Grimsby need to be more ruthless, boss David Artell says

Frustrated Grimsby Town boss David Artell told his side they need to be “more ruthless” after squandering a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at Barrow.

Captain Danny Rose opened the scoring in the seventh minute and Kieran Green put the Mariners two goals to the good after 13 minutes.

Strikes from Rakeem Harper in the 44th minute and Charlie McCann 16 minutes from time salvaged a point for the Bluebirds.

Goalkeeper Christy Pym should have done better for both goals, which Artell slammed as “soft”.

He said: “It’s ridiculous. It’s the killer bit in both boxes.

“We were by far the better team, but people will only judge us by results, and that’s understandable because that’s the nature of the game.

“We weren’t ruthless. That game should have been four or five.

“We gave away two of the softest goals you’ll ever see, so we came away with a point rather than all three and a comfortable win.

“It feels like we’ve lost and I think the players feel that way as well.

“We’ve dominated both halves of football. The amount of good chances in their box is ridiculous and we’ve conceded two really soft goals.

“We dominated the game from start to finish and they’re just lumping the ball forwards.

“We’ve conceded two goals from shots outside the box. We’ve missed two sitters in the second half.

“The one positive to take is the last time we were 2-2 we conceded at the end against Crewe, but Crewe are a much better team than Barrow.

“The performance level is really good, but the result isn’t. You’ll win more games than you lose if you play like that, that’s for sure.”

Andy Whing’s charges stretched their unbeaten run in the league to seven after coming from behind to get a point.

“I’m really pleased with the point,” reflected Whing.

“We had a slow start and conceded the two goals. That was really disappointing. It’s something that sometimes happens to us and we need to try and stop that.

“Sometimes we have to go behind before we start playing.

“But we’ve managed to get a point when it looked like we would come away with nothing at one stage.

“Once again we’ve shown great desire to get something from the game. We dug in when we had to.

“I keep saying it. We can be better. We’re still building and we still have a long way to go to be the team we want to be.

“But we’ve got that desire, that attitude that you need to be successful.

“It’s another game unbeaten. We carry that run on and we’re pleased with that, and we’ve got another big game coming up which we’ll move onto.”