Paul Hurst was relieved to get across the line as Grimsby ended their six-match winless run in League Two with a 2-1 victory over Tranmere.
Brendan Kiernan and Niall Maher scored headers in each half before Jake Burton stole possession from goalkeeper Max Crocombe to give Tranmere a lifeline, but that strike proved too little too late for the visitors.
And Grimsby manager Hurst was relieved his side were able to see the game out and record a first league win since October 15.
“We think it was deserved,” he said. “They had one or two spells, but you can’t dominate any game for 90 minutes.
“It felt like we were relatively comfortable. But it rarely works out like that and their goal’s poor from our point of view.
“Max (Crocombe) will admit it’s a mistake and it made it a lot more nervy than it should’ve been but, even then, we had other decent chances.
“Importantly, we saw the game out and it was a good three points.
“I think the lads started well. Maybe from not winning, things are a little bit edgier for the players than they should be.”
Tranmere also headed into the game on a winless streak, with their last league success coming on October 14.
And manager Micky Mellon was frustrated with his side’s display.
“I’m not going to say disappointing, because that feels like it’s a throwaway comment,” he said.
“But we didn’t start the game anywhere near well enough.
“We were losing races and not competing well enough right up until they scored and you could see it coming.
“Did we speak about that before the game? Yeah. We wanted to make sure we at the very least matched the tempo of what the game is going to be, or we set the tempo.
“I don’t think we did that and their first goal wasn’t good enough. It was a cheap one to lose.
“We kind of huffed and puffed, but we didn’t really stamp our character on the game or go and show them what we wanted to do.”
