It was a tense couple of hours against the eighth-tier opponents

Grimsby Town avoided a shock FA Cup first-round exit by the skin of their teeth, beating eighth-tier side Stafford Rangers on penalties after a pulsating 3-3 draw.

The Mariners’ blushes were first spared in normal time by Harvey Rodgers, and Maldini Kacurri’s second-half headers, which clawed them back level from two down after Darryl Mason and Jack Birch had fired the hosts into dreamland. The teams exchanged blows again in extra time as Mason’s second was cancelled out by another Geza David Turi goal and penalties were required to settle a memorable cup tie.

Town triumphed 3-2 in the shootout with Harvey Cartwright making three saves as David Artell and his team avoided embarrassment against a side 90 places below them in the football pyramid. Artell promised not to make too many alterations to his usual league line-up, and that proved the case, with seven players continuing from the 11 that started the 5-2 win over York City last weekend.

Coming in were Cartwright in goal, Mark Shelton and Fin Cartwright in midfield and Josh Andrews up top after his goalscoring cameo off the bench against York.

It was still a pretty strong Town line-up, but they made a nightmare start to the game, with the hosts going ahead just three minutes in. Mason managed to get in behind and on the end of a hooked ball over the top from Jack Birch and, after taking a couple of touches, fired past Cartwright.

The hosts had something to defend from the start, and it took a while for the Mariners to craft an opening in response, with Iwan Morgan striking the outside of the post with a right-footed effort from just outside the box.

Charles Vernam thought he might have had a penalty when he ran through on goal, knocking the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper and going down under challenge, but the linesman flagged for what looked a very tight offside call.

There was another tight offside call at the other end as Maldini Kacurri bemusingly left a ball forward which did not have enough on it to get back to Cartwright, but the Stafford player who stole in, Scott Bakker, was also deemed offside but looked level with Cameron McJannet.

Town went close again minutes later as Joe Foulkes forced a low stop from Russell Saunders diving down to his right, and Andrews was denied an easy follow-up into an empty net at the last moment with Stafford skipper Andy Burns stepping in to clear.

Stafford had a good outlet with two big, athletic centre-forwards to aim for up top, and they defended deep with a lead to hold on to, which required more patience from Town in possession to break them down.

A nice move down the right flank saw Saunders called into action again to stop a low, fired cross from Foulkes, which the Stafford stopper collected on the second attempt to prevent a follow-in.

Birch made it an even more important half-time team talk for Artell as he fired in Stafford’s second on the rebound after Cartwright’s reflex stop from a deflected strike falling the way of the former, who finished at a tight angle.

Justin Amaluzor and Jamie Walker came on at the break looking to inspire change, and Town did start the half well with Morgan having a goalbound effort blocked inside the first five minutes of the second period.

Cartwright then had to make some great stops to prevent the game from completely getting away from Town, first saving with his chest at close range to deny Birch a second goal.

It was Birch again on the end of a chance at close quarters after Cartwright could only get a fingertip to a cross, but the Grimsby ‘keeper recovered to sprawl across and save once again.

It was vital he made those stops as there was life in the tie yet for Town as Harvey Rodgers headed a goal back from a great Morgan free-kick delivery after Walker did well to win the foul.

Another minute passed and all of a sudden the Mariners were level, Morgan again with a well-placed dead ball delivery, this time finding Maldini Kacurri who had a free header close to goal to convert.

Morgan had two more shots of his own stopped well by Saunders as Town looked to complete the comeback inside normal time, but they had to settle for extra time as the hosts held on.

Surprisingly, it was the hosts that came out stronger for the extra 30 minutes, and having been pegged back from two up, they regained the lead in the first half of extra time through Mason, who got on the end of Bebeto Gomes’ cutback to tap home at close range.

Town had another response in them before the first 15 minutes of extra time were up, though, Turi popping up with another goal, his third in as many games, with a classy touch and finish as he brought down an aerial ball and poked past Saunders.

Into the second half, Town had one more chance to lead for the last time and steal the win at the last, as Turi turned provider to slide in Sonny Finch, but Saunders made an excellent low diving stop to turn the ball round the post.

It went to penalties, and Cartwright was the hero for Town in the end with three big saves from Birch, Harvey Washington, and Luca Navarro’s penalties as Artell’s side scraped through on spot-kicks.