David Artell relieved ‘horrific penalty decision’ did not cost his Grimsby side

Grimsby manager David Artell believes justice was done after his goalkeeper Jordan Wright saved a second-half penalty in the 0-0 draw against Newport in League Two.

Artell was not happy with the performance from referee James Oldham, who ruled that Kieran Green had brought down County striker Kyle Hudlin in the box just before the hour.

But Wright came to the rescue with a superb save, diving low to his left to keep out Hudlin’s spot kick.

The Grimsby boss admitted the hosts could have had a fifth-minute penalty for a foul on Kieran Evans, which was not given, and he was also angered by his side having a goal disallowed for offside and felt Exiles winger Bobby Kamwa should have seen red for a foul on Tyrell Warren.

“The penalty decision was horrific,” said Artell. “Both benches agreed that’s just not a penalty.

“Referees make mistakes and that was 100 per cent a mistake. It was a clean tackle, a brilliant tackle.

“I don’t think the referee had his best game. They could have had a penalty early on, and there should have been a red card in the first half – Kamwa nearly broke Ty’s leg. And we scored a goal that wasn’t offside.

“The ref made some bad decisions, but then so did my players and Newport’s players.”

Grimsby had won five successive League Two games on the road before this match, but Artell was reasonably happy with a point that kept his side seventh in the table.

“I thought both teams could have won it and both could have lost it,” he added.

“It was a competitive game. On the one hand, I’m delighted with the clean sheet and our unbeaten run continuing away from home.

“On the flip side, did we do enough to win it? Maybe, on another day. We had some great chances, but so did they. So, maybe a point is a fair result.”

County head coach Nelson Jardim felt that his side deserved the win.

“We were the better team in terms of everything, mainly creating goalscoring chances even if we didn’t score and for the second game at home we had a penalty saved,” said the Portuguese boss.

“We have played a third of the league games now and have 20 points. We have 30 games to go, how quickly can we get another 10 wins?

“It’s a point and we will focus on our performances because the results won’t always go for you.

“It was a bitter taste at the end. But I have to focus on the overall performance, and we were good. If we keep doing the same, then we will be OK.”