‘TOWN DON’T LOOK LIKE A BOTTOM SIDE’
BUT MARINERS ONLY TAKE A POINT FROM HIGH-FLIERS
GRIMSBY Town boss Paul Hurst believes his side are better than their current position in League Two, despite seeing their survival hopes drift slightly more.
The Mariners picked up yet another draw as their clash with title-chasing Cheltenham finished 1-1 at Blundell Park – Town’s seventh draw in their last eight games. Will Boyle’s first half header earned the visitors a point after Lenell John-Lewis’ early opener, and both sides had chances to claim all three points, not least the visitors as they struck the woodwork on a couple of occasions.
The result means Town remain bottom of the table, and with just seven games remaining, time is running out for them to save their EFL status.
Asked whether a point was enough, Hurst said: “We’ll see, but obviously we want three points. “After getting ourselves in front again, and for me playing – certainly in that first 20 minutes – very well, they had a response to that, came into it a little bit.
“I look at the (Cheltenham) goal, we talked a lot about it, we know it’s a big threat, but we didn’t actually do too much wrong.
“I’ve looked back at it, you sometimes have to say he’s a real handful, and it didn’t quite carry far enough for Luke Waterfall to maybe get involved in it, and it’s a good header.
“In the second half, they obviously had the wind and it was always going to be difficult.
“I was disappointed with how we started with some of our decisions, but after that we again came into the game.”
Hurst added: “I’m not going to stand here and say we had the best chances to win it – Lloyd had a good chance for them, but we did have two very good chances.
“Of course we had to withstand some pressure with how they play, but for maybe the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half, overall I have to say I think it’s a good performance. “I can’t stand here and fault the players for effort, for commitment, and at times some decent-ish football in difficult conditions.
“The problem is the situation we’re in. I feel like it’s hard on the core group of players that I’m using, because I don’t think they’re a bottom-of-the-table team.
“But over the course of the season, that’s where we find ourselves.”