Kiwi Max Crocombe of Grimsby Town celebrates after his side's upset win over Southampton to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals. Photo / Getty Images
Kiwi Max Crocombe of Grimsby Town celebrates after his side's upset win over Southampton to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals. Photo / Getty Images
Once again, Kiwi goalkeeper Max Crocombe is daring to dream.
He is part of the Grimsby Town side that have made headlines with a magical FA Cup run, which has taken them to the quarter-finals for the first time since 1939.
It’s an incredible story.
Alongside the likes of ManchesterCity and Manchester United, the League Two team are in the last eight — only the fifth time since the 1950s that a fourth-tier club has reached that stage.
Cambridge United (1990) were the last to achieve that feat, and the English football system has become even more top-heavy in the intervening decades.
Grimsby have also done it the hard way, the first club in the FA Cup’s 151-year history to eliminate teams from higher divisions across five rounds.
On Monday (3.15am) Grimsby face Brighton, seventh in the Premier League.
That’s a staggering gap of 78 places on the English pyramid — with Grimsby 15th in League Two — while the Seagulls squad have highly-rated players from across the globe, including Argentina’s World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister and Ecuador’s Moises Caicedo.
“We’ve got nothing to lose,” Crocombe told Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine. “We’re confident enough to know that once kick-off comes and you cross the white line, you’re in a game and anything can happen. We saw that last round and fingers crossed for us [that] we can dream a little bit longer. But when we’re on that pitch — we’ll face up the challenge and see what comes.”
Grimsby goalkeeper Max Crocombe. Photo / AP
The 29-year-old, who appeared for the All Whites twice in 2018, has tried to stay grounded through their unlikely run, which has caught the imagination of the massive British media machine.
But he admits that the trip south will be extra special.
“It is quite something”, said Crocombe. “There’s been some great players who wouldn’t have played in FA Cup quarter-finals.”
Grimsby’s Cup journey started in November, with a 5-1 win over Plymouth Argyle, who are chasing promotion out of League One.
They trumped Cambridge United 2-1 away, then edged Burton 1-0.
Their run started to make headlines in the fourth round, when they stunned Luton (fourth in the Championship) 3-0 in a replay, after a 2-2 draw at Kenilworth Road.
Then came the fifth-round epic earlier this month, beating Premier League club Southampton 2-1 on their own turf, with more than 4000 Grimsby fans making the 740 kilometre trip south.
“It was a really great experience,” said Crocombe. “There was a little bit of disappointment that the game was on a Wednesday night and that made it really difficult for people to travel and get there, but it didn’t stop us. We sold out our allocation and they did themselves proud as a fan base. It was an incredible night.”
Grimsby goalkeeper Max Crocombe celebrates beating Southampton. Photo / AP
Grimsby scored penalties either side of halftime, then hung on in the second half. Southampton had a couple of goals ruled out with tight VAR calls but the Mariners showed remarkable composure in the circumstances.
“We started the second half perfectly with another penalty and then you do think ‘actually there could be a chance here’,” recalled Crocombe. “The time kept ticking away. It was 80 minutes at one moment and then five seconds later it’s 93 minutes and you are just kind of seeing it out.
“I remember seeing our fanbase bouncing at the other end from me as I’m watching it all unfold and just a huge effort from our lads. We rode our luck a little bit but I don’t think we got any more than we deserved.”
Crocombe has taken the long road in professional football.
He has spent time at nine English clubs, including Oxford United, Carlisle United and Salford City, and also had spells with Brisbane Roar and Melbourne City.
He is thriving at Grimsby, with more than 70 consecutive matches after deposing long time No 1 James McKeown, and helped them achieve promotion, coming through the playoffs last season to return to the Football League.
“I’m a person that likes to come out of my comfort zone,” said Crocombe. “The gaffer has put huge faith in me and stuck with me the whole way through. I like to think I’ve repaid him. If you look at the 18 months I’ve been at Grimsby, it couldn’t really have gone too much better for me.”
