Grimsby Town boss Ian Holloway on his side's victory at Colchester United

IAN Holloway has revealed a squad-bonding bowling trip paved the way for his Grimsby Town side's win at Colchester United.

The Mariners ran out 3-2 winners at the U's at the JobServe Community Stadium, thanks to Charles Vernam's hat-trick.

Holloway had earlier in the day taken his players bowling - and the Grimsby boss was left delighted after Vernam's strikes sealed all three points for his side.

Holloway said: "We went bowling (on Tuesday) because I can't get this group together anything like enough.

"We had a good day of it and everyone enjoyed that.

"Elliott Hewitt won the bowling - he was much better than the rest.

"Billy Clarke could have beat him but he got it wrong on his last bowl, so he bottled it!

"I didn't do it - I get frustrated with myself and I've got to be honest, I'd probably need the sides up!

"Ollie Battersby bowled with his non-broken hand and he'd have still beaten me with his wrong hand!

“Chas (Vernam) has stolen the night with a wonderful, wonderful winning goal but it was the rest of it – everything else was fantastic so well done to our lads.

"We came here and passed and passed and passed against a team who have been doing it all season, so well done to our lads.

"We had to come back from a couple of things that went wrong and we showed great grit and determination.

“Considering that was the first time that that team had played together, I thought some of the football was excellent."

Grimsby had to come from behind twice in the game to claim the three points, at Colchester.

Luke Prosser and Theo Robinson both put the U's ahead in the first half, only for Vernam's goals to cancel them out before the Mariners striker completed his hat-trick with a stunning solo goal.

“We made terrible mistakes and it cost us two goals," added former QPR and Blackpool boss Holloway.

“We didn’t clear our lines properly and I’ve just told them that there are times when you just have to kick it.

“From set plays, we’ve normally been really good at that; we missed two clearances, it fell to them and they scored two.

"I'm sick and fed up of goals like that, someone striking it from the edge of the box and it going through all our lads.

“But I didn’t go mad at half-time; I knew I had to make some changes because I wanted them to see the pace of it and be together.

“I made five or six changes; we train the same way and do the same things so I decided to share that out.

“(James) Hanson and Billy Clarke have been excellent for us but they needed a rest and you could see when they came on fresh it made a difference.

"At this level, things get stretched and they wanted to play.

"We broke up a move, we gave it to Charles Vernam in his own half I think it was and he's decided to run with it.

"To be fair, it's not a fluke - he did it that the other week and scored a brilliant goal at home but this one was even better.

"This boy has got a wonderful ability and it's great to see - it was a sensational goal.

"If I'm being brutally honest, I'm glad that we got it because we weren't a bad side tonight."