David Artell praises Weston-Super-Mare performance after FA Cup exit

David Artell praised Weston-Super-Mare’s performance against his Grimsby side as the Mariners battled to a 3-2 home win to secure progression into the FA Cup fourth round.

Kieran Green’s 86th-minute header saw the Mariners edge through in a back-and-forth encounter at Blundell Park, with the visitors cancelling out the earlier Grimsby goals.

Artell said: “I’m happy because we’ve come through a tough game against a team that are used to winning at their level, and you can see why with how they played, which they deserve credit for.

“This is the FA Cup, so you’ve got to contend with different challenges, and we’ve scored three good goals while having to deal with some misfortune with their first.

“They’ve scored from two set-pieces, but we’ve still come through it and found a way to win, and it is the third game in a row where subs have come on and scored, we’ve scored late, and that’s because of how we’ve played for the previous 60, 70, 80 minutes.”

For the Seagulls, their historic run in the FA Cup came to an end, but not without a fight as they put in a plucky display to run their higher-league opponents close.

Boss Scott Rogers said: “It’s tough, I thought we showed fantastic character to come back twice in the game from behind and score two really well-worked goals that we had worked on in training.

“I thought it was going to be our day at one point, but it was a good winning goal from their point of view with a good ball in and run to the near post.

“We’re a little bit disappointed that we didn’t stop it, but I can’t fault the effort of the lads because I thought they were outstanding, to a man, so we’re absolutely gutted to come so close.”