'My Owls can take so much from match with Grimsby Town'

MARCUS Newell wants his Cleethorpes Town side to use their display against the Mariners as a springboard for more success.

The Owls boss took charge of his Northern Counties East League (NCEL) side for the first time at Bradley Community Stadium on Tuesday evening.

And, after conceding just two goals against their Conference neighbours and smashing the ground's record attendance, Newell admitted it was a great night for the club.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to lose, but at the same time I would have snapped your hand off for that result before the game," he told the Telegraph.

"I thought the better team won, obviously, and they knocked it about very well.

"The way we set up showed that I didn't want us to concede too many goals – we sat deep and tried to make it difficult for them to break us down.

"We had to sit in and try to contain them, which I felt we did pretty well most of the game.

"But a slight lack in concentration and maybe a lack of experience allowed them to open us up in the second half.

"We sent out a totally different line-up for the second half, and they did very well.

"Overall, though, I'm delighted. The fitness levels were excellent and to only lose 2-0 to Town is a great result for this club."

It took almost an hour for the full-timers to break down the Owls' staunch defence, with goals from Paddy McLaughlin and Aswad Thomas proving to be the difference.

Having taken over from Andy Liddle in May, Newell hopes the display will give his players the belief to build on last season's fourth place finish in NCEL Division One.

"That should give the boys a lot of confidence ahead of the season because they were up against quality players," he added.

"They should take a bit out of it but, at the same time, sometimes pre-season games don't actually mean too much when the season starts – we'll have to see.

"It was great to have such a big crowd there, but I think that also made our lads nervous.

"Some of them were a little bit tense, whereas Grimsby are obviously a lot more used to that atmosphere than we are.

"But the lads really enjoyed it and the match was played in a really good spirit by both teams – there were no daft tackles or anything like that, so it was a great night.

"I'm excited about the season now. We'll play a few more friendlies and see where we are in two or three weeks.

"Hopefully we can crack on from there and do really well next season."