Holloway delighted to edge Morecambe after ‘crafty Grimsby weather’ plays a part

Ian Holloway was delighted at how his side coped with “crafty Grimsby weather” during their 2-1 victory against Sky Bet League Two strugglers Morecambe.

Goals from James Hanson after 69 minutes and Burnley loanee Josh Benson four minutes from time set the Mariners on their way in testing conditions at Blundell Park – with Adam Phillips grabbing a late consolation for Derek Adams’ men.

Holloway said: “Wind is normally the toughest thing to face. It did spoil it I felt. It made it a little bit more difficult for both teams, but we both tried to play and you can see what Derek has managed to do for them.

“I thought Morecambe were very well organised and they caused us all sorts of trouble. They have obviously been watching us do different things. They blocked us and stopped us.

“I was a little bit worried about that first half. But in the second half the elements seemed to switch a bit and the ball was probably not blowing the way it was in the first half.

“I don’t know if that’s a bit of crafty Grimsby weather. Somebody switched it. It might have been my wife in the stands.

“I was delighted at the end. On the performance I thought that we deserved to win.”

Adams said: “We limited Grimsby to very little in the first half.

“They didn’t really trouble us and we had five or six opportunities in the first half to score goals. We put it over the bar and past the post.

“At that stage of the game, they had a lot of the ball in an area where they weren’t going to trouble us – between the two centre halves.

“We locked on to their sitting midfield player and stopped the balls to the wide players.

“It worked well. In the second half, we lost a goal. I think the goalkeeper should have done better.

“Overall, we had very good opportunities in the game until Grimsby scored. After they scored, we got the goal at 2-0 and it was too late.”