RICHIE Wellens held no grudges against his Swindon Town players following this afternoon’s 2-1 defeat against bottom half club Grimsby Town, but admitted his side could have handled the game’s turbulent conditions better.

A series of key second half saves by Mariners’ stopper James McKeown denied Swindon an equalising goal after the hosts established a one goal lead on two occasions through former Town frontman Wes Thomas.

Matt Taylor struck a trademark free-kick into the bottom corner of McKeown’s net, but that was the only joy the 184 travelling fans had as they left a bitterly cold Lincolnshire empty handed.

Striker Elijah Adebayo snatched as two key opportunities to level the game in the second part of the concluding half, while teammate Kainye Woolery was often restricted by the dogged efforts of Grimsby’s back four.

Town boss Wellens showed little signs of frustration following the final whistle, underlining his belief that Swindon’s players acquitted themselves well and played some strong football.

He added: “Their goalkeeper (James McKeown) made a couple of fantastic saves.

“The one where he dived across the goal was a great save – Elijah (Adebayo) then went through one on one where you would expect him to score.

“The ball then fell to James Dunne and you’d expect him to score, but he missed the target.

“They were our real clear-cut chances, and Michael (Doughty) had one too.”

Town’s nine shots on target could only be converted into one goal, while the hosts could watch only six efforts test Lawrence Vigouroux.

Wellens spoke of the importance of dealing with second balls prior to today’s tie, and it was ironically a second ball strike that led to Grimsby’s second goal after Vigouroux could only push his initial save into the path of Thomas – who required no second invitation to fire Grimsby back into the lead.

Wellens added: “I can’t think of Grimsby having any clear-cut chances, apart from the goals that they scored.

“The penalty was dubious – was it in the box, I’m not sure.

“The penalty came at a bad time, we were just getting comfortable in the game.

“The easiest thing is to be too critical. But in the second half, against the wind and in tough conditions – a lot worse than what we played in last week – I thought the players acquitted themselves well and played some good football at times.”

The result has dropped Town to 13th in the League Two table with 30 points from 22 games.