Grimsby boss David Artell expects more drama in battle for play-off places

Grimsby boss David Artell expects plenty more “twists and turns” in the play-off race.

Artell saw his side power to 4-1 victory at Gillingham thanks to three quickfire second-half goals.

On-loan Andy Cook opened the scoring before Garath McCleary levelled for the Gills.

But Jaze Kabia, Kieran Green and Charles Vernam hit three goals in 12 second-half minutes to Grimsby back to winning ways after Tuesday’s defeat at Chesterfield.

Artell, whose side are two points outside the play-off places with a game in hand, said: “I thought we dominated the game for large spells. They had a 10-minute spell really.

“We controlled the game. We were quite happy when they had the ball.

“We took our chances. We had three good chances. Some of the play towards the end of the game was terrific and we put a decent team to the sword.

“We didn’t play particularly bad Tuesday, we came up against a good team playing well and were one kick away from getting a brilliant point.

“It’s back in our hands. We’ve just got to concentrate on us.

“We’ve got three games left. There will still be plenty of twists and turns.

“We go to Cambridge now and that will be a tough game, they’re a really good team. They’re going for automatic promotion, so if we don’t play well then we won’t come away with anything.

“If we keep our level of performance up then we’ll have a chance of coming away with points again.”

It has been a tough few months for Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth, whose side have won just once in their last 11 games.

Ainsworth said: “We did all right until their second goal and we collapsed. That was the story of the game.

“We know what the problem is and I know what we need to do.

“(Goalkeeper) Glenn Morris has been an outstanding servant for this club and he’s allowed the odd mistake.

“We’re so easy to score against at times. It was coming, you felt like we needed the end really.

“We need the end of the season now really. I feel for some of the boys out there because they put everything in and come away with nothing.

“My message is being positive as always because we’ll get this right.

“The club has been like this for so long. We got a bit carried away with the unbeaten run earlier in the season.

“There’s a distinct change that’s needed and that will happen in the summer – a whole new fresh start.”