THE Shrimps were held to a 1-1 draw for the second time this season after a poor second half showing allowed the Mariners back into the game.

A goal from Paul Mullin four minutes from the end of the first half gave the Shrimps the lead.

Mullin headed home a Simon Hackney cross at the far post to give the goal the Shrimps the goal their first half pressure deserved.

The Shrimps started off on the front foot with Hackney and Mark Duffy causing the Grimsby defence all sorts of probelms.  Mullin had an early chance but headed over from close range and both Jim Bentley and Laurence Wilson forced great saves from Nick Colgan.

At the other end Peter Bore saw an early shot well saved by Barry Roche and Jean-Louis Akpra-Akpro wasted a glorious chance to level the scored on 42 minutes when he blazed over from cloise range.

The second half saw Morecambe start brightly and came close to a second when Mullin headed against the crossbar from close range.

It was an important miss as Grimsby came back and equalised on 58 minutes when Michael Coulson scored from close range after a good move down the elft hand side.

From there Grimsby held the upper hand with Michael Leary forcing Barry Roche into a decent block. The closest Morecamnbe came was a Manny Panther shot that flew past the right hand post.

Shrimps boss Sammy McIlroy makes three changes to the side that lost 1-0 at Bournemouth last week.

Simon Hackney comes in for his debut while Laurence Wilson returns from suspension and Stewart Drummond earns a recall into centre midfield.

Out go Darren Moss, Craig Stanley and Garry Hunter.

Morecambe: Roche; Parrish, Bentley, Haining, Wilson; Duffy, Hackney, Drummond, Panther; Jevons, Mullin. Subs: Davies, Artell, Wainwright, Stanley, Hunter, Moss, Curtis.

Grimsby: Colgan;  Bore, Atkinson, Linwood, Widdowson; Hegarty, Leary, Peacock, Coulson; Akpro, Wright. Subs: Oxley, Stockdale, Jarman, Proudlock, Bird, Hudson, Chambers.

Ref: D Webb.