Much like the opening day, there were some good and some not-so-good aspects of Grimsby Town’s performance in their draw at Walsall, which head coach David Artell picked up on. Still, the Mariners boss was relaxed about the outcome of his side’s first away trip of the season as they battled against a Walsall side who had won their opening two competitive matches under new boss Lee Grant.
Both teams had moments where they had the better of the general play, and that swung back and forth in each half, with a share of the points being a fair outcome in most people’s minds. Charles Vernam blazed over with a free shot inside the box in the first half, and Jayden Sweeney forced a strong save from Jed Ward after the break, but overall, Town’s head coach did not feel there was enough evidence to suggest his side deserved victory.
“I don’t think we did enough to win it,” admitted Artell. “They had a lot of the play in their own half, and I can’t remember a real clear cut chance for them.
That point could be crucial come May, so the important thing is that when you don’t win, you don’t lose, and we are where we are at the minute [with injuries] in terms of not having another fit player to choose from outside of the squad we picked.” Artell pointed out an incident late in the game, which saw Cian Doyle go down inside the Walsall box from a challenge, which he felt was a “blatant” penalty not awarded to his side.
“You don’t get them now,” he added. “You have to literally commit GBH to get a penalty now, they explained the higher threshold before the start of the season, but you cannot take someone out chest high and not expect a penalty.
“I don’t want to just talk about that incident, though. It was a really good game to watch between two good, competitive teams with slightly different styles on the day. We defended very well against a good team.
“The front four set the platform in that sense, in terms of the pressing that they did, I thought Justin was outstanding at that and Iwan [Morgan] when he came on, while Greeny [Kieran Green] and Chaz [Charles Vernam] will always run around.
“Cian [Doyle] keeps getting better with every minute he plays, so we’ve just got to keep going and building these relationships on the pitch, both new and old.”
There have already been plenty of obstacles for Artell and his team to overcome, just two games into the league season, but the performances thus far have provided enough of a basis to suggest they are continuing on the progression path.
