Nuneaton Town 0 - 2 Grimsby Town

Boro beaten as good showing fails to equate to three points



LIAM Daish said he would not give up until it was mathematically impossible for the Boro to stay up this season – but he is going to need a bit of quality to go with that dogged spirit in the remaining fixtures.

For large parts of this game the Boro players personified their managers musings, fighting for every ball and showing that there is reason to be hopeful in the last third of the campaign.

Unfortunately – when it mattered most – they lacked the cutting edge, though, letting a good team performance turn into another bad result.

Nuneaton had started brightly, not creating much but equally not letting Grimsby settle, and they should have been rewarded for their effort 25 minutes in.

Rob Ogleby was somewhat fortunately allowed to run one-on-one – the striker looked off-side from the off – but he squandered the chance, hitting his effort straight at the legs of the oncoming James McKeown when it looked certain he would score.

The Boro had their tails up after the chance and enjoyed possibly their best ten minute spell of the season, taking the game to their promotion chasing visitors in an impressive fashion.

It would have been against the run of the play then, had Grimsby taken the lead in the 37th minute.

But Christian Dibble ensured they didn’t, though, throwing out a leg to deny Nathan Arnold after a rare mistake by Theo Streete let the Grimsby man through on goal.

The Mariners went close then but they went even closer just before the break as Jon-Paul Pitman smashed an effort against the bar with Dibble left well beaten.

Despite the late couple of chances for the Mariners the Boro would have been pleased with their 45 minute showing – and they nearly got off to a great start in the second 45.

Once again it was Ogleby with the chance, this time the Boro man found space on the edge of the area but he could only fire straight at McKeown again.

Minutes later the Boro were made to pay for that chance going astray as the visitors took the lead with a close range finish from Pitman.

The Mariners frontman was the last in a trio of players to shoot on goal, Ollie Palmer striking the post and Arnold forcing a save from Dibble. Pitman was on-hand to tap home the rebound, though, to break the deadlock and Boro hearts.

Just like in recent weeks the Boro seemed to lose their attacking threat after going behind as they failed to muster a comeback of any sort.

Grimsby looked comfortable at 1-0 and they even managed to add to their lead late on, substitute Ross Hannah tapping in right under the crossbar after Aristote Nsiala had headed down a corner from the right hand side.

I misread the score yesterday as being 2-0 to Nuneaton!