Grimsby Town's good run of form was dealt a blow this weekend as they went down 1-0 at home to ten-man Mansfield Town.

The game looked to be heading for a draw with the visitors forced to defend deep after Hayden White was sent off for a high challenge on Grimsby's Jake Hessenthaler.

Despite having the bulk of possession, a late set-piece led to Krystian Pearce bagging a surprise winner for the Stags and easing the pressure on under-fire manager John Dempster.

After the game, manager Michael Jolley was not impressed with the performance on referee Paul Marsden, claiming its the first time in over 100 fixtures he's been to visit a match official after the game.

It's one stark lesson the Mariners fans learnt from their tough afternoon at Blundell Park and the first of three we feel they can take away from their narrow defeat.

You can't influence officials

Despite seeing their opponents go down to ten me, referee Paul Marsden came in for criticism from both sets of fans after the game.

He wasn't helped by his assistant referees, nor the fourth official, in a tempestuous game that could easily have seen more cards shown.

Fans will have learnt that you simply can't assume that officials will get everything right and that they're the unknown element of any match at this level.

Breaking teams down

If you're going to win promotion out of this division, you have to be able to break a team down. Mansfield defended deep, but Grimsby just didn't have the means to break through and grab the goal.

If you're in the top seven a lot of sides will come to you and look to defend. As Grimsby get themselves into promotion contention, they'll need different approaches to break down stubborn defences and at the moment, it doesn't look like they're quite there.

Gibson quality

Liam Gibson was the star man for the Mariners on a tough afternoon. He showed real quality on the ball and had a few tricks up his sleeve to beat players and spark some sort of attacking threat.

The full back is on loan from Newcastle United and he looked to be a real talent for the Mariners. They'll need much more form him over the coming weeks if they're to mount a promotion challenge.

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