Grimsby were ‘like AC Milan under Arrigo Sacchi’

David Artell compared his gutsy Grimsby side to Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan after their 1-0 victory over table-toppers Gillingham.

Kieran Green grabbed the only goal of the game as the Mariners secured a second away win in four days at Priestfield.

Sacchi led Milan to back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990 and Artell, whose side inflicted the Gills’ first home league defeat of 2024 three days after winning 3-2 at Carlisle, said: “Our shape was outstanding, our work rate was outstanding, it was like watching AC Milan under Arrigo Sacchi at one point.

“You come to a team who haven’t lost (at home) this calendar year, it’s going to be tough.

“It’s an outstanding win to back up the outstanding win at the weekend. It’s a good night for us.

“We’ve got a really good group. I keep telling them that and I hope they’re starting to believe it.

“If they keep that belief up and keep building, then we’ll have a decent season.

“We’re not going to get carried away. One week doesn’t make a summer, or something along those lines.”

It has been an eventful few weeks for Green, who broke his duck for the season in the defeat to Barrow before being sent off against Bromley.

But he returned to the starting line-up with a bang with the all-important winner.

Artell added: “We’ve worked a lot on Greeny’s finishing of late and he looked confident as he approached the ball. I didn’t think he was going to miss and thankfully he didn’t.

“Greeny’s a great bloke. I’m pretty certain if you told him he had to do keep-ups everyday until he went to bed he would do, he just loves football.”

Mark Bonner’s side remained top of the League Two table despite this defeat, but he once again urged his charges to find their cutting edge.

He said: “We’re frustrated that we haven’t scored. We have no divine right to win any game, but teams will make it hard for us.

“You could argue it was the perfect away performance, we’ve done it to other teams.

“We’ve given a goal away which is totally preventable. Our defensive record’s been amazing (two goals conceded in eight league games before this one) so you can’t hammer them for that, but the goal itself is too easy.

“When you’re an away side and score first, that changes the context of the game. It’s not their job to entertain supporters or make the game easy for us.

“We had lots of pressure and loads of moments, but there wasn’t enough of a threat on their goal. We couldn’t put relentless pressure on their goalkeeper and that’s what we needed to do.

“It’s an accumulation of errors where we allowed the momentum to get away from us. The quality and decision-making wasn’t good enough.

“We lost to Doncaster and responded really well and we’ll have to do that again. You want to get yourselves back on track as soon as possible.”