Paul Stancliffe felt there were plenty of positives for Rovers’ U18 side despite opening their Youth Alliance campaign with a home defeat.
The young Mariners took an early lead at Cantley Park through Josh Wallace, before claiming the three points with late goals from Rumarn Burrell and Declan Slater sealed the points.
Stancliffe said: “There’s some really good players there for us, and we had some good passing movements.
“We’ve got to be a little bit more dangerous when we get in the right areas and we’ve certainly got to work on defending better as a team, but there was a lot of good stuff.”
Grimsby’s final two goals came when Rovers were pushing for an equaliser, and Stancliffe was happy his side kept in the game until the closing stages.
He added: “We’re always disappointed when we lose, and certainly in the manner we lost
“For around 85 minutes we were losing, but were still in the game. Then we lost our shape, started chasing the ball and got a bit panicky. But that is understandable in a way because they’re young lads.”