PAUL Hurst wants Grimsby Town to crank up the pressure on their promotion-chasing rivals by making it two away wins in four days.
The Mariners battled to a 1-0 success at Tamworth on Saturday, rising to third in the Blue Square Bet Premier table, while many of the other top sides were in FA Cup action.
And, with a trip to lowly Hyde tomorrow evening, the Town joint boss believes the decision to bring forward the weekend's clash in Staffordshire is looking a wise one.
He told the Telegraph: "We were delighted to get the win at Tamworth because we arranged it with that in mind – to try to put pressure on the teams around us.
"A few of them have games in hand now, but as we stand, we're third and that's pleasing.
"The idea was to keep some of the momentum while we've got most of our players fit.
"It was good for the game to come on a Saturday rather than a Tuesday later in the season.
"That was the thinking behind it. It could have backfired because, as it happened, we had Shaun Pearson and Scott Neilson suspended.
"But we got the win and if we keep doing our job we can stay in that high position and other teams will have to wait until they get the opportunity to try to close those points back.
"In the meantime, we have to keep putting points on the board, starting with Hyde tomorrow."
Substitute Andy Cook was the Town hero at the Lamb Ground as the Mariners finally recorded a first ever victory over their hosts.
The striker bundled home a 62nd minute cross to help the visitors to a battling win in front of 370 travelling fans.
"It was far from pretty, but we'll take a win however it comes," added Hurst. "We probably played better in the Macclesfield game and lost.
"In the second half, we started to get on top and we edged in front and got the decisive goal.
"But we were disappointed with the first half and unless there was no pressure on us at all we couldn't pass the ball – it was almost like we didn't want the football.
"We gave it away far too many times and never got any rhythm into our game.
"We certainly weren't happy at half-time, but we were still at 0-0 and I felt it would suit us going up the hill second half. They would come onto us more naturally and spaces start to develop a bit.
"It was better in the second half but we all know we can play far better than that – it's all about the result though and thankfully we left with a 1-0 win."
New loan signing Marcus Marshall made his Town debut on the wing, after completing a one-month deal last week.
And the Bury man was involved in one of the game's major incidents in the 69th minute when Lambs defender Sam Oji lunged in on him and received a straight red card.
"As the game went along and got stretched, Marcus Marshall got on the ball more and caused a few problems, winning a few free-kicks for us," commented Hurst.
"I thought Marcus did well. The longer the game went on, the better he got. He worked hard and started to cause them problems.
"With the sending-off, it was totally the other side of the pitch to us.
"But it looks like the lad's lunged at him. I don't think there's any doubting it's a foul, but whether it's a sending off I'd have to have a look at it again to give my honest opinion.
"The ref seemed pretty certain – you could see straightaway that he was going for his back pocket and the red card."
