Joint-interim boss Ben Davies reckons speculation around who the next Grimsby manager might be affected his men during their hard-fought 1-1 draw against rock-bottom Sutton.
Rekeil Pyke opened the scoring for managerless Grimsby before Harry Smith levelled deep into first-half stoppage time.
Sutton had the better chances to snatch the points at Blundell Park and ease their relegation fears. However, the visitors had to settle for a share of the spoils to make it four League Two games unbeaten.
Davies said: “It was frustrating. At times, we were too flat and there wasn’t enough energy. It was a disappointing performance. But in terms of where we are, we are five unbeaten [in all competitions].
“I don’t know what will happen moving forward, whether we are close to appointing someone or not, but hand on heart, for the last couple of days, all the speculation has affected the players a little bit, for the first time.
“Either way, we were miles off what we wanted. There are big moments in matches and conceding before half-time was rubbish from our side of things.
“In the second half, again, they do what they do, and I thought we got sucked into it. We didn’t do enough to break them down. We didn’t play with any real energy and the game fizzled out.”
Sutton manager Matt Gray added: “It was a tough game against a team in form.
“Grimsby have been on a good run. This is always a tough place to come with a big and noisy crowd.
“I wasn’t overly pleased at the start, but our response to get the equaliser and with our second-half performance, I was pleased with that.
“For weeks now I’ve been pleased with our character and with our togetherness to stay in games and roll our sleeves up. We have done that again and it was good timing with the goal.”
Arthur Gnahoua and Donovan Wilson took aim for Grimsby in the early stages as Sutton goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis denied both players shortly before he pulled up with an injury scare that ended his game on 15 minutes.
His replacement, Steve Arnold, soon had to pick the ball out of the net when Pyke slotted home at the second attempt from a Toby Mullarkey cross.
Aiden O’Brien went close with an audacious volley after 37 minutes before Smith went one better with the Sutton equaliser as he powered the ball low into the net from 25 yards just before half-time.
Sutton defender Ben Goodliffe glanced just wide from a set-piece upon the restart and both teams pushed for a winner – with Smith denied only by a point-blank save from Grimsby’s Harvey Cartwright.
