A last-gasp equaliser rescued some positivity for Grimsby Town in their midweek draw with Gillingham, with David Artell feeling that result was the least his team deserved.

Danny Rose was in position to tuck in at the near post in the seventh minute of added time as Kieran Green got to the byline and cut the ball back across goal. The former could have even won it with the game's last action had Justin Obikwu’s pass from a similar position been better placed.

However, aside from a saved Jason Dadi Svanthorsson shot a few minutes before the equaliser, that was all Town could create in the second half in response to Gillingham’s half-time lead.

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Doug Tharme’s shanked clearance was the visitor’s only shot on target in the first period, and it would have been hugely frustrating from the Mariners’ perspective to not come away with anything.

Artell stressed: “We were certainly the better team in the first half and created more opportunities in the first half, so we should’ve been in a better position, but in the end, our resilience and our doggedness in the second half saw us over the line.

“There were lads there fighting not to lose, and when we scored the equaliser, we were urging them to restart quickly because we had them on the ropes, and in the end, they were tired. No matter what metric you look at, we were better than them in the game, so we didn’t deserve to lose.”

Cameron McJannet was given a rare rest for this game, with Tharme taking his place, and the latter was perhaps a little too eager to make an impression when he rushed a clearance that resulted in an own goal.

That particular motion is something Artell and his staff have been working on with Tharme; it is just one example of the individual focuses they have to try and improve the team.

“It’s in Doug’s individual development plan to move his feet quicker for clearances,” explained Artell. “It’s one that he’s not quite mastered yet, but it’s not for want of trying. Doug’s a brilliant pro, and he’ll get better because we’ll keep working on that as a standalone thing.”

It was a tough watch for most of the second half; Gillingham were pressing and forcing Town to kick long and often out of play, which played into the away side’s hands as they slowed things down at every opportunity.

Artell and the whole home crowd were waiting for the Grimsby players to string a few passes together, let alone create an opportunity to score, but with one came the other, and a late flurry should have resulted in more than just one point.

The Mariners chief added: “You talk about progress - we'd have definitely lost that game last year. We might've even lost it at the start of the season, and if you compare this game to the other one earlier in the season, we beat them with a similar performance to what they tried to do to us here.

“Don’t get me wrong, we were really poor in the second half in possession because they pushed up a bit more, and we played into their hands too much with their press. Our quality on the ball was really poor, and that gave them the initiative.

“When you cut out the mistakes, and you do hit a few quality passes, suddenly in the last five to ten minutes, we were much the better team because we had a bit more quality in possession, but that wasn't the case for most of the half.

“The inconsistency was there in the game, which we need to work on, but there was a resilience there to keep going when we weren’t playing great and get what we deserved.”