Hull City goalkeeper lifts lid on campaign after making Tigers return

Goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright admits the final month of the season was tough as he had to watch on nervously to see if Grimsby Town could secure survival in League Two.

The stopper was on loan at Blundell Park from Hull City having arrived under Paul Hurst but rarely featured until David Artell arrived on the Lincolnshire coast and became a regular, until he picked up an injury which forced the 22-year-old to miss the remaining six games.

Thankfully for Cartwright and the Mariners, three wins in those final six games was enough to keep them in League Two for another campaign, with the ex-England youngster collecting a trio of awards from the club for his terrific - and hugely important - performances.

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“It was a disappointing end in the sense of my injury, but the loan on the whole before that was absolutely brilliant. I’ve learnt so much just from being in that first-team environment," the gloveman told City's website.

“I knew I needed to get myself right and play games wherever that may be. Obviously, it was at Grimsby. It was a massive learning curve and I had two different managers there with different styles of play. We were near the bottom of the table and we were just doing everything we could to get results in the end.

“It was an honour; I am really grateful for the fans there who supported me and all voted for me. To win three awards, I didn’t expect it at all and I was really proud and my family were really proud too."

Hurst was dismissed in late October with Town 21st in the bottom division and with just two wins in 10, but it was under former Crewe Alexandra chief Artell where Cartwright flourished, and working under former City academy coach Steve Croudson.

“Both managers were really good with me. ‘Hursty’ was honest," Cartwright continued. "He said my chance would come and he was right as it came against Doncaster. I didn’t work with him for long when I was in the team, but he just told me to stick at it and to keep it up in training so that is what I got from him.

“Under David Artell, he said that he trusted me and that he wanted to stick with me and said I had been brilliant which is everything I wanted to hear. He stuck with me. He helped me in many ways and he was a great manager.

“Steve was a massive influence. We would have chats every day, honest chats sometimes and he would say what he thinks whether it was a good or bad thing. It’s good to have that level of honesty with your goalkeeping coach and I also get on with him as a friend as well so we had a really good working relationship.

“I think the main thing I learned is what you need to do to be ready for week in week out football mentally. “I coped physically until the injury, but being in a constant mental zone to be ready for the next game, especially when you were what we were, fighting to stay up, you cannot afford to switch off and make mistakes in that sort of environment.”