Those east Londoners who fancied a spot of relaxed post-Jubilee retail therapy at Westfield Shopping Centre were met by a sea of fish yesterday afternoon.
Inflatable fish. Haddocks, to be precise, or Harry Haddocks to given them their correct moniker. Their carriers wore black and white stripes. They also wore north Lincolnshire accents. The Mariners were in town at the London Stadium. My Mariners.
For a match that arguably has more significance than the £170m Championship final that took place across the capital seven days earlier.
Riches and glamour were the prizes won by Nottingham Forest at Wembley. The National League play-off final is all about status and pride.
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Well, Grimsby has its status back now after a tense, taut final against Solihull Moors which was settled in extra-time by a 114th-minute winner stabbed in from two yards from substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew.
For all Solihull’s possession, Grimsby’s play-off run has been cloaked in the invincibility of destiny. They trailed away to Notts County in the quarter-final and scored a 119th-minute winner. They trailed twice away to Wrexham in the semi-final and scored a 119th minute winner.
Victory came comparatively early against a Solihull team which was cruelly deprived of giant striker Kyle Hudlin, the man who had nodded them ahead in first-half injury time from a Joe Sbarra cross.
Hudlin was forced off with concussion just before the hour. Without him, Neal Ardley’s side lost its focal point.
By comparison, Mariners talisman John McAtee seized his moment to calmly stroke home a 69th minute equaliser that somehow felt inevitable in this most unlikely of play-off runs.
Disappearing through the League Two trapdoor and tumbling down into the non-league wilderness robs a town of part of its identity.
No-one can predict how far a club will fall or how long it will take them to return through the narrowest of bottlenecks with only two promotion places available from the National League. It is surely time to increase that to three.
It took Town six seasons to make it back when they were relegated in 2010. Hursty – manager Paul Hurst – led us back last time. It took him just one season to do it this time. Grimsby are the first club to manage it since Bristol Rovers in 2015.
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Hurst said: “I’ve been saying for a long time there should be three promotion places. Look at the attendances in this league this season. There are a lot of very good clubs who would more than hold their own in the higher division.
“It’s an incredible feeling. Almost a little surreal, but the club feels more together this time.”
Hurst and his Solihull counterpart Ardley embraced warmly prior to extra-time and again at the final whistle – symbolic of the empathy that binds so many protagonists of the non-league game.
Ardley said: “I’m a very humble man and so is Paul. He’s a good guy. One of us was going to be celebrating, one of us was going to be devastated. Unfortunately I was on the wrong end of that, but I’m very proud of my players.”
As they snaked away from the London Stadium grasping promotion as well as their haddocks, the Mariners fans could reflect on a seventh promotion to match seven relegations in the past 50 years.
Life as a Grimsby fan is never dull.
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