York City backed for impressive season by Grimsby Town boss

Artell, speaking to the Grimsby media team after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to York in pre-season, felt that his side's performance was disjointed after failing to register a shot on target.

The Mariners’ boss wasn’t concerned about the manner in which his side conceded, but felt that City showed their quality while in possession of the ball.

“There’s plenty to ponder, plenty to work on. York are going to be, I don’t know about predictions, but at the top end of the table next year," Artell told the Grimsby media team.

“They’ve scored two goals from defensive set-pieces, which we haven’t worked on, so that’s not something to worry about in that sense.

“There is plenty to ponder, that’s for sure. We’ve had a couple of tough days and the lads expected an easier day, and we didn’t [get one].

“There’s no real mitigation for a lack of quality at some points, without trying to get too caught up in being a pre-season friendly. It can look disjointed, and today it did against better opposition.

“You’ve got to be much better in possession as we haven’t done anything on being out of possession yet, so not getting the press right or them getting out, I can accept again.

“There was plenty of stuff that wasn’t very pleasing.”

Grimsby had previously defeated Boston United in a pre-season friendly, but Artell felt that York posed a harder test than the other National League side, thanks to the football of manager Adam Hinshelwood.

Artell continued: “Boston are a National League team that have just been promoted, but we know that York are a different kind of National League team in that sense, and I’m sure that Boston would agree.

“We knew that York, as with Adam and how they play, would be a test for us.

“The hardest week for them is next week because it becomes shorter, a little bit more intense.

“You could probably see that York were better than us in that sense, they looked sharper.”