Grimsby boss David Artell admitted he was left infuriated that Kieran Green’s stunning goal from inside his own half failed to inspire his team to victory at Harrogate.
Midfielder Green brilliantly flighted the ball over James Belshaw’s head 10 yards from the halfway line after spotting the Harrogate keeper out of his goal to open the scoring in the 39th minute.
Iceland international Jason Dadi Svanthorsson then doubled the visitors’ advantage in first-half stoppage time.
But League Two play-off hopefuls Grimsby tossed away two points at the death as an Ellis Taylor effort and Danny Rose’s own goal saw the shares spoiled in a 2-2 draw that edged the hosts closer to safety.
Grimsby occupy the final play-off spot, sitting one point above Colchester.
Artell said: “It takes a terrific strike for anyone to score from inside their own half and especially when it’s up the hill they have here, but I’m sure Greeny will be the first to say that it doesn’t mean much when you don’t win the game.
“It was an outstanding piece of skill and it was also an excellent strike for our second goal, but we’ve only ended up with a point and that’s turned what could have been a good day for us into an infuriating one.
“I said at half-time that I thought we hadn’t been very good in possession, but we had been excellent out of possession and scored two great goals.
“In the second half, we also stopped doing the basics out of possession and didn’t really get any better in possession.
“If we had done our jobs properly, we would have seen the game out 2-0 but we got our just desserts. They probably didn’t deserve to score two goals, but we gave them that opportunity.”
Harrogate are now nine points clear of the drop zone with four games left to play and boss Simon Weaver hailed the “relentless” nature of his players at Wetherby Road.
“We are hard to beat at home and that’s nine games unbeaten now with five wins and four draws,” Weaver said.
“I’m proud of that record, so I was angry at half-time because my pride was hurt even though I knew it would be hard against a good team.
“But we came back fighting in the second half and, after making it 2-1, we were relentless which is what this club is all about.”
Weaver was also full of praise for Green’s wonder goal but added that Taylor’s effort was a strike of top-class quality, too.
“Their first goal was magical,” he conceded.
“From way inside his own half, it was a shot to nothing by a confident player and full credit to him, but we had our own magical moment from Ellis.
“He put the ball right in the top corner and he’s a real threat when he comes off the right flank like that.”
