Ian Holloway dedicates Grimsby victory to supporters

Posted Sunday, March 08, 2020 by PA

Grimsby boss Ian Holloway dedicated the Mariners’ 2-0 victory over Scunthorpe to the club’s fans after they returned to winning ways at the expense of their local rivals.

Second-half headers from former Iron players Charles Vernam and Luke Waterfall earned the Mariners their success, with Scunthorpe’s misery compounded by Levi Sutton’s late red card – four minutes after he had been introduced as a substitute.

“You won’t see me over celebrating because I’ve got a lot of work to do and I want to get on with that very quietly,” Holloway said.

“We’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m delighted for the lads and for the fans, providing they just go home, don’t gloat and be really happy with themselves.

“We started really well, but then we started to look a little bit nervous at times.

“We’ve got to sort that out, because we should grow into games, but we’ll get there.

“I asked the players to trust me at half-time with what we were doing and it’s great to see we can put things in the box and win headers without James Hanson, who is so important for us.

“You need to be brave in games like this and pass the ball. It’s not rocket science but it can be difficult to do in a local derby and when you’re not really in a confident frame of mind, which we weren’t after the last couple of results.

“We can be a bit vulnerable at times because we haven’t been successful over a period of time in a while.

“But we won headers in our own box and put our bodies on the line, which is exactly what we want.”

After a first half to forget, Vernam sent 2,000 travelling fans into ecstasy in the 51st minute by peeling away at the back post and cushioning home a header from Elliott Hewitt’s cross.

Eleven minutes later Grimsby doubled their lead when Waterfall nodded in from a corner, with the game already done and dusted when Sutton was sent off for a late lunge on Elliott Whitehouse with nine minutes to go.

Describing his side’s performance as “a bad day at the office”, interim Iron boss Russ Wilcox admitted the defeat had been the most disappointing of his managerial career.

He said: “I’ve managed well over 100 games and this is the lowest I’ve been I think because of what’s at stake.

“I’ve spent 12 years at this football club, so I know what this game means to everyone.

“It was back to front from both teams – a typical derby. You had to earn the right to play and so it was very scrappy and all about picking up second balls.

“We huffed and puffed and so did they in the first half, so we were happy to go in 0-0 at half-time.

“Over the 90 minutes though, being honest, I thought Grimsby were better than us on the day.”