Grimsby boss David Artell hails ‘excellent’ display in victory at Morecambe

Grimsby boss David Artell was full of praise for his players after they produced an excellent performance to beat Morecambe convincingly with a 3-0 League Two win at the Mazuma Stadium.

Two first-half goals from Justin Obikwu and a last-minute Danny Rose effort gave the Mariners maximum points as Morecambe slumped back into the bottom two.

Artell said: “It was a really good performance and we made Morecambe look like a poor side.

“With the weather as bad as it was, this was always going to be a difficult game but I thought we were excellent as a team.

“Justin will quite rightly get the plaudits for two really well-taken goals but there were good performances all over the park.

“The build-up play leading to both his goals were excellent and I thought the third was a true team goal which capped things off for us.

“It’s been a good week for us and we are making progress and we all want that to continue.”

In a game played in high winds and driving rain, Grimsby managed the conditions better and opened the scoring after 25 minutes through on-loan Coventry man Obikwu, when he was found superbly by Kieran Green and produced a brilliant finish past Harry Burgoyne.

The striker doubled the visitors’ lead after 39 minutes when another excellent through ball dissected the Morecambe defence and he kept his cool to finish past the Morecambe goalkeeper.

Morecambe boss Derek Adams made three changes at the break and it made a bit of a difference with Callum Jones forcing a save from Jordan Wright with a free-kick from the edge of the box and Hallam Hope just inches away from connecting with Ben Tollitt’s cross.

But it was Grimsby who finished the stronger with Jordan Davies hitting the crossbar before Rose made it 3-0 in the final minute with a close-range finish after a flowing move.

Adams gave an honest appraisal of his team’s display, saying: “That was our worst performance of the season so far, especially at home.

“We didn’t play well at all. We didn’t create many opportunities on goal and our defending all over the pitch was poor. We didn’t make passes and we didn’t make the right choices.

“The way we managed the game and defended for their goals was horrific at times and it was a really, really poor performance from us.

“We didn’t do a lot of the basics right today.”