Mariners struggle to release handbrake and are brought crashing back down to earth
TOWN NEVER REALLY GET GOING - AND PAY HEAVY PRICE
GRIMSBY Town’s encouraging week ended on a low note as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Harrogate.
The Mariners struggled to really get going in Yorkshire, with Mark Beck grabbing the winner for the hosts late on as Town missed the chance to move off the bottom of the table. Having finally picked up his first win since returning as manager on Tuesday, Paul Hurst decided against sticking with the same team that started against Crawley.
Instead, the Town boss rang the changes, with Mattie Pollock, Luke Hendrie and James Hanson returned to the side, while Danny Rose, Joe Adams, Filipe Morais and the suspended Joe Bunney made way, with Giles Coke making his full debut after coming off the bench in midweek.
The ball spent much of the early stages of the game in Town’s half as the visitors struggled to get the handbrake off.
They had Jake Eastwood to thank for keeping it goalless in the opening 20 minutes, with George Thomson first to sting the palms of the Sheffield United loanee with a powerful effort from distance.
Harrogate would go even closer shortly after, with Joshua March forcing Eastwood into a decent save as he palmed away the forward’s sweetly struck volley.
The on-loan Blade had to be alert again later on in the half as former Mariner Dan Jones caused havoc with his long throws.
One of the missiles found Aaron Martin, who saw his header clawed out at the near post as Eastwood did superbly to get down low before Luek Waterfall cleared the danger. Having been on the back foot for the whole of the first half, Town almost found themselves ahead against the run of play with their only opportunity of the opening 45.
Idris El Mizouni did superbly to nick the ball away from Thomson in the middle of the park before laying it off for Stefan Payne to his left, but the former Tranmere man could only shoot straight at James Belshaw as a glorious chance went begging.
The Mariners began the second half much brighter, and were the first to truly threaten as Payne just failed to connect with Hanson’s downward header when a tap-in ahead of Belshaw seemed to be on the cards.
That chance would prove to be crucial as Harrogate struck the deciding blow with just under 15 minutes to go, ruining Town’s hopes of nicking a late win.
The ball was sent in from the right towards Beck, who superbly flicked his header to the far post, leaving Eastwood no chance as it nestled into the side netting to give the hosts a lead they should have had much earlier. Hanson spurned a golden opportunity to earn his side a point as the ball fell to him from a Belshaw punch, but the former Bradford man could keep his effort down as it sailed over the bar, with Town ending what had been an encouraging week on a low note.