Grimsby Town winger Justin Amaluzor says his side have “nothing to lose” heading into Friday’s League Two play-off semi-final second leg at Salford City.
The Mariners, who finished seventh to secure the final play-off place, led in the first leg at Blundell Park on Sunday before losing 2-1.
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Amaluzor told BBC Radio Humberside: “Deep down I’m determined to right our wrongs. We should have won that game.
“I’m a very confident person and I’m ready to go. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will believe in you.
“We have nothing to lose. It’s a one-game shootout to book our place at Wembley. Football is always going to give you pressure, but it’s amazing to have all this resting on one game.
“There’s no point us feeling sorry for ourselves, we’ve got another game to play – a massive game.”
The experienced Amaluzor, 29, has been in this exact position before with Altrincham when they led early against Bromley before losing their National League play-off match in 2024.
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“It’s one of the worst feelings in the world, and I was even on holiday watching the final and it hurt so much,” he added.
“But that is football – you know one game you can be down and out, and the next game you can be back in it. That’s what you’ve always got to tell yourself and your team-mates – that it’s not over until it’s over.”
Wise words from club veteran Pearson
Grimsby Town assistant manager Shaun Pearson made more than 230 appearances for the Mariners. He was in the team that lost an FA Trophy final in 2013, and two Conference Premier play-off finals – in 2013 and 2015.
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However, Pearson was also in the team that finally won promotion back to the Football League at the third time of asking via the play-offs in 2016.
Amazulor says Pearson and manager David Artell have just told the players to never lose belief.
“They’ve said when the club try and do great things, they always do it the hard way,” he added. “They said we’re a good team, and we’ve been here before which we have.
“We’ve lost games we needed to win, like Chesterfield, and we’ve bounced back at Cambridge. We’ve done it all season and we can do it again.
“We’ve got a lot of leaders in the team, a lot of experience, [players] who’ve been there and seen it before, and it’s good to have those people in your ear.
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“The mindset is the same as always, raring to win, raring to give it all for our fans and ourselves as well.”
Grimsby won 2-0 at Salford in the league in October, and had 1,300 fans in attendance.
Salford have only given them 500 tickets for this tie, and Amazulor says Friday’s performance will be for the rest of their 5,000 season ticket holders who can’t attend.
“I’m gutted for all the fans who can’t be there,” he added. “We 100% want to do it for them, and rub it in Salford’s faces.”
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