TOWN NEED AN INSTANT RESPONSE

THERE’S no time for Paul Hurst and his players to dwell on Saturday’s defeat at Harrogate as Grimsby Town continue in their battle against relegation.

It’s an immediate turnaround for the Mariners as they welcome Leyton Orient to Blundell Park tomorrow night, with the O’s having sacked boss Ross Embleton on Saturday following a run of seven matches without a win.

Hurst will be eager to put the weekend’s defeat in Yorkshire behind them, with the result coming just days after he’d picked up his first win since returning as manager.

“I’m disappointed to come away empty-handed because I think if we got a point, if that’s what it turned out to be, can you start a little run of being unbeaten? But that’s not the case,” Hurst told the Telegraph. “What I would say is, now that’s been and gone, whether we like it or not, and we’re on to Tuesday. They’re all big games, but it’s certainly a big game at home to Orient.” Reflecting on the past seven days, Hurst added: “I think if we took three points from every two games, I think we’d be alright.

“From that point of view, yes it’s good. There aren’t too many countries, certainly what you watch on TV, you don’t see games that can be so different, and Saturday’s an example of that.

“No-one take offense to this, the facts are that’s a different game of football than a lot of other games that are played, and it’s English League Two football.

“They’re (Harrogate) very good at what they do, that’s not in the slightest a knock on them. They’re good at it, especially early on we talked about the second balls. They picked up so many, the players are very wise in midfield, and it took us time to get to grips with that. “But the longer it went, we felt if we could get it down and play, Jay (Matete) and Idi (El Mizouni) both showed that they could run away, but we didn’t get the end product.”