Ian Holloway: My bubble is ‘only going to get bigger’ despite Grimsby defeat

Ian Holloway says his bubble is “only going to get bigger” – despite falling to a first defeat as Grimsby manager following Saturday’s 1-0 Sky Bet League Two defeat against Exeter.

After watching Elliott Whitehouse and Billy Clarke hit the post in each half, the hosts were undone by a Nicky Law strike.

It was a goal that moved Exeter level on points with Swindon at the top of the League Two standings, but Holloway saw plenty of positives for Grimsby, who headed into the weekend on the back of two victories from their last three.

He said: “What I want to say is, I’m taking that all day long as a performance. For me, life’s about caring and working, and they did everything.

“All I can say is, as a performance, some of the things we were talking about, they did very, very well against a very good team.

“We’ve hit the post, and then we’ve hit the bar, and then one of their danger players scored a brilliant goal to be fair.

“I don’t want the bubble to burst, because my bubble is even bigger now.

“I’ve got a wonderful group to work with, the fans were so superb today, singing, chanting, and I think they can see the difference of where we had players and what they wanted to do and how may crosses we got in the box.

“We’re only going to get better, and if they’re second or first now, then I’m pretty confident we can be a team that’s moving up the league rather than looking over our shoulders.”

Exeter manager Matt Taylor said: “We had a little bit of luck. We can’t deny that. Grimsby were the better team, we can’t deny that. They were the better team by a distance.

“On another day that could be a different score, but there is something about defending your goal like we did. Our goalkeeper made saves and we defended.

“If you stay in the game it only needs that one moment of quality and that is what Nicky (Law) gave us with his goal.

“There is something underestimated in football. That is pure desire not to come away from the game having conceded.

“Maybe the goalkeeper had to make saves. The defenders wanted to defend, but in the rest of the pitch I didn’t think we were great.

“Grimsby were by far the better team. Full credit to them. Sometimes in football it doesn’t go your way and we certainly rode out luck.

“Maybe that pressure could have been relieved by players using the ball better than we did.”