Grimsby Town Football Club is delighted to announce that Hull City defender, Andy Smith has re-signed for the Club on loan until the end of the season.

The 20-year-old centre-back first signed for the Mariners in January 2022 following his recall from Salford City and went on to become an integral part of the Club’s return to the Football League, making 20 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal in a 2-2 draw at Barnet.

We caught up with Andy as he returned to Cheapside this afternoon ahead of the Mariners’ journey down to Leyton Orient this weekend, for our Sky Bet League Two curtain raiser.

“I am buzzing. Ever since the Final on the last day of the season I wanted to come back, the fans last year were brilliant all the way through the season with me so coming back here was a no-brainer! To be fair it’s all still a bit of a blur. The final whistle in the playoff final was such a brilliant feeling, it’s hard to describe really. Going over to the fans and how many there were there was just amazing.

“The way that the fans were, the staff were and all the lads when I came in in January, it was almost a no-brainer to come back. The set-up here is brilliant, I got minutes last year playing a few games so hopefully that’s something I can build on and see where that takes me.”

We also caught up with manager Paul Hurst this afternoon, who spoke of his delight at securing the services of the young defender for another campaign.

“I’m delighted. It was one of those where we had to be patient again. It’s been, realistically, the idea right from winning the Playoff Final, was always to see if we could get him back. Understandably and naturally, Hull wanted to have a look at him and the manager had changed over since Andy had joined, but a few times we felt it was close to happening, but then wasn’t for various reasons. But in the end, he is back with us and hoping that he can put in some more good performances and carry on his progression.

“It was quite a bit towards the end [testing his patience] because Niall has come in and picked up an injury and having just Shaun and Luke felt insufficient really… so I felt like we wanted one in and Andy has always been the main target but there were a couple of other lads if that wasn’t going to happen. One we missed out on, I am pleased in a way now because of the way it played out but it felt like it was getting a bit late in the day but I am delighted it has happened”.

You can watch Andy’s interview in full via our new Mariners TV channel.

Welcome back to Blundell Park, Smudge!