Grimsby Town will want to finish the season off in the right way to show the progress made under David Artell’s management heading into an important summer.
The Mariners’ 3-0 victory away at Crewe Alexandra on Saturday should be a benchmark performance for the future, mixing that defensive structure that has been built over a long period of time with fluidity in possession that has not often been seen this term.
It was one of those games where everyone who played was in form and contributed to what was a great team victory. The frustration behind it all will be that such a display has been too rare an occurrence this season, and it is clear that finding a way to be consistent will be the main aim going into the next campaign.
READ MORE: Artell insists Grimsby Town won't let up in survival battle despite Crewe win almost securing safety
Town have just one more point to get to ensure they are in League Two next term, but Artell wants a strong finish regardless of the circumstances to have a platform from which to build on going into the summer.
He said: “We’ve got to make sure we perform like this more regularly, and we’ve got to be more consistent. It’s not going to come overnight, and obviously, we’ve got a big summer ahead of us, but there is some ability in this group.
“We’ve got to keep working with them to keep making them better, and if we do that, then we’ve got a chance of performing like this on a more regular basis. We’ve got three games left this season to perform like that again.
“Even if we win on Tuesday night [and secure safety], it doesn’t matter. We have to keep continuing to improve because that is the aim of the game. [The Crewe game] was a marked improvement on the ball compared to last Tuesday.
“We’ve done work to improve these things over a number of weeks and it’s nice to eventually see it all come together on a Saturday afternoon. We’ve been hard to beat, but when we do combine that with a bit of quality on the ball, there is enough there to score goals and do so with real conviction.”
There will no doubt be plenty of change in terms of personnel for next season, but the players that do remain will be key in terms of making sure whatever progress that has been made over the last few months continues.
The club will try to add more quality as they tried to do last season, but it will not have the desired effect if the standard is not already set for the new faces that come in, and that standard can be established in these last three games of the current campaign.
