No place for timidness from now on
Blundell Park was never going to be easy place to secure a positive result but the Blues did not help themselves in the first half.
Grimsby had a few dangerous weapons with Scott Neilson and Alex Rodman looking threatening down the flanks but did not stand out as a class above.
Steve Burr's side started reasonably enough but it didn't take too long for the errors to start creeping in and there was a lack of intensity in the opening 45 minutes.
Grimsby went into the game in a vulnerable position: a 2-2 home draw with Woking and a 1-0 defeat at Dartford in which manager Paul Hurst made 10 changers were not signs of a team in form.
Had the visitors come out of the blocks quickly and got amongst the Mariners, the pressure on them would have increased a little more.
But the home side scored with the first attack and that eased the pre-match tension and further deflated an already sagging Blues side.
Burr admitted after the game he had been frustrated with the flat start from his side and used his mid-game team talk to tell the team to 'have a go' and stop worrying about the result.
And that's the mindset the players need to show in the final three games because there would be nothing worse than going down asking what could have been.
Starting on Saturday, the team has to get rid of the fear of losing, get on the front foot from the first whistle and give everything to keep the Blues in the Skrill Premier.
Gareth Seddon made a significant difference
It was no great surprise to see Gareth Seddon start on the bench given he has been nursing a broken toe over the past couple of games.
Craig Hobson, who has performed well since making the switch from AFC Guiseley, lined up as the lone striker in his absence but found the going tough.
Hobson worked hard as always but got little change out of centre backs Shaun Pearson and Andrew Boyce and on occasion strayed from central areas in an attempt to create openings for those behind him, although that meant there was no target in the box.
Seddon came on for the last half hour or so and made a notable impression. His more robust approach roughed up Pearson and Boyce and he stuck to the middle channel, giving his team-mates someone to play off.
Chester were the better side in the final half hour and came close to levelling on a couple of occasions before Grimsby bagged a killer second goal on the break.
Seddon's introduction had a lot to do with that and again proved how important he is to the team so it must be hoped he is deemed fit enough to start this weekend.
He missed the 2-0 win at the Racecourse back in August but strikes me as a player for the big occasion and they don't come much bigger than Saturday.
Sometimes going direct is the best option
In the first half of the season one of the biggest problems the team faced was keeping hold of the ball.
Neil Young often pointed to the frequency with which the defence gave possession away as a major weakness, allowing opponents to crank up the pressure until the Blues cracked.
Steve Burr encourages attractive, passing football and there has been a marked improvement in ball retention but on Saturday the team didn't perform well enough on that front.
There was a lack of care with far too many basic passes missing the intended target and the well organised Mariners kept openings to a minimum, meaning the Blues ended up passing for passings sake and struggling to make inroads.
As the clock began to wind down, Burr urged his side to get the ball forward quicker and later conceded the players perhaps took the pre-game instructions 'too literally'.
Against some opponents the passing approach has worked well but is less effective when the performance level dips, as it did at Blundell Park.
On those days the side would probably have greater success looking to take a more direct approach, knocking balls into space, turning opponents around and pressing hard.
