Grimsby boss Paul Hurst admitted his side were falling into a bad habit of failing to win games from promising positions after a late penalty from Dom Telford rescued Crawley a point in a 1-1 draw at the Broadfield Stadium.

Hurst’s men looked on course to take maximum points after Harry Clifton scored shortly before the break.

The Mariners then hit the post through George Lloyd and spurned several clear chances before skipper Telford hauled Crawley level two minutes from time after Niall Maher’s challenge on substitute Tom Fellows.

Hurst wants his men to finish in their highest league position since 2006 – they are in 15th – but feels they are not getting the points their good play deserves.

He admitted: “I’m disappointed with a point. We can’t draw a game like that, it’s ridiculous, and it was two points dropped.

“We are not getting the points we should, we’re not killing teams off. At the moment we are finding a way not to win.

“The players need to change in terms of a winning mentality. A team with winners would have got a handsome win tonight.

“No disrespect to Crawley, but it felt almost too easy for us.”

Crawley manager Scott Lindsey confessed his men were lucky to get a point after Telford’s late penalty extended their unbeaten run to five games and put them five points clear of second-bottom Hartlepool.

Lindsey admitted the Reds looked “tired and leggy” but he said he did not see this poor performance coming.

“We deserved three points in our recent game against Doncaster but we didn’t deserve anything tonight,” he said.

“We were poor, we didn’t move the ball around well enough, but having said that we kept going for 90 minutes to get something out of the game.”

Former Swindon boss Lindsey admitted that a few weeks ago this was the type of match his side might have lost, and added: “We looked tired and maybe it was one game too many.

“We were lucky to get a point and I’m not sure if it was a penalty. I didn’t see this performance coming but the character of the players has been good since I have come in.”