Three League Two titles in four seasons - now Portsmouth favourite has suffered Grimsby relegation out of Football League

Now serial silverware gatherer Danny Rose has the stain of relegation on his remarkable CV.

Few lower division footballers possess a trophy cabinet as big as the likeable midfielder who etched his name in Fratton folklore,

Rose was instrumental in the Blues’ 2016-17 title triumph which finally hauled them out of League Two.

Indeed, he was a popular Fratton Park figure in a two-and-a-half year stay which consisted of 64 games and five goals, including time in League One.

Rose also claimed the league crown at Northampton (2015-16) and Swindon (2019-20), while featured for Oxford United in their promotion (2015-16).

Then, in August, he signed for Ian Holloway’s Grimsby on a two-year deal.

Last week the Mariners returned to the non-league game following five years in the Football League.

A 3-2 defeat at Exeter, sealed by an 88th-minute winner, inflicted what had long been inevitable.

Now aged 33, Rose was not involved in the squad during a season which has seen him make just 26 appearances.

The previous year, he was a member of Swindon’s League Two title-winning team in a season curtailed by the coronavirus crisis.

He made 23 appearances and scored once in all competitions as Richie Wellens’ men won promotion to League One.

Now, 12 months later, he finds himself being relegated out of the Football League.

Rose had, of course, endured a career-threatening broken leg at Fratton Park in December 2017 during a drop ball in League One action.

That was inflicted by former Northampton team-mate John-Joe O’Toole, sidelining him for half a year.

But he returned to since turn out for Swindon and Grimsby at League Two level.

Incidentally, Another former Pompey favourite, Ben Davies, serves as Grimsby’s first-team coach and was, for a while, caretaker boss following Hollway’s December 2020 departure.

Davies was a fine attacking right-back at Fratton Park, leaving just months before Danny Rose’s June 2016 arrival from Northampton.

Now both will be challenged to bring Grimsby back into league football following relegation alongside Southend.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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