David Artell says Grimsby victory vs Shrewsbury was deserved as winless run ends

David Artell felt Grimsby were more than justified in seeing an end to their winless league run with a scrappy 1-0 home victory over struggling Shrewsbury.

Substitute Justin Amaluzor finished off a deflected Evan Khouri cross in the box to secure the Mariners’ first win in Sky Bet League Two since they beat Gillingham by the same scoreline at Blundell Park back on October 18.

The Grimsby boss was not concerned about style points as he saw his side end 2025 on a winning note after nine league fixtures without victory.

Artell said: “It was justified, but we have had a few games during this run where we felt we’ve deserved to win and not got it.

“It was another committed, hard-working performance and another game that probably should’ve been a bit more comfortable, but we’d take another 23 1-0 wins to the end of the season.

“The performance was excellent for the most part, and we deserved to win the game, which I don’t think anyone who watched would dispute, but we made hard work of it at times.

“There were a lot of deflections for the goal, but you get to a point as a head coach where you’re not bothered by how it goes in, and that is the bit of luck that we seemed to be lacking as of late.

“They’re the fine margins of the game, but I think it was fully deserved on our part.

“They had one big chance, a deflected shot against the post and a good save from [Jackson Smith] from a header, but it was a foul on Doug [Tharme], so we’ll take back-to-back clean sheets.”

It was a gut-wrenching defeat for Michael Appleton’s side in the end, which made it three losses on the bounce.

They continue to look nervously below in the table at fourth-from-bottom with a huge clash at home to fellow strugglers Bristol Rovers on New Year’s Day.

Appleton explained: “There was disappointment in losing the game in the way we did with a scruffy goal conceded, but I was also a little bit encouraged by what I saw from us, especially in the second half.

“We had a couple of big chances come our way in the second half, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to get ahead before they scored.

“We expected to have less of the possession against a heavily possession-based team with a lot of athleticism in the middle of the park, so to compete with them in the way we did was admirable.

“We looked resolute and defended well at times, and we were starting to build confidence going forward in the second half, so the goal was obviously a big blow.”