To be fair, the visitors were well worth their win but the Owls will reflect on being reduced to 10-men, when Josh Venney received a second yellow card.

The side lined up as follows:

Keeper: Ben Bottomley
Defence: Dan Gallimore, Jordon Cooke, AJ Adelekan, Leon Dawson
Midfield: Brody Robertson, Josh Venney, Alex Flett (c), Curtis Bateson
Attack: Josh Walker, Max Adamson

Subs: Tom Jamieson, Sam Kay, Will Annan, Jon Oglesby, Harvey Tomlinson

Having survived a mid-morning inspection, the pitch played pretty well and the bumper crowd settled down in anticipation of a keenly fought contest.

Borough’s power grabbed the initiative in the early stages, with Cameron Gardner firing across Bottomley into the corner of the net in the 9th minute.

Walker and Adamson both had half-chances before the visitors doubled their advantage.

Bottomley made a great save to deny Gardner but the loanee stopper was powerless to prevent Luke Horne converting the rebound.

The stunned home faithful had to endure further misery before the interval. Venney headed for an early bath after the referee spotted a booking offence on an opponent.

HT Cleethorpes Town 0 Grimsby Borough 2 (Gardner 9, Horne 34)

With a mountain to climb, Clee changed formation to a 3-4-2 and gamely batteled to reignite the contest.

It was to be man-of-the-match Gardner though that put the points under lock-and-key for Borough in the 55th minute. The dangerous forward whipped in a fierce shot, giving Bottomley no chance.

The Owls continued to try to reduce their arrears but a consolation never materialised.

FT Cleethorpes Town 0 Grimsby Borough 3 (Gardner 9, 55, Horne 34) Attendance: 578

A day to forget for sure! We need to take the result & the overall performance on board, which I’m sure we will.

We are an established step 4 team and, whilst the last two campaigns haven’t hit the heights that we have been used to, everyone will be striving to get back on track in the 2024/25 season.

Still 15 points to play for this year though, so we need to keep fighting to the end of April. Brighouse at home on Saturday – hope to see you there.

Thank you to everyone for your continuing invaluable support.

(Picture credit: X - @AC_Perspective)

UP THE OWLS!