'We were bad in both boxes, and it’s cost us' - Crawley Town boss John Yems on a disappointing night at Grimsby Town

Ex-Red Filipe Morais fired Grimsby in front before Jack Powell’s free-kick levelled for the Reds. Joe Adams fired in the winner against the run of play, as the Mariners leapfrogged Southend United to climb off the bottom of the table.

The nature of the defeat was cruel, and John Yems was disappointed to lose to relegation fighting Grimsby: “I don’t think there was much wrong with what we’ve done, we were bad in both boxes, and it’s cost us.

"We missed so many chances, we’ve got to get better at it. Two bad goals to give away, terrible goals. I’ve just had a chat with the players, and I’ve said ‘listen, we aren’t switching off, we’ve got to go again’. Because that isn’t good enough, against a side like that. If we’ve got any ambitions of doing a lot better than what we’re doing, we’ve got to be better than that."

Crawley had 15 shots compared to Grimsby’s six, and Yems claims his team were not clinical enough: “We weren’t good enough in the final third, in defending and attacking, and it isn’t just happening, it’s been creeping up and creeping up on us.

"Goals win games as we all know, for and against, and we haven’t been clinical enough to be fair. It’s not me getting the hump, did we deserve to win tonight? No because we got beat 2-1. Was it windy, was it rainy, was it this and that? Of course it was, it was for them as well.

“We weren’t unlucky, I don’t like hearing that word ‘unlucky’, there’s no such thing as being unlucky, we weren’t good enough, there’s a big difference."

The Reds were caught out by a long throw for Grimsby’s winner, and Yems insists his side will be working hard in training to bounce back from this loss: “Let’s hope the other teams don’t have a long throw. We do work on the training ground to cut it out, we don’t just turn up and play, but we weren’t good enough. They rely on a long throw, good luck to them, that’s what they do. You know when sides play like they do, if they’re at you, doing that then good luck to them."

Crawley will be looking to put things right this Saturday when they face Exeter City, for a 1:00pm kick-off.

Grimsby Town 2, Crawley Town 1