Karl Robinson wants more from Salford even after securing a much-needed victory at Grimsby.
The experienced Matty Lund came off the bench to head in an 82nd-minute winner against a Grimsby team that had been hard to beat at home recently.
Victories have been hard to come by for the Ammies since winning their first two games in 2025, but they battled to a positive result at Blundell Park in a scrappy affair on the Lincolnshire coast.
If they can recapture their form before the turn of the year, they may still be in with a shout of a top-seven finish in an open promotion battle in League Two, but Robinson knows they need to perform better.
“We don’t seem to quite have that killer edge when dominating teams,” said Robinson. “We’ve come on so much in the last 12 months, and the expectations have risen internally, so we want more even though we’ve won.
“I love this job and working with this team, but for that reason, I want to see them continue to improve. It’s only because we care so much that we feel so let down when the result doesn’t go our way.
“It was a brave decision from the staff to bring him [Lund] on because we were bringing off a striker for an attacking midfielder to play as a number-nine, but we felt our team had more goals with that set-up.
“It was a wonderful header [for the goal], but it felt like it went in slow-motion as it happened. I’m so pleased with the players’ attitude, and our goalkeeper has not had to make a save.”
The Mariners did not find the response they hoped for after their midweek home defeat to Notts County, but the play-off dream is still alive.
Manager David Artell explained: “It wasn’t a good game; I don’t think either team did enough to win it. We were really poor in possession. For large spells, we didn’t impose ourselves on the game.
“There were some tired legs and minds out there, and if I could freshen things up [in the starting 11], then I would’ve, but that is where we’re at [with injuries].
“I don’t think the game was a great advert for the league, and I don’t want that to sound like sour grapes because we ourselves did not do enough.
“To go from 21st to on the edge of the play-offs in one season is some jump, and we’ve got a great opportunity now.
“We need everyone in the dressing room and the broader stakeholders in the club pulling in the right direction.
“It’s not for a lack of effort that we lose these games; we just need to keep going.”
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