Neil Woods to stay as Grimsby Town manager

Woods made more than 200 appearances for Grimsby in the 1990s

Grimsby Town have announced Neil Woods will stay on as a manager with chairman John Fenty also remaining with the relegated League Two club.

Woods, 43, was promoted from his youth-team role to replace former boss Mike Newell in November 2009.

He told BBC Look North: "I'm delighted to stay on. There's a job that needs to be done and I believe I can do it."

The Mariners were relegated to the Blue Square Premier after their 3-0 defeat at Burton Albion on Saturday.

Woods added: "I've seen signs since Christmas, when I started to be able to get the players that I wanted to get in, that the performances and results have picked up."

Our plan is to increase our shareholding to £500,000 each New Grimsby vice-chairman Mike Parker

Grimsby's preparations for next season have already begun with Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro and Mark Hudson being offered new deals.

But Leigh Overton, Matthew Bird and Jammal Shahin are all being released.

The Mariners, who have confirmed they will remain full-time next season, have also transfer listed Chris Jones, Adam Proudlock, Nick Hegarty, Adrian Forbes, Paul Linwood, Nathan Jarman and Peter Sweeney.

Young trainees Mark Gray, Tom Corner and Nathan Dixon have all been offered professional deals.

Grimsby vice-chairman to invest in club

Meanwhile Grimsby have promoted director Mike Parker to the role of vice-chairman after he promised a cash investment to match that of Fenty.

Parker said: "Our plan is to increase our shareholding to £500,000 each."

The lifelong Grimsby fan joined the club after working as an executive in a local seafood firm.

He added: "We lose the league payments so we have a parachute payment of about half of what we currently get.

"The philosophy is to keep the playing budget strong and that's going to leave a [financial] gap."

Fenty added: "The strength of the football club is underpinned by the shared support that Mike and myself are going to be giving the club going forward."