If ever an FA Cup tie was primed for an upset, it came on Sunday where the Humber Estuary meets the North Sea, and where Premier League glitz met League Two reality.
A team chasing the fourth tier’s promotion play-offs and undefeated in 10 games met one of the worst sides in the Premier League era on a mudbath of a pitch, in pouring rain and a biting wind that contributed to freezing temperatures.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had not won any away game since April, were set up to fail. Yet they succeeded in their FA Cup fourth-round tie at Grimsby Town with relative ease. Now their task is to make it count.
“It’s a competition that I absolutely love,” Wolves head coach Rob Edwards told reporters after watching his side scrap their way past Grimsby, conquerors of Manchester United earlier this season in the Carabao Cup, to seal a place in the last 16. “I love it, and I’ve never been lucky enough to go really far in it, so nothing would please me more than us being able to progress and go further.
“It’s been a really dark season, I suppose, so a little bit of something for the fans to chat about, something to try and build more momentum going forward is really, really important.”
In the age of the Premier League and more European football than ever, the FA Cup can become lost in the national conversation. But for Wolves, who have won it four times but not since 1960, it has become the last chance to salvage something happy from a thoroughly miserable campaign which will end in their relegation from the top flight after eight years.
Reaching the semi-finals at Wembley or the final itself will not be easy and will require some good fortune in the draw(s) — their record this season suggests ties against any of the other 10 top-flight sides still standing might prove tricky. However, having advanced to the round of 16 with a 1-0 victory at a sodden, muddy Blundell Park, courtesy of a second-half goal from Santiago Bueno, fans will be starting to dream.
Santiago Bueno breaks the deadlock to get Wolves ahead against Grimsby 💥
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/TVFiR441Fg
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 15, 2026
And after a spell of several years when dreams have been hard to come by at Molineux, they deserve the chance to do so. And Edwards and his players have a responsibility to treat those dreams seriously.
In the circumstances, there might have been a natural expectation that they might not fancy the task on the Lincolnshire coast yesterday.
This is, after all, a squad of international-level footballers used to very different surroundings in some of the world’s best stadiums, many members of which are expected to leave in the summer once that inevitable relegation occurs and who have, frankly, not always shown the requisite levels of fight in recent seasons.
But on an occasion and stage where some Premier League sides might have phoned it in, Wolves ticked every box that needs ticking for a top-flight team to overcome such a hurdle. They did not look pretty in doing so. And they are still a poor Premier League outfit. But even the best of the top division would have struggled to look slick on a pitch and in conditions that made even normally simple 10-yard passes seem risky.
This was not a test of aesthetics or even of skill. It was a test of application and desire. And, to the surprise of many who have watched them over the last season or so, Wolves passed it with flying colours. They took on a highly-committed Grimsby side and matched their work rate and commitment, with Brazil internationals Joao Gomes and Andre, for whom the conditions must have been particularly alien, leading the way with tenacious midfield displays.
Those who did not watch the game might question how a team of Premier League footballers only scraped past League Two opponents by a goal to nil. In reality, though, Wolves did so without a single serious scare until second-half stoppage time, when match-winner Bueno capped his man-of-the-match display with a crucial block-tackle to snuff out a chance in a crazy, goalmouth scramble.
Santiago Bueno (centre) celebrates scoring the only goal of the game at Grimsby (Richard Sellers/Getty Images)
It was one of those moments that often abound in cup ties like this one, but which Wolves had avoided for more than 90 minutes. The better chances fell to them. On another day, the winning margin would have been more comfortable.
Small victories, perhaps, but one which many a Premier League side have failed to achieve, not least if they are as technically poor as this Wolves team.
“It was a different type of game, a bit of a throwback, and one that really we could only win by winning and being professional,” Edwards told reporters after the game. “I don’t think it was ever going to be a day for beautiful football. It was never going to be a day for trying to build and play from the back, but we played with some realism, showed good spirit and fight, did the basics well, and came through.”
This was an occasion that almost every Wolves fan would have feared for its potential for embarrassment. But it was one their team negotiated with an ease that few expected.
With top-flight Brentford visiting non-League Macclesfield tonight (Monday) and Port Vale-Bristol City postponed on Saturday after a pitch inspection, 17 other teams remain in the 2025-26 FA Cup — a competition that could yet provide a silver lining to the black cloud of Wolves’ dismal season.
Nothing can be guaranteed. Draws for future rounds, opponents and moments of fortune, good and bad, will play a part in determining just how far Edwards’ side go.
But with their league season an effective write-off with three months of it still to play, the bare minimum Wolves owe their supporters is a repeat of Sunday’s commitment in every other tie they play.