Michael Duff bemoaned a lack of fortune as promotion-chasing Cheltenham were held to a 1-1 draw by rock-bottom Grimsby

After falling behind to an eighth-minute opener from Grimsby captain Lenell John-Lewis, the visitors hit back at Blundell Park through defender William Boyle.

However, before nodding into the bottom corner from a trademark Ben Tozer long throw, the same man had an earlier header ruled out for a perceived foul on James Hanson.

According to Duff, it was a decision that highlighted why it was “one of those days” for a side who sit second in League Two, five points clear in the automatic race.

Further chances fell to George Lloyd and Andy Williams, while Grimsby strikers Hanson and Matt Green both passed up opportunities for the home side, who stay at the foot of the table and in real danger of relegation.

Duff said: “I’m disappointed, but it was just one of those days.

“We had a perfectly good goal disallowed, we hit the inside of the post and we’ve missed three one-on-ones.

“After a poor first 20 minutes, where we never came out at all, I thought that we dominated the game for the next hour or 70 minutes.

“It’s one of those days and we have to take the positives.

“We’ve taken four points over the Easter weekend and we are in a better position now than when we started the game.

“It’s another game ticked off. I don’t know why it wasn’t a goal because our player got up early, so that means it can’t be a foul.

“The referee told me he was 100 per cent right. He might be right, but the way it panned out, we might have needed a bit of help, because we had so much bad luck that it was a joke.”

Grimsby manager Paul Hurst said: “We will see (if a draw was enough). Of course, we wanted three points. In that first 20 minutes, I thought we were very good.

“But we saw a response to that and they came into the game.

“I look at the goal. I never like conceding and we spoke about the long throw. That’s a big threat of theirs, but I don’t think we did too much wrong.

“You have to sometimes say he (Ben Tozer) is a real handful.

“In the second half, they had the wind and it was always going to be difficult for us. After a difficult start, where I was disappointed with some of our decisions, we then came back into it.

“I won’t stand here and say we had the best chance to win it, but we did have some very good chances, one on the final whistle.”