Interim head coach Ben Davies spoke with immense pride after Grimsby Town halted the league slide with a 3-2 home victory over play-off placed Morecambe.
It was just the second victory in the last 12 games in the league for the Mariners and a good response to four straight League Two defeats, which ultimately led to the departure of Paul Hurst as manager. The win came despite a nightmare start, in which the visitors took the lead just over a minute into the contest.
Town responded emphatically, scoring three goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half after a strong initial response before the break. The performance was much improved, with two weeks of work on the training ground paying off.
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Davies said: “It’s a product of what we’ve done over the last two weeks. We’ve had another week with them to implement some stuff and that came out in patches here.
“The win was the biggest thing, it’s a massive shot in the arm, for the players most importantly, but for the whole club as well. To couple it with a performance was great.
“I thought the performance was outstanding and was what ultimately led to the win. It couldn’t have started any worse, but the biggest thing we’ve hammered home is that the performance has to reflect the game. We don’t want one incident to define it all.
“It is the worst thing that can happen to a team low on confidence, but they showed unbelievable character and work rate throughout the game and they deserved the victory.” Indeed, the fashion in which Town grabbed such a vital win, coming from behind and holding on at the death, showed that the team is still very much in the fight.
It was the second game in charge for Davies and Shaun Pearson, following the FA Cup defeat away at Slough Town. And Davies believes that first match has acted as an important building block for the team going into the Morecambe clash.
“There were signs of stuff that were positive last week, even if the overall performance wasn’t great at Slough,” he said. “The progression started last week and they have been absolutely fantastic for me and Shaun [Pearson] in training and we said to them after that they’re a product of what they have done in training.”
Davies praised his team for kicking on in the second half. “[Morecambe] was the first time this season that we’d come from behind to get something from a game,” he said.
“At half-time, we said we wanted exactly the same, and they made two changes which showed that we were playing well. All that was lacking in the first half was the goals, but we got them in the end.”
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/
