How Bobby Grant sought closure after heartbreaking retirement as Marine one win from Wembley

EXCLUSIVE: Marine are in the FA Trophy semi-final against Wealdstone on Saturday with Bobby Grant’s side one win from a Wembley final

When Bobby Grant was forced to retire from professional football, the opportunity to hang up the boots on his terms was taken out of his hands.

An incident at home saw him collapse, leading to experts telling him that he was high risk of a heart attack at 32.

At 19, the attacker made the seismic jump from League Two to the Championship when he signed for Scunthorpe United for a reported £260,000. Grant made over 500 appearances across five tiers of the English football pyramid but within an instant, his professional career was over.

Now 35, Grant is in the hotseat at National League North side Marine, in the sixth tier of English football, who play against Wealdstone in the FA Trophy semi-final, 90 minutes away from a trip to Wembley.

He says: “It was [tough retiring], when I stopped playing as a pro, it wasn’t my decision.

“I collapsed at home and I was high risk of a heart attack, that’s the reason I stopped at Oldham.

“That was the most difficult time of my career [and] my life because something I’ve dedicated my life to, to be told, you’re a high risk of a heart attack at 32, so I never really had closure on that.

“On the back of when I got told to retire, I went through a terrible time.

“I had to go to therapy, and what it does is it makes you a bigger person. I couldn’t speak about it previously.”

The striker’s story is one of elation, living every boy’s dream, to suffering crushing lows, including a battle with depression after his enforced retirement. But he refound his fire at Rossett Park, the home of Marine, turning to part-time football after uniting with iconic manager Neil Young and managed to sign off on his terms.

Under the tactician Young, who famously put Marine on the map with their FA Cup third round skirmish with Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur, Grant played a pivotal role in helping the club to the National League North, step three of the Non-League system, overcoming Macclesfield in the Northern Premier League playoff final in 2024.

A knee injury and complications with his recovery forced him out for large parts of their historic campaign in the sixth tier of English football.

But after going under the knife twice, he recovered to rubber-stamp Marine’s place in the league for another season and retired on a high, finally receiving the closure, scoring in front of his son in his final bow for the club.

“Once I’d shared that moment with my son, I’d scored on my last game and we’d won, I retired happy, in terms of like, ‘okay, yeah, it’s my decision now. I’ve retired. It was closure’,” says Grant.

“I felt as though I’d emptied that last little bit of energy that I had left in me.

“My body gave me a little bit more time to be able to finish the way I wanted to and the big thing for me, was being able to share that moment with my son.”

For the Marine supporters, who have witnessed a significant increase in attendances from averaging 300 attendances to 1,300 on the back of two promotions since their famous FA Cup success in 2021, the shock departure of Young at the end of last season threatened the trajectory of the club after riding the crest of the wave.

But as the 51-year-old moved upstairs to become director of football, Grant stood out in the interview process – swapping his place up front with a spot in the dugout.

Grant has faced adversity and the challenges that are put in front of him, coming out of it stronger, and now relishes what football has for him, a mentality he has instilled in his side.

The Mariners have enjoyed a phenomenal league run, fighting above expectations to challenge the playoff apple cart, and despite an unprecedented injury crisis, their guile has seen them through in Grant’s first season in management.

Saturday and Grosvenor Vale is the latest stop on their historic FA Trophy run as the Mariners travel to Wealdstone of the National League, one rung higher than the Crosby club.

Already, Tamworth and Woking, teams that the Stones have brushed shoulders with domestically, have fallen to Marine, and this weekend presents an opportunity for Grant to cement this season as one of the greatest in their 132-year history.

The feeling with the absence of playing football has gone, with the managerial fire well and truly lit within Grant, a love of scoring goals replaced by the hunger to succeed at the highest level in management.

Saturday is another landmark in a managerial tenure that is hardly one-year old. No one more so than the 35-year-old, who lives within a stone’s throw of the three-sided stadium, knows how much it means to the town where he bumps into supporters on a daily basis.

He says: “It means everything. Steering the ship of a local club, it holds pressure, it does.

“But I’m really enjoying it, and you know what, when you’re going to their own games and away games and you’ve got the backing of all the people who live in your area, it gives you a massive boost.

“The amount of people that I’ve spoken to have messaged me saying, ‘wow, incredible job.’ I’m sat here thinking it’s just another game.

“But when you sit back and think, it gives me goosebumps when you talk about it because I’m steering a team that are 95 minutes away [from Wembley], the biggest game for 40 or 50 years and when you consider some of the games they’ve played in, it’s massive.

“It’s a game that my lads will be fully ready to go and enjoy. The opportunity that they’ve got in front of them, all the pressure is on Wealdstone.

“They’re at home, we’re that ‘small club’ going down there, they are doing well in the National League so let’s have it.”