GRIMSBY Town boss David Artell insists it was not the time to give his players the hairdryer treatment following their 2-0 defeat at Colchester United.

Goals near the start and end of the game from Tom Hopper and John Akinde secured the U’s victory at the JobServe Community Stadium, lifting them to within two points of their hosts.

Grimsby, who are not yet mathematically safe, pushed hard for an equaliser after falling behind early on to Hopper’s goal and Donovan Wilson and Harry Clifton went close to levelling.

But despite Colchester defender Tom Dallison being dismissed for a foul on Justin Obikwu in stoppage-time, Colchester claimed victory.

READ MORE: Colchester United under-21s are victorious at Cardiff City

Artell said: “If I give anyone the hairdryer treatment, it’s for lack of effort and there wasn’t lack of effort tonight.

“That’s the only time I’ll get irate and it’s not my job to shout at people – it’s my job to help people.

“It’s my job to help people get better.

“Do you ever get a teacher shouting at a ten-year-old? It’s his job to help them.

“For me, it’s about standards, it’s about making sure with that final pass.

“We were one pass away from maybe having that shot on target and that was the difference tonight.

Gazette:

“It’s about having those standards to go from where we are to maybe that next level.

“They were a physical team; they’ve picked a team that's tried to outmuscle us and win those set pieces and we’ve stood up to all that and that's credit to the players.

"But it's those little bits that are the difference between the ball going behind someone and not through on goal and someone scoring a goal."

Grimsby have two games remaining, with a home match against Swindon Town on Saturday following followed by their final fixture of the season at Crawley Town, on Saturday week.

READ MORE: Colchester United fans have their say on win over Grimsby Town

"We have to make sure we go out to win the games," added Artell.

"We had two wing-backs who were wingers, in the last 20 minutes of this game and we're trying to win games of football.

"That's the job; that's the responsibility of us all.

Gazette:

"We're not playing for one point or to only lose by one goal.

"We came here tonight and were the better team for the last hour, 75 minutes of the game but we didn't do enough.

"We'll be doing our utmost on Saturday against Swindon to make sure that that's the case again but we end up with points."