‘NO WAVING WHITE FLAG’
TOWN CUT FURTHER ADRIFT - BUT WON’T SURRENDER
PAUL Hurst has warned his Grimsby Town players against waving a “white flag” in their battle against relegation from League Two.
Despite rescuing a point from their game against Mansfield on Saturday, the Mariners were cut further adrift at the bottom of the table. Relegation rivals Barrow continued their impressive run of form as they claimed a dramatic stoppage time win over Crawley, moving them further away from danger and leaving Town 10 points from safety in the process.
The two sides meettomorrow night, with a win imperative for the Mariners if they’re to retain hopes of remaining in the EFL next season. And Hurst has delivered a rousing speech to his players ahead of their run-in to the end of the season, imploring them to use their anger to help them in their predicament. “Of course, we’ve got to hope that there’s someone else we can finish above - but first and foremost, we’ve got to get above Southend,” Hurst told the Grimsby Telegraph. “That’s the first target, but we have to keep going.
“I’ll demand that from the players. As soon as I see any white flags from anyone, then - 100 per cent - they won’t play.
“It doesn’t matter, even if it got to a point when it was over, when you’re representing the football club, and whether they like it or not, you’re representing myself, Chris (Doig) and the staff as well, and I expect an effort.
“They have to take pride in themselves, as well as the team and the football club, and like I said, that’s what we’ll demand.
“I keep saying it to them, I think probably a couple of weeks ago we were written off, and I think that in some senses will probably only grow because the games are ticking down, albeit still 11 to go, but I promise we’ll keep going.
“We will keep fighting, and whether it ends up being enough or not, we’ll see, but we’ll keep pushing the players.”
Hurst added: “A lot of the information we give them, they know themselves realistically. You’re just almost a figurehead - I see it when Chris says something, they’re nodding their heads, and I think they’re doing that genuinely, it’s not just ‘let’s do this and then we can go home’.
“I think a couple of them almost did better when they got angry. You’ve got to find that anger to start with somehow. If that means me running up and punching them in the face before the game, that’s what I’ll do!”