Grimsby boss Ian Holloway was thrilled at his side’s performance that left them celebrating their second away win in five days following their 3-2 over Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road.

The Mariners had fallen behind to a Conor Wilkinson goal after just five minutes but by half-time, they were in front through Luke Waterfall and George Williams.

Although Jordan-Maguire Drew levelled things up, Montel Gibson’s spot-kick in added time sealed the points.

“I thought it was a fantastic game of football, I thought Orient were excellent in the second half and it looked like we ran out of steam,” he said.

“I had to do something different because they were pulling us apart.

“I’m delighted with my lot, we’ve had a right, good go and we’ve had a fantastic week. They scored a great goal to go in front but what I was pleased with was that we kept going and I’m delighted with the way we came back.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of our new lads, we’ve only just put this group together. I’m delighted to work with this group and we are going to try and get ourselves going.

“I’m not pleased with the second half though to be honest, they dominated too much for my liking.”

However, he did extend sympathy to O’s boss Ross Embleton.

“I feel sorry for him because I thought his side should have been awarded a penalty for handball at the end,” Holloway said.

“For me we’ve seen a bizarre performance from the referee but we got the good end of the stick this time.

“I think a draw would gave been a fair result but we’ve ended up nicking it.”

Meanwhile, Embleton could not hide his disappointment at referee Tom Nield’s refusal to award his side a penalty towards the end.

“I haven’t watched the Grimsby penalty back so I wouldn’t be in the best position to say whether it was or it wasn’t I can only go on the reaction of my players and what I’ve been told. Craig Clay was convinced he touched the ball.

“As regards our penalty shout, wow I’m speechless! Ultimately, they will go away they will talk about and we’ll get no recognition and the same things will carry on happening. The referee said the defender’s arm was in a natural position.

“But what I don’t want do is make any excuses for the fact we got beat today but I thought we deserved a point out of the game given our performance.

“We’ve let in two goals in the first half which we’ve talked about and we are conceding too many goals which isn’t giving us an opportunity and we are having to chase the game with a second-half performance to get anything from the game.”