‘Grumpy’ Martin Paterson smiling at Notts County display in win at Grimsby

Head coach Martin Paterson allowed himself to feel some joy after Notts County continued their winning form with a 2-0 victory at Grimsby.

Ruthless strike duo Matthew Dennis and Alassana Jatta scored the goals as the Magpies made it three wins on the bounce to stay second in League Two.

The scorers may receive the plaudits but Paterson was keen to focus on the team effort to shut out the hosts in a hard-fought game where both teams had spells on top.

He said: “I’ve been accused of being grumpy at times but my coaches made a great point about coming to a place like Grimsby because they’re always going to make it a tough game, but we handled it well and got the result.

“I’ll park my grumpiness on this occasion with that in mind.

“We started the game well and should’ve taken the lead if we had shown a bit more quality, but then we opened the door a little bit and when they’re working hard to get points at home it can be difficult.

“We had a real good spell in the second half where we got on the ball and that allowed us to find Matthew in the pocket [for the goal].

“Most will focus on Matthew Dennis and AJ [Alassana Jatta] for working hard for their goals, but I focus on the clean sheet and the togetherness the team have shown in these last three games.

“I think I got booed by the supporters at the end for not doing the fist pumps, but those moments are for the players to enjoy with the supporters who were phenomenal.”

For the Mariners, their woes continued with a third straight home defeat and a seventh without victory in League Two as they dropped into the bottom half.

Boss David Artell said: “I thought it was a game of fine margins between two decent teams, but in the end two mistakes from us led to two goals.

“They had two shots on target and scored two goals, Shrewsbury had one and scored theirs, and it was the same against Tranmere, which just can’t keep happening if we’re going to win games of football.

“We have 16 shots in total and don’t score, but if we concede every shot on our goal then we’re going to struggle.

“If we’re going to get the results we feel we should be getting then we’ve got to cut out the individual mistakes and be much better in both boxes.

“We can talk about performances all we want, but it’s results that matter in the end and I think everyone can see we’re not a bad team, but recent results haven’t been good enough.”