Grimsby Town Football Club are delighted to announce the signing of winger, Kyle Bennett on loan from Bristol Rovers until the end of the season.

Bennett began his footballing career at Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he came through the Academy system which he was part of since the age of 9.

After making the move to Bury for a season, Bennett made the move to then Championship side, Doncaster Rovers in 2011, where he spent a total of 4 seasons at the club with loans to both Crawley Town and Bradford City during the 2013/14 season.

After over 130 appearances for Rovers, Bennett made the move down south to Portsmouth, linking up with new First Team coach, Ben Davies. The winger enjoyed three seasons at the club, including promotion up to League One during the 2016/17 season.

Bennett has spent the last three years at current side, Bristol Rovers, with a loan spell to Swindon Town during the 2018/19 season. After over 380 appearances in all competitions and 40 goals, the Mariners have secured a player with significant experience across the Football League.

We caught up with the winger after his first training session with the club and described his relief at getting the deal over the line. “I’m happy, it did take a few days to get done but I’m here now and I’m looking forward to getting going and I’ve met all the boys this morning, it was nice to do that and get my first session in”, said Bennett. “It’s been my first session for a while for me so, but I’m here now.

“I don’t know about that [starting on Saturday], I haven’t been training for quite a while, I haven’t been training with Bristol, so I have got a bit of catching up to do fitness-wise, but it shouldn’t take me too long, I feel like I’m quite fit anyway naturally, so I don’t think it’ll take too long to get up to speed. The manager is all for it, he’s very passionate about football and passionate about the lads and how you are as a person so he seems like a great manager to work for.

“I know a few of the boys anyway from being around football anyway, Rosey is a very good friend of mine anyway, so to have familiar faces is nice to walk into, you don’t feel under so much pressure which is great.

“I think for any football player it’s all about playing games and by playing games you gain confidence, you gain fitness and anything can stem from that. You don’t want to promise too much to anybody and tell them things that put pressure on your back, so for me it’s all about getting fit first and foremost and seeing where we go from there!”.

The 30-year-old becomes Ian Holloway’s fourteenth signing of the summer transfer window and the manager is delighted with his most recent capture.

“I’m very lucky that I’ve got Ben Davies with me because they know each other really well”, said Holloway. “The minute I signed Danny Rose, Kyle was on the phone to Ben trying to see if he could come up here because he is in a really frustrating situation. For me, he is going to bring a touch of class and a touch of experience to add to my young ones who are going to have to do a load of work for us.

“I am absolutely delighted to have brought him in. I didn’t think it was going to happen, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen but I am absolutely thrilled to get my hands on him, he has been in this morning so as I can say, normally you have 5 or 6 weeks to train your team up, so we’re going to have to scrap and battle, fight and bite and do everything we need to do to try and get some points to get us out of this situation that we’re in.

“With his experience and the class he will bring, I am absolutely delighted to add him to my overall ingredients! His experience is absolutely pivotal. You are only as good as your experienced players and he is another one that we have brought it. My trouble now is that those that did incredibly well for me before are too old to play for, so we have to find some new warriors and hopefully I have got enough in this building now, James Hanson is back he trained with us yesterday and looked fantastic. It’s now time to start building on that identity that we were working so hard on last season before it all ended but someone like Kyle coming in with our young lads will have a great impact and help them settle down”.