David Artell has roasted his Grimsby Town players for their “worst performance by a distance” during his reign.
The Mariners were beated 2-1 by Nigel Adkins’ Tranmere Rovers at Blundell Park. Afterwards, Artell said he was unhappy with almost every element of his side’s performance.
“Everything [wasn’t good enough],” he said. “Their lad [Apter] walked into our box and scored. That was reflective of our performance.”
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He added: “I said to the players that was our worst performance by a distance. Why? On the ball we were just whacking it everywhere and up in the air. It was like kids’ football, and we got bullied off the ball by a Tranmere side who are surviving on that and that’s credit to Nigel and his players.
“You have got to stand up to that and we didn’t, not many if any of them did. We were bullied and I couldn’t figure out how we were trying to score.”
(Image: Jon Corken)
One positive point was a goal for Doug Tharme on his debut for Town. He equalised from a set-piece in the 39th minute – just moments after Tranmere had taken the lead through Rob Apter. The visitors were back in front in the 55th minute, however, when Toby Mullarkey turned into his own net from Apter’s low delivery.
Former Scunthorpe boss Adkins gave the Mariners credit for their fightback, but was pleased with his players’ resilience: “Their goal was a sucker punch and one of our players left his man,” he said. “Games are about fine little margins, but we responded and won the game.
“We have to give them some credit as they fought back, but we weathered that and showed a little bit of resilience to get the result.” He added: “We played some lovely football.”
Reporting by PA Sport
Original story at https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/
