Edon Pruti was carried off the pitch on a stretcher

Grimsby Town suffered a fourth-straight league defeat at the hands of struggling Northampton Town, who ran out 2-0 victors at Blundell Park. Both Doug Tharme and Edon Pruti - who was carried off the pitch on a stretcher - suffered serious injuries in the game.

The Mariners ere downed by a goal in each half by the visitors, who claimed their first away win of the campaign to get out of the bottom two.

David Artell made a few changes through the spine of the team, with Cameron McJannet a rare omission, and Tharme in for his first league start since January 17. Pruti was also in for his full league debut, with Jayden Sweeney dropping out of the squad entirely.

Jamie Walker and Iwan Morgan also returned to the starting lineup ahead of Finlay Cartwright and Andy Cook, who both dropped to the bench. Northampton had the first big opportunity of the game as a long ball forward from the goalkeeper bounced through to Matty Warhurst after a couple of touches, who tested Christy Pym with a low effort from just inside the area.

Town’s goal was under big pressure again, just a couple of minutes later, with a goalline clearance required to deny Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, who lifted the ball over Pym from close range.

Tharme headed off the line, and Maldini Kacurri flew into a sliding block to stop Owen Dale’s follow-in, as Town hung onto parity by the skin of their teeth in the early stages.

Northampton were firmly on top in the first 15 minutes, and they came again with another great opportunity close in, again for Warhurst, who hit his shot into the ground and over after Evans floated the ball to him at the back post.

Pym was called into action again, close to the half-hour mark, to deny Dale, who looked to fire the ball low into the far corner from the left side of the box.

Town needed some inspiration from somewhere to get into the game, and it came from Geza David Turi, who made a double tackle to win the ball on halfway, with Northampton committing men forward,

Turi carried the ball forward into space and slid in Morgan, who took one touch inside the pitch and fired on the box edge, with Zack Jeacock diving low to his left to stop.

Warhurst had been the man at the end of most of the chances for the visitors in the first half, and he took arguably the most difficult one he had to give his side a deserved lead, arrowing a shot into Pym’s bottom left corner from outside the area.

Town looked for a quick reply as the ball fell to Justin Amaluzor on the edge of the Northampton area, but his near-post effort rolled marginally wide.

Chances started to come for Town as they looked to level before the break, but Jeacock was equal to them. First, Amaluzor poked goalwards from Turi’s ball over the top, which the Northampton stopper tipped wide before he then blocked Kieran Green after he had got on the end of Walker’s cutback.

Disaster struck for Tharme early in the first half as he pulled up and could not continue, a massive blow for the centre-back, having just recently returned from a long injury spell.

Town continued to push for the equaliser in his absence, with Walker striking the upright and Harvey Rodgers firing the rebound over from close range.

Charles Vernam had chance to score when Amaluzor cut the ball across from the byline after a good move down Town’s right flank, but the former blazed over, and that proved costly.

Northampton doubled their lead just before the hour mark as Jon Guthrie bundled the ball after Elliott Moore had headed the ball back across the goal from a corner.

Matters only got worse for Town a few minutes later as Edon Pruti was shown a straight red and suffered what looked like a very severe injury at the same time after misjudging a full-blooded challenge.

Andy Cook had come on as a late substitute and had a good chance to halve the deficit as he got on the end of a good cross from another substitute, Sonny Finch, but there was too much height on his header as the ball sailed over.

Town fought well with a man less, but the damage had already been done as they fell to another defeat, dropping to 15th in the League Two table.