Grimsby boss David Artell says win over Crawley is just the start

Grimsby boss David Artell says it is just the start for his team as they emphatically beat Crawley 3-0 at home in their League Two curtain-raiser.

The Mariners had a debut scorer in Jaze Kabia, who netted the first goal just 10 minutes in, before Cameron McJannet and Evan Khouri made it a more resounding result for the hosts, but Artell still wants a lot more.

He said: “I’m never satisfied, but we would’ve taken three goals from three different scorers with a clean sheet as well.

“It’s just a start, and we should’ve scored more; we should’ve been a lot more ruthless.

“I don’t want to sound like Scrooge at Christmas, but it’s my job to keep raising standards and making sure that the players keep getting better.

“They deserve a huge amount of credit today, of course, but we’ll keep coaching to get more out of them and make them better.

“We were dominant in all areas of the pitch, you don’t have 41 touches in the opposition box otherwise.”

It was the dream start for Irish forward Kabia – signed from Truro City – and scoring early on in his EFL debut.

“He’s a pest,” added Artell on debutant scorer Kabia.

“It’s why we brought him to the football club. I ask myself with strikers whether I would’ve wanted to play against them, and I certainly wouldn’t have with him.

“Dion Conroy is no mug, but I thought he got the better of him on numerous occasions, and he deserved his goal, which you want for your forwards early in the season.”

It was not the ideal start for Crawley, returning to League Two following relegation from the third tier last term, and head coach Scott Lindsey did not hold back in his assessment.

He said: “We were rubbish, that’s the truth of the matter, we didn’t have a shot on goal until the 57th minute.

“We were clearly off it today; they won every single second ball in the middle of the park.

“They wanted it more than we did, which is not a reflection of me or what I want.

“We were miles off it, and we deserved what we got, which was nothing. The good news is that it won’t reflect anything that we do this season.

“We got beaten 6-0 away at Swindon early on in the season, we got promoted, so it can happen.

“I didn’t want that, but we will learn loads from it, and we obviously have to improve massively from it.

“We can have games where we don’t play well, and we can accept that, but when they don’t put the effort in, I can’t accept that, and there will be some very frank discussions to make sure that isn’t an issue.”