Curle: Holloway's comments are a compliment for Cobblers

Cobblers boss Keith Curle took great satisfaction in hearing Ian Holloway's post-match comments after the Grimsby Town manager admitted his side had been 'bullied' during Saturday's 3-0 defeat.

The Mariners were second best throughout the contest at Blundell Park and came up well short, beaten by Callum Morton's brace and another for Town skipper Charlie Goode.

"They basically bullied us in vital areas and they came out on top on second balls," said Holloway in his post-match interview. "We knew that was going to be the case but where was us imposing ourselves before going 2-0 down? We wilted. They got at us and they pressed us so well done to them."

Those comments, and some others made by Holloway, were music to Curle's ears as he got the better of his close friend on a wet and windy afternoon at Blundell Park.

"It was a very professional performance and I think the pleasing thing is that if you look at their manager's comments after the game, it epitomises what we wanted to do and the areas we thought we could dominate them," said Curle.

"It showed the threats we could cause them and what we needed to do to stop them from playing. I think we ticked all those boxes.

"I spoke to Ollie (Holloway) on Monday and the one thing you get with him is that he's very honest and very opinionated.

"He says it how it is and he said we were well-organised, structured, aggressive and a threat with the ball and also very physical and dogged in our determination to stop them from playing.

"He admitted they couldn't handle us on the day and that's what we're trying to create here. When it's on to play, we can play. When it's not, we put the ball into good areas and we get after it."

Curle felt his side's performance during Saturday's fixture was the ideal template going forward, particularly for away games.

He added: "We don't give opposition teams the opportunity to play how they want to play, whether that's at our ground or at an away ground, and a lot of the work we do on the training pitch comes into practise.

"That's probably more so for away games because we know they will have a style of play and they will have a method of how they want to play and it's up to us to be disciplined and organised and willing to stop that, knowing that we also want to play when we have got the ball.

"It's about getting as many of our players on the same page at the same time and when it clicks, it clicks."