David Artell thrilled with Crewe’s performance in victory over Grimsby

Posted Sunday, September 08, 2019 by PA

Crewe manager David Artell could not hide his delight with his side’s display as they continued their excellent start to the season with a 2-0 win at Grimsby.

Tom Lowery opened the scoring for the visitors just a minute into the second half before Charlie Kirk secured a fifth league win of the season with a late goal.

James Hanson had earlier seen a penalty saved for the hosts as Grimsby suffered their first home defeat of the league season, but there was no denying that Crewe deserved their victory.

And the manner of their display had Artell purring as they remained in the top three in League Two.

“It was a professional performance from start to finish, and apart from the penalty, I don’t think they’ve had a shot at our goal,” Artell said.

“We’ve completely dominated the game from start to finish. I don’t know what the possession stats are, but we’ve limited the highest scorers in the league to one penalty, which came from a mistake from us.

“It was a blatant penalty, the ref’s got it right, but other than that I thought we were terrific. We were thoroughly professional.

“At half-time, we probably should have been in the lead with our dominance, but we didn’t create enough.

“I told them they needed to have a bit more belief in the final third, and a minute into the second half Tom’s scored another good goal.”

For Grimsby boss Michael Jolley, it proved to be a disappointing afternoon as his side fell to just their second league defeat of the season.

Both sides went into the game knowing that a victory could potentially take them top of the table, with the Mariners the top scorers in the division before kick-off.

But their performance did not hit the heights achieved in victories over Port Vale and Walsall in their previous couple of outings.

Grimsby remain in the top seven in League Two, but Jolley is eager for his side to learn from their latest defeat.

“I don’t think we did enough in the game to deserve any points from it,” Jolley said.

“We were below par compared to the level of performance we have been producing, so that’s frustrating and disappointing.

“We fell below the levels we’ve set, but I don’t think it was through any lack of effort, I just think we made some decisions today that weren’t quite right, and obviously key moments in the game went against us.

“Of course, when you get a penalty, you hope you can score it. James Hanson’s been a fantastic player for us this season, and we always back him to score goals for us, but on this occasion the goalkeeper’s saved it. That happens in football.

“We spoke about how we wanted to approach the game, but of course once the ball starts rolling you’re not quite certain what’s going to happen.

“We didn’t make good enough use of the ball today. We didn’t impose ourselves in the way that we have done previously.

“Maybe we were a little bit anxious after missing the penalty and going behind. We need to learn from that and move forward.”