David Artell was delighted with the character shown by injury-hit Grimsby as they progressed into the Carabao Cup second round with a dramatic 9-8 penalty shoot-out win over Bradford at Blundell Park.
The first-round decider went deep with 10 players stepping up for either side after they played out a 1-1 draw in normal time.
Grimsby striker Donovan Wilson and Bradford substitute Andy Cook – returning to one of his former clubs – were on target inside 90 minutes before summer signing George McEachran secured Town’s progress from 12 yards.
Neill Byrne and Brad Halliday missed for Bradford, while Kieran Green’s miss paled into an insignificance for Grimsby.
Artell said: “I don’t think I was as nervous as our 11th penalty taker! Harvey Rodgers was sweating more than most I think on the halfway line.
“We showed some real character tonight. We were brilliant in the first half. I thought we scored an excellent goal and then ran out of legs.
“They had a stacked bench full of pros and we had one or two scholars on there. But the lads dug deep and got us over the line with a penalty shoot-out.”
Bradford manager Graham Alexander added: “I thought that we deserved to win the game. We were very strong and caused them a lot of problems.
“They had a bit of danger on the counter-attack playing the long ball up to the striker to get second balls over our midfield.
“But in the actual creation of chances, we obviously dominated that.”
