Lewis Cass and his Grimsby Town teammates know that they need to be more street-wise in certain match situations if they are going to compete near the top of League Two.

The 1-1 home draw with Chesterfield on Saturday was a result that the Mariners could walk away from without major frustration, but it was still viewed as a missed opportunity to pick up their 13th league win of the campaign.

Town have been a team of extremes this term, operating in wins and losses primarily with the weekend’s draw being their first at home and only second overall in the league after 26 games.

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Playing as they have has been enough to keep them in the mix for the top seven positions, but there has always been a feeling of wanting to refine certain aspects of their game to find greater consistency.

David Artell bemoaned his side’s lack of urgency after going a goal ahead early against Chesterfield, and Cass relayed that point as he analysed Saturday’s draw.

“It’s a good point, but there is always disappointment in not coming away with three,” said Cass. “We started well and perhaps didn’t fully capitalise on that aside from the first goal, and we had one or two moments towards the end.

“The first goal made us perform worse; if anything, we took our foot off the gas, and they scored from a set piece, which was disappointing. We wanted half-time to come so we could reassess things, and then we were back on top [in the second half].

“The mentality of the team was to perhaps protect what we had against a strong team, but that was the complete opposite of what we needed to focus on really. We had the opportunity to stay on top of them, but we let them back into the game.

“They had that 15 to 20 minutes spell in the first half where they were all over us, and we couldn’t get out, but we had our spells in the game as well, so a point each felt fair, yet there was always a chance we could win.”

Town have improved their home form in recent weeks, but there is still a lingering ‘underdog’ mentality when facing the supposed big teams in the division, which seemed to be on show in that first half period against Chesterfield.

Cass, and no doubt the rest of the team, can see where they have gone wrong with their approach in these big home encounters, so it is now the time to actively change in order to stay relevant in the promotion conversation.

The Grimsby defender explained: “When we scored, we did back off a bit and stayed in a defensive shape, allowing them to have the ball and move it side to side. It’s a lot more tiring for the team without the ball in that situation, so we need to reassess how we approach those situations and go after the opposition.

“We have a lot of wins this season but as many losses, so we need to convert some of those tight defeats into draws at the very least to keep ticking over and picking points because we know we’re in the fight for the play-offs in not automatic promotion.”