Notts County head coach Stuart Maynard was delighted to see Notts County coast to a 4-1 win over Grimsby at Meadow Lane.
The Magpies flew out of the blocks early on and were rewarded when goals from Alassana Jatta and Dan Crowley gave the home side a 2-0 lead in the opening fifteen minutes.
Jodi Jones added to the lead before Harvey Rodgers got Grimsby on the board.
Crowley added his second to wrap it up and Maynard said: ” We knew it was going to be a really difficult performance, we knew that they would come out and get after us and try and come man for man, but we also had a game plan where we could miss their press out and the lads have executed it perfectly.
“The credit has to go the lads, it is okay us giving them the gameplan, but the execution was incredible.”
Grimsby manager David Artell was frustrated and said: “I felt the first 15 minutes set the tone of the game, I thought we did not get to grips with them early enough or well enough and that continued for large parts.
“We made Dan Cowley look a very good player, which he can be on his day, but it does not help that when he shoots it deflects and goes into our top corner and it does not help when his mate Jodi Jones crosses the ball, and it also ends up in our top corner.
“We can blame bad luck or bad refereeing all we want but we did not do enough in the game to stop them , we did enough in possession to score one, but we should have scored more.”
Some decisions led to debate, and Artell was left furious as he felt there were many bad decisions as well as feeling his side should have had a penalty as he said: “We should have had a penalty. Jodi Jones slipped, and he was asking for a penalty, that is not a penalty, I get that. But when someone gets dragged to the floor it is a penalty.
“The fans were absolutely outstanding, in numbers and voice. They’re not stupid, the home fans see it and they know, we all see it but there the problem is there is one man who does not, and he is the most important man so I can sit here and bemoan a terrible official tonight, but it does not help. We will put the report him and give him a score of zero for key match decisions.”
