Houlston becomes first Mariners manager

The Skegness resident beat off stiff competition to land the role for the newly-formed side, which will compete in the Lincolnshire Women’s League next season.

However, Houlston says he remains ‘fully committed’ to his role as head coach at the Skegness Town Football Development Programme, as the club prepares to run 10 teams in the upcoming campaign, including a brand new under 12s girls’s side.

“I’m really delighted to be the Grimsby Ladies manager. It’s an honour,” he told The Standard.

“Especially as it’s my club. I’m a Grimsby Town fan. It’s great to see the club having a ladies’s football team.”

Houlston - who comes from what he calls a ‘football-potty family’ - has more than 20 years of coaching experience but first became involved with ladies’s football as his daughter Ava, currently a member of the England Talent Pathway programme, began playing.

As well as his work with Skegness, Houlston has previous coaching experience with boys’s and girls’s teams at Boston United