Michael Jolley savours ‘great feeling’ as Grimsby secure Football League status

Grimsby boss Michael Jolley described keeping his side in the Football League as a “great feeling” after securing safety against Notts County.

Jamille Matt’s injury-time winner ensures the Mariners will remain a League Two side for next season after their 2-1 win put them out of reach of second-from-bottom Barnet.

Nathan Clarke had given Grimsby the lead in the first half before Dan Jones looked to have broken their hearts with a late equaliser.

But Matt’s goal means Jolley, who only joined the club in March, can now begin to make plans for another season in the Football League.

“In terms of the overall picture and staying up, it’s a great feeling that we’ve done what we set out to do when I first arrived,” said Jolley.

“I think whenever you achieve something it’s very nice and I must pay great credit to a few people, firstly the players because it’s them who have turned their season around.

“Secondly, the staff who have helped me immensely as a new manager coming in, they’ve been very supportive towards me. The supporters have been incredible in these last few games, and also the board and the people who gave me the opportunity to come to Grimsby have been really supportive.

“Everyone’s really pulled together in these last two months and we can be happy with the outcome in the sense that we achieved what we set out to do.

“But now as far as I’m concerned, enjoy it for 24 hours and then we park it because we need to start thinking about next season.”

For Notts County boss Kevin Nolan, thoughts will turn to a play-off push as defeat saw them drop out of the running for automatic promotion.

And the Magpies manager hopes he does not see many more performances like the one his team put in at Blundell Park.

“I just thought we were second best all over the pitch,” Nolan said.

“We tried a few different things, we got back into the game late on and then we lose a goal on the corner.

“We knew we had to win the game because of Wycombe’s score, but it was just one of those days and hopefully we won’t have too many of them between now and the end of the season.

“If Grimsby played like that week in, week out, they probably wouldn’t find themselves in the situation they’ve been in, but hats off to them.

“Under a bit of pressure, knowing that if they won they’d be safe, they’ve gone and performed, and we just haven’t matched them today.

“I think the disappointing thing when we look back will be that we’ve lost really important points against teams at the bottom.”