Paul Hurst frustrated by referee as Grimsby lose to Wrexham

Grimsby boss Paul Hurst criticised the referee for allowing play to continue for Wrexham’s opening goal after a head injury as he was left to question what could have been.

First-half headers from Ollie Palmer and Will Boyle put Wrexham two up before Elliot Lee’s second-half strike secured the 3-0 victory for the Dragons.

The opening goal came after Grimsby’s Harvey Rodgers went down in the box with a head injury, but rose to his feet after referee David Rock allowed play to continue.

Lee then crossed for Palmer to score, having been played onside by Rodgers, and Hurst took aim at the referee for the call and felt it had a big impact on the game.

He said: “The first goal was disappointing because Harvey is not lying, he’s got a head knock, he’s on the floor and ultimately it was Harvey who played them on to be able to score.

“He’s got up and you can see he’s took a knock certainly, he’s not lying, and the referee didn’t stop the game.

“In the end, that cost us and put us on the back foot, first goals can be important and who knows what would have happened otherwise, but I’m frustrated with that decision certainly because there were a couple of other moments in the game where he’s stopped play when there were injuries that were not head injuries.

“It didn’t feel like it was a 3-0 in general but towards the end clearly confidence was up when they’re bringing the players on of the calibre they have and then it got difficult at that stage.”

The Dragons consolidated their early place in the play-offs with a third successive win, but Wrexham assistant Steve Parkin was most pleased by the clean sheet against a good Mariners side.

He said: “It was good because we were playing against a good team and we know that Hursty’s teams are always well organised and they’ve had a good start to the season.

“I think we’ve been striving and looking for a real solid workmanlike (performance) but with good football in it. We’ve not quite had it in long periods but today I thought we were really good.

“We had a couple of games here where we were really disappointed about the goals we conceded but we’ve worked long and hard, the manager and the staff with the lads and video analysis and also on the pitch, at why we looked as though we were conceding those early goals in the early games.

“The lads have put it into practice and that was the most pleasing thing for me today – a clean sheet against a good team.”