both league fixtures this term.
“They’ll probably look at those results and be confident,” he says.
“From ours, I don’t think either of those defeats have left any scars.
“In both games, we felt well in them. In the home game,especially, it was twolategoals that beat us. In a oneoff game, it means nothing.”
Does Hurst’s own experience in this fixture count for anything?
“It doesn’t hinder me, that’s for sure,” he says. “But remember, Neal has won promotion through the play-offsfs too.I think you’re going to see two people who are relativelyely calm,who won’t get overawedby the occa-casion or the game.
“We’ll have our input and we’ll try our best to get our sets of players performing. But, ultimately, the players will cross that white line and they will have the biggest say on what happens.
“People who only watch Premier League games might not appreciate the pressure the play-offs puts on players at this level. But it’s no small matter. They’ve handled that very well, and we’ve tried to help by treating this as a normal game.
“Which it is. There’s a big prize, a big crowd. But it’s the same thing – two goals, a grass pitch and a team who wants to beat you.”
