One Stanley fan joked at half-time on Monday, as the Reds looked to have a seemingly commanding 2-0 lead, "We will probably lose this now."

It was met with good humoured banter but that statement came back to haunt him.

It seemed crazy that the Reds, although short on confidence themselves, would throw this away against a Mariners side whose last away win came back in September.

Boss Neil Woods had never seen a Grimsby victory on his travels and the Mariners remain hot favourites to be playing ‘Conference’ football next season.

So how the Reds managed to lose even manager John Coleman doesn’t know: "I can’t put my finger on what is going wrong at the moment but I will take full responsibility. I am to blame."

The Reds boss had made six changes after four defeats on the trot and, with striker Michael Symes returning from suspension, the hopes were that this would bring a change of fortune and re-ignite their promotion push.

But Stanley just fell apart in the second half – the midfield non-existent; the defence found wanting and the strikers unable to create much.

Grimsby scorer Mark Hudson admitted he was surprised how easily they turned the game around against a side challenging for a top seven spot.

"We said at half-time that they were leaving gaps in their defence and we knew, if we scored one, that we could get back in the game," said the midfielder.

"At half-time that was our team talk as we knew the first goal was vital – and that wasn’t just because it was mine!

"And even when we went 3-2 up, in the past we have panicked but they rarely threatened us."

With such talk you would expect it was Stanley who were in relegation trouble and the Mariners safe but 11 points out of 42 would be drop zone form – thank goodness for the early part of the season which gave the Reds the cushion.

Coleman had his players in the dressing room for an hour after the game and, even when he came out to talk to the press, the rest of his staff had a private meeting in the stands while the players were left to have their own debate in the changing rooms for a further spell.

There is a problem with the Reds at the moment and Coleman knows he needs to sort it out fast.

Whether it’s a lack of confidence, the long season catching up on a limited squad, the heavy pitches or just that they are out of ideas, he doesn’t know.

What Coleman does know though is that it is basically the same players and he has to try and eliminate the lacklustre shows which are now becoming the norm and re-instill the belief to get back to the winning performances of earlier on.

Coleman was as shell-shocked as his players after the Grimsby fightback but, in truth, it could have been more with a combination of poor finishing, goal-line clearances and keeper Dean Bouzanis keeping out the Mariners in the first half.

Stanley scored two goals against the run of play with a Chris Turner cross finding Kee’s head for the opener and not long after Kee himself set up Symes – a £100,000 target for Grimsby in January – whose finishing has been top drawer all season – and he curled the ball low into the net for his 18th goal of the season.

At half-time the Crown Ground was full of disbelief that the Reds were winning but it’s a sign of a good team that, while not playing to their best, they are winning.

But then it is a sign of a struggling team that, when one goal goes in, the side collapses.

Hudson’s opener came off his shoulder into the net but that luck had evaded Grimsby in the first half. Surely that was just a consolation?

Well no as, four minutes later, a Michael Coulson dubious free kick took a deflection off the wall and Bouzanis was again picking the ball out of the back of the net.

That was greeted with stunned silence but the third was even worse.

Hull loanee Jamie Devitt was allowed time to run on the left wing. As Coleman said: "A jumbo jet could have been driven through the defence," and he finished well to crown what, for the Mariners, was a stunning fightback.

For Stanley though it was a complete devastation.

And after that, the Reds rarely threatened with Grimsby looking the more likely to add to their score and make it even worse for the Reds.

"I feel physically sick and I feel like crying as I am so frustrated," said Coleman after the hour-long inquest.

"We have lost a 2-0 lead again and to lose five on the bounce is hard to take - and in three of them we have been leading - and I can’t put my finger on it.

"I have to take repsonsibility as I changed the team.¿I am ashamed for myself and the way my team played.

"I am not going to be blaming anyone else but myself. We werent good enough all over the park.

"We rode our luck in the first half and had to defend well and were fortunate to go in 2-0 up and I thought we would kick on from there.

"Then we conceded a goal and crumbled, as has happened so often this season. For any team of mine and Jimmy’s to crumble like that is an indictment on myself and him. We’re not modelling a team into our way of thinking and we have to take the blame for that.

"No disrespect to Grimsby but we shouldn’t be losing to them and you could see how pleased they were as they celebrated like they had won the World Cup.

"If we play like we can, we are on another planet to Grimsby. But we didn’t.

"It’s the lowest point of my career."