Wimbledon make the long trip to Grimsby’s Blundell Park this Saturday for their first game of the 2023/24 League Two season. The Mariners fell in the mid-table for the 2022/23 season, but will look to start their season with three points as they aim above their 11th-place finish. Wimbledon will need a win to kick off their season as they look to improve upon their 21st-place finish last season.
Grimsby finished in the top half of the League Two table, a vast improvement on their 24th-place finish in the 2020/21 season that saw them relegated to the National League. In the 2022/23 season, The Mariners, in 46 games, managed 16 wins, 13 draws and 17 losses, leaving them with 61 points. This left Grimsby 15 points off of the Play-offs but also 15 points off of the relegation zone.
The Mariners have brought in an array of new talent this summer, including a number of new attacking players. Forwards Rekeil Pyke from Shrewsbury, Donovan Wilson from Sutton United and Danny Rose from Stevenage all joined Grimsby this summer.
In their five preseason games, Grimsby won on three occasions and lost twice. All of these wins came in the first three games of preseason, a 5 - 1 thrashing of Grimsby Borough, a 2 - 1 win over Cleethorpes Town and a 2 - 0 win over Lincoln City. The two losses came against Boston United and Fleetwood, a 3 - 2 loss and a 1 - 0 loss respectively.
Wimbledon survived a close call with relegation in the 2022/23 season, finishing just above the drop zone in 21st. The Dons could only manage 11 wins, 15 draws and 20 losses, only amounting to 48 points, leaving Wimbledon just two points ahead of Crawley Town. Wimbledon finished the season with a whimper with four losses and a draw in their last five games of the 2022/23 season.
The Dons have been busy in the summer transfer window. Some of their business includes Jake Reeves from Stevenage, Ryan Johnson from Stockport, Omar Bugiel from Sutton United and James Ball from Rochdale on free transfers.
Wimbledon’s preseason consisted of six games, where The Dons went unbeaten with four wins and two draws. The Dons opened their preseason with a 1 - 0 win over League One Reading, followed by 4 - 0 win over the Metropolitan Police. After these back-to-back wins, Wimbledon then played out a goalless draw against Woking along with a 1 - 1 draw with QPR. The final two games before their clash with Grimsby, Wimbledon beat Portsmouth 1 - 0 and comfortably beat Wealdstone 2 - 0.
Grimsby and Wimbledon have met 21 times in their histories, their first encounter coming back in 1977. The Mariners have the upper hand in the fixture, winning nine times in comparison to Wimbledon’s five wins, with the two sides sharing the points on seven occasions. Like the most recent meeting, where Grimsby beat Wimbledon 1 - 0, it is likely that The Mariners will finish the game on Saturday with all three points.