Thomas is spot on as Mariners dig deep

GRIMSBY manager Michael Jolley lauded his side’s defensive qualities as they brought up their fourth successive league win against Cheltenham.

Wes Thomas’ penalty just before half-time was all that separated the two sides at Blundell Park as the hosts claimed a victory to move them further up the table.

“We won the game in a different kind of style,” Jolley said.

“Recently, we’ve been quite fluent and scoring quite a few goals. This time, we had to dig deep.

“It was a tough game of football with fine margins, but we got our goal and then we kept a clean sheet, and it’s all credit to the players for winning the game in a different manner.

“Every time we play, we want to play good football and attack a lot, but it’s not always possible, and I think Cheltenham did a good job of stifling some of our play.”

For Cheltenham, the battle at the bottom of the table continues as their advantage over the bottom two was cut to six points, and boss Michael Duff was left feeling frustrated.

“I thought it was a poor game, and I thought it had 0-0 written all over it.

“I can’t question the players’ endeavour, although I can maybe question their quality in the final third. But off the back of last week it was a much better performance.

“Considering they’d just won three on the spin, I didn’t really think they hurt us at all to be honest, although we didn’t threaten them either.

“We scored three goals a couple of weeks ago so it’s not all doom and gloom.”

The hosts carried a lot of the threat early on in the game, with Thomas and Martyn Woolford going close in the opening 10 minutes.

It was Cheltenham who had the best chance during the opening exchanges, with Luke Varney sending the ball wide after being found by Chris Hussey’s free-kick.

Neither side really threatened for the rest of the first half until, just a few minutes before the break, Hussey pulled Thomas back inside the penalty area, with the Grimsby striker stepping up to squeeze the ball past him from the spot.

Both teams struggled to get a grip on the game in the second half. Kristian Dennis stung the palms of Flinders, before Hussey shaved a post from a freekick.