It all came together – David Artell hails Grimsby display

David Artell lauded Grimsby’s performance as they ended their home losing run in style with a 5-2 thrashing of Accrington.

Harvey Rodgers, Jayden Luker, Justin Obikwu and Jordan Davies all scored in the first half for the Mariners as they blew the visitors away, with a Sonny Aljofree own goal after the break snuffing out any fears of a comeback as Accrington pulled two back.

It had been a frustrating two months at home for Grimsby since beating Bromley on September 21, with poor chance conversion proving costly in key moments, but they immediately removed all doubt on this occasion.

Artell said: “You could see us playing with a bit more fluidity further up the pitch, and we were a lot more clinical.

“All these things are coachable, but they take time to develop. However, it all came together for us tonight.

“It’s not going to happen every week but at the same time, you’re very happy when it does. I thought we were magnificent and deserved the win, despite the fact that we stopped doing some good things at times in the second half.

“That’s part of the process, though; if we’re making mistakes at 4-0 up, I’m more than happy with that, and it is much better to be doing it then.

“It’s been challenging for the fans that turn up at home every week, but I hope the fans realise that we’re on this journey together.

“The ones that turned up tonight will hopefully be going home as happy as I am and hopefully they all come back for the Crewe game because we do need them.”

For Accrington, playing extra time in the FA Cup at the weekend had taken its toll and with their opponents having 10 days to prepare for this match, the difference in freshness was apparent.

“You could see that we were leggy and tired all over the pitch,” said manager John Doolan. “It’s hard to recover when you’re 4-0 down inside 33 minutes, and it was our own doing at times.

“We lose our man from a set-piece, give it away with a back pass, concede a penalty and score an own goal, so if anything could go wrong in this game, it did.

“They had a good go in the second half and we scored two good goals. I could have made a few selection changes, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I didn’t expect us to come out the way we did at the start.

“It’s very disappointing but no team means to start in that way. That’s football, and you could see [the schedule] had taken its toll on us with how we started.”