Pools Youth Team were knocked out of the Youth Alliance Cup by Grimsby Town on Tuesday morning after a dramatic penalty shootout at Chester-le-Street.

Micky Barron's men had more than held their own during normal time against the current league-leaders but Town scraped through after a tense shootout.

Grimsby were quickly out of the blocks and dominated the first half, though Pools defended strongly and were thankful to keeper Nick Thomas for a couple of wonderful saves.

After the break, the Pools youngsters came back in to the game and started to create a few chances of their own, seeing an effort cleared off the line and forcing a couple of good blocks from the Grimsby keeper.

Both sides had seemingly settled for the draw with round fifteen minutes left and the tie went straight to penalties.

Marc Ellison, Paul Johnson, Jak Quantrill and Callum Hassan all converted to give Lee Mason the chance to win the tie - but the striker saw his effort saved.

Dylan Purvis then also had the opportunity to put Barron's men through but blasted over the bar, and when Callum Martin missed the seventh kick Pools' fate was sealed.

"To hold the top team in the league to a goalless draw, I think you have to be pleased with the performance," Barron told us.

"When you get to penalties it's just the luck of the draw but keeping a clean sheet against a team of Grimsby's quality is very encouraging for us," he added.

Full Time: Pools 0 Grimsby Town 0 (Grimsby win 5-4 on penalties)

Pools: Thomas, Quantrill, Purvis, Ellison, Johnson, Sharples, McRoberts (Martin), Charlton, Mason, Wakefield (Hassan), Reech.
Subs not used: Scaife, Mellish, Liddle.