Grumpy Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth told his players they need to toughen up after being battered 4-1 at home by Grimsby.

Harvey Rodgers opened the scoring with an early stunner before Ronan Hale levelled.

But in a devastating 15-minute display in the second half, Iwan Morgan’s penalty and goals from Geza Turi and Sonny Finch put the gutless Gills to the sword.

Fuming Ainsworth said: “That’s two second halves we’ve just collapsed in and it’s not good enough.

“Port Vale in the week wasn’t good enough and this was way, way not good enough.

“We just let teams carve through us. I thought we were just terrible.

“We played probably the better football in the first half, but Grimsby were men. They won more first and second balls than we did.

“The mistakes we made ended up meaning they carved us up. The boys need to be better, they need to be tougher, they need to compete better.

“They are devastated, but so am I and so are the fans who have come to watch us in the pouring rain, wind and the cold.

“They had every right to have a go at us at the end of the game.

“The penalty changed everything. They got a foothold in the game and what happened after that from us was unacceptable.

“Defensively we weren’t good and we need to put that right.

“You can feel sorry for yourself as much as you want in this game, but we’re going to have to pick the bones out of that one and be accountable for the mistakes.”

After five games without a victory, Grimsby got back to winning ways in style and boss David Artell was delighted with his side’s performance.

He said: “When you win the game it’s satisfying.

“We’ve spoken so often this season about not getting what we deserve. It was a really dominant display barring 15 minutes.

“Second half we were exceptional and scored three really good goals on top of Harvey Rodgers’ tap-in.

“We made one little technical tweak at half-time and they didn’t get near us second half. I won’t tell you what it was because I don’t want to reveal my secrets.

“We stopped them playing. That was us at our best. We probably should have scored more if I’m honest.

“That’s what we want. It should have happened more times this year and it hasn’t. That’s got to carry on because we know we’re capable of it.

“If we play like that and are ruthless in front of goal then we will win more than we lose.”