We recently received a great letter from one of our Trust members, Raphael Axiak (front right), who lives in Nadur on Gozo, the smaller of the two main islands that make up Malta.

 Raphael told us that in Malta, the people follow English football all the time and that there are lots of supporters of almost every team. Until 1996, Raphael and his father were the only two Grimsby Town supporters, but in that year they decided to form a Grimsby Town team to play in the local Supporters Club five-a-side league.

In the beginning it was very difficult because no-one wanted to play for their team (it seems we’re unfashionable in Malta as well!), but with a lot of hard work they succeeded in getting enough players together to form a team and in 1996 they took their place in the Supporters League.

Since then, “Grimsby Town” have been league champions three times and have also won four tournaments and now the size of the Mariners’ contingent has increased from two to ten, which for Raphael is the most important thing.  Given the trouble the club has getting people to support Grimsby Town even when the team is doing well, this has been no mean achievement.

Raphael is planning to visit Grimsby in October to see the home game against Notts County, so we look forward to seeing him at Blundell Park and hopefully the success of the Maltese Mariners will begin to rub off on the team they support before too long!