Lindsay Warren has kindly donated 21 retro Grimsby Town retro shirts back to the club and we will be running a ‘Countdown to Christmas’ in the build up to the main day. His wife Sharon has proudly told us about his story below.

His Story

Born in Grimsby, the family moved to Stockton on Tees with his father’s job when he was two. Family holidays were always back home to Cleethorpes. The family moved to Solihull when he was about five years old.

Uncle Gus Laity and dad, John Warren, took Lindsay to his first match at Blundell Park 30/8/1960 – Grimsby 2 v Colchester 1. Attendance according to Lindsay’s records 16,122. Lindsay always kept a note of every match he went to in a notebook. Lindsay enjoyed it so much that his father took him to Birmingham City one week and Aston Villa the next week for many years. Still, of course, watching Town whenever they could.

Once you get to senior school it is not acceptable to support both teams so Lindsay had a decision to make. Lindsay chose Birmingham City so on his trips to Villa Park supported the opposition, often buying a rosette.

Lindsay & Sharon met in July 1975. As luck would have it, Sharon was a football fan. The first match together at Blundell Park was 9.3.1976. Unfortunately, Grimsby lost to Walsall 2-1 attendance 5,300. In those days it took half a day to get to Grimsby so the trips were not frequent. However, living in the centre of the country meant that they could go to Birmingham City home matches one Saturday and Grimsby Town home or away matches the following week. Loyalties lay firmly with Town when they played Birmingham.

Once the M42 was built, a trip to Cleethorpes took two and a half hours at the most, meaning evening matches became a possibility. Taking a half-day from work or on Saturday mornings, it was a joy to go to Cleethorpes. First parking at the ground and then walking to the sea, playing the amusements, walking along the front, eating amazing fish and chips, maybe a pitch and putt at the Arnold Palmer pitch, walking to see the leaking boot.

It has been an amazing 61 years of enjoyment with trips to Wembley for Playoffs and Cup Finals, countless promotions, near misses and relegations. Cup runs include seeing Town win in extra time at Anfield! 3-1 in the LC3. Some fabulous trips to Northern Ireland in July 1994 and 1995, Scotland 1996 and the Isle of Man in July 1998 for pre-season friendlies. A few Women’s matches and quite a few journeys when the match was abandoned/cancelled in the days before information was instantly available on the phone.

Sadly, Lindsay has not been well recently and hasn’t felt up to the travel, but the Mariners are still his passion.

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