United head into the Saturday home game against Grimsby fully aware that the Mariners will be coming to Brunton Park brimming with confidence following their midweek FA Cup exploits.
“I have to say, what an absolutely fantastic performance from them on Wednesday,” manager Paul Simpson said. “They were a credit to League Two.
“I thought they went about it in such a good way, and they absolutely deserved to win it. They’re going to come here full of confidence, that result made it four games unbeaten, so they’ll have belief that they can cause us problems.
“They beat Northampton recently, they drew at home against Orient – that was a game they probably could have won – so we know it’s going to be tough. We have to start right against them because if we don’t, they’ll punish us.”
“They’re a good footballing team and I still look back and think that we got off with one when the game was abandoned at their place,” he added. “I honestly could not see how we were going to get a result in that game. The weather, the referee, the pitch, that all saved us.
“The rearranged game saw us go and get a victory there, but we can’t take anything from that. They’ll come here to do a job on us, and they have players who can make that happen.
“They have experience in Waterfall and people like Holohan, they’re are individuals who can make things happen. They have players who can score goals in Lloyd, Clifton and McAtee, and they have good delivery from set plays, so they do have real threats about them.
“We have to deal with whatever they bring and make sure we’re on the front foot. We did it at Crawley and it set a tone, and we need to repeat that again.”
On a four-game unbeaten run, Grimsby have shown that they play with high energy and with a determination to get after the ball.
“As it stands at the moment they’re the second best team in the league for pressing and winning the ball back high,” he told us. “We know what they’re going to be like, we know what we’ll have to deal with and, whoever plays for them, they’ll be looking to play for the shirt.
“They’re bound to be buzzing after the Southampton game, so we have to be ready to play the game in the way we want to play it. It’s a brilliant achievement for their football club and it’ll be making them a shed load of money, which can only make them stronger.
“They’ve been away on the road to a Premier League club and they’ve turned them over. If they come here and go about it in the same way we’ll have to be right, there’s no doubt about it.
“On the flip side, we have to look at the league table and after our 33 games we’re sat third. They’ve played 30, but they’re 16th, and I don’t think the league table lies. That tells us that if we’re right and we do things properly we have enough to get a result.”
But could it be after the Lord Mayor’s show for the cup heroes?
“It’s a really difficult one because you just don’t know,” he said. “I spoke about our players and people saying why did we get smashed against Mansfield, and all I could say in reply is that it’s because they’re human beings.
“We don’t know how Grimsby will react, but they will be confident. I don’t know what the party was like after the game, I keep reading that it was very muted and calm because they’ve got to come here.
“I’m sure they’ll have celebrated because it really is a brilliant achievement. As ever, we need to focus on us and make sure we’re right.
“Paul Hurst will have them right. He’s very experienced and he’s a guy I like. He’s always very sensible, sets his teams up well and he seems like a really good coach in the way he organises them.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge and to us being back out there. I want us to get three games on the spin as wins again, as we look to nullify any threats they’ve got.”