Michael Jolley interview: Grimsby manager ready for Lincoln test
Mariners travel to high-flying Lincoln this Saturday in derby match
Tuesday 15 January 2019 16:01, UK
Michael Jolley, the Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month for December, takes his Grimsby team to Lincoln on Saturday. Adam Bate caught up with him to discuss that test and his long-term hopes for the club...
Grimsby will be up against it on Saturday when they travel to face Lincoln. There will be 10,000 at Sincil Bank for a derby game that has been moved to an earlier kick-off on police advice. But for Grimsby boss Michael Jolley it is a fixture for his team to relish.
"Any local derby is one that people get excited about," Jolley told Sky Sports. "It was a hard-fought match earlier in the season and we are really respectful of Lincoln. They are having a magnificent season and have a great squad and an excellent manager."
There are hopeful signs that Grimsby have found an excellent manager of their own. Jolley's team are without a victory so far in 2019 but that comes after winning four consecutive League Two games, the first time that the club has done that at this level in over a decade. It was enough to earn Jolley the Manager of the Month award for December.
"Honestly, the award is incorrectly named because it should be team of the month," he insisted. "As a manager, you are very much just the spokesperson for the team. You take the criticism when things don't go well and sometimes you take the plaudits when they do go well.
"So we are all really grateful to have received the award as it is a reflection of the progress that we have made this season. It is a testament to the hard work that has gone in as a club with the players, the staff and the supporters pulling together in that busy period.
"We have been working in a consistent way throughout the season but sometimes injuries and suspension can really influence the results. We are not doing that much differently now but we are getting on the right side of the fine margins by and large."
If it is a little unusual for a manager to acknowledge the margins involved in a winning run, then that's probably because the 41-year-old Jolley is not your average manager. When Grimsby appointed him in March, the decision was described by the club as "a move away from the classic managerial merry-go round" and with good reason.
The background is well documented. He is a Cambridge University graduate who worked as a trader for HSBC and was in New York during the 9/11 attack. His passion for the game saw him pursue a coaching career in his spare time taking on various academy jobs before earning a chance as Burnley U23 coach and eventually managing in Sweden.
It was the Mariners who took a chance on him with the club placed 17th in League Two. "I am always grateful that Grimsby gave me this opportunity to manage," Jolley said. "Hopefully they know that I am working hard to prove that they made a decent decision.
"We are still very conscious that we want to get more points on the board but from where Grimsby were last season I think we have given ourselves a platform to have a decent finish to the season and an improved finish based on where the club was last season.
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"There is a good feeling around the club at the moment and the fans are getting behind what we are trying to do. We have a young and energetic squad that wants to play attacking football and everybody is buying into that so long may it continue."
It was not straightforward over the festive period. Grimsby were without all four first-team centre-backs at one stage, but found a way through it. "That really required the lads to fill in and help out. It's a testament to how they work that they were ready to help the team."
The arrival of Ludvig Ohman, a player whom Jolley knows well from him time in Sweden, will help. "We are certainly in a healthier state with our playing numbers but we take nothing for granted," he added. "League Two is very competitive and every game is a challenge to us."
That much was clear last weekend. Defeat to Sol Campbell's Macclesfield was an unfortunate reminder that, as Jolley points out, "every team can beat every other team from one week to the next" in this division. But that fact will be a source of inspiration not frustration when they travel to face the league leaders this Saturday.
According to Jolley, Lincoln's consistency is exactly what Grimsby are trying to emulate but having thrown himself into life in the town, the Sheffield-born coach has his own vision for the club's future. "This is a unique part of the country," he explained.
"It has its own challenges like everywhere else but there's a real warmth here. I live in the area now with my wife and I think it was important to do that. We are proud to represent Grimsby and very much embedded in the community. They have made us feel a part of it.
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"This is a terrific football club and one that if and when we can get some movement going forward can hopefully carry us a long way. We have to go step by step. The first objective is to get to 50 points and take it from there. If we can do that, let's see where we are.
"Anybody who knows anything about Grimsby knows that this is a club that's competed at a much-higher level than League Two and maintained Championship status for a good period of time under Alan Buckley and going back even further."
So the future is bright? "I really believe that," Jolley said. A win on Saturday, almost a decade on from Grimsby's last Football League win against their Lincolnshire rivals, would add a few more believers.
