"I WANTED to jump in the crowd with the fans but I couldn't because I was already on a yellow card!"
Clayton McDonald will never forget his first goal for Grimsby Town – and neither will most Mariners fans.
The 6ft 6in centre-half was the hero as Town's local rivals Scunthorpe United were dumped out of the FA Cup on home turf on Tuesday.
After netting the 57th minute winner and setting up a second round tie against Northampton Town, the former Manchester City trainee couldn't hide his emotions.
"I was delighted that we beat our local rivals – it meant a lot – and it was a nice way to open my account for Grimsby by scoring the winner," he told the Telegraph.
"Scott Kerr whipped a great ball in and all I had to do was get my head to it.
"It went absolutely crazy behind the goal and I wanted to jump in the crowd with the fans but I couldn't because I was already on a yellow card!"
Having drawn the first clash between the sides 0-0 at Blundell Park, the Mariners were roared on to a famous victory by almost 2,000 Town fans at Glanford Park.
The Iron scored within 30 seconds of the second half restart to cancel out Lenell John-Lewis' opener before McDonald took centre stage.
"We always knew we were going to be under pressure because we were the away team," added the 24-year-old.
"We put them under so much pressure at our gaff, so we knew they were going to try and do the same – which they did.
"But we stood up to it and got the goal at a good time after they had equalised."
He continued: "We've shown that we can more than compete with the league sides. We've got a lot of lads who have played in the league and that experience is starting to show – everyone knows what it's about.
"The FA Cup side of things is over for now though, and we've got to concentrate on the league to keep up our decent run and get back into League Two.
"I'm not looking as far ahead as Northampton in the second round – my only focus is Barnet on Saturday and that goes for the rest of the lads as well.
"We've got to make sure we take the performances in the cup and transfer them to the league.
"We had a good laugh on the coach home after the Scunny game and had a day off yesterday, but it's back to work today to be ready for the game on Saturday."
