LATICS boss Frankie Bunn has declared himself delighted with the progress made as he takes his side to struggling Grimsby Town on Saturday in a game which marks six weeks in charge since the season kicked-off.

The manager said he can’t praise the players enough after a more than satisfactory start to the campaign with Athletic handily placed for a promotion assault.

He said: “Listen, overall I’m delighted with the start we’ve had – to the point where I’m having to keep people’s feet on the ground.

“No-one knew what to expect from us and I can’t ask any more from the players.”

Although loathe to single out individuals as a general rule, Bunn reserved special praise for George Edmundson this week as the young centre-back continues to impress alongside skipper Peter Clarke.

“George has had a great start to the season, as have a few of the lads,” Bunn added.

“We don’t like to single anybody out but George has been one of the top performers for sure.

“All he can do is keep on doing what he’s doing, all the team can do is keep going as they have and the accolades will come.

“What is the norm is that we work hard, keep on going and we are together. What we’ve got to add to that now is a little bit of quality.”

Bunn, who was happy with the performance in the 1-0 defeat to Newport last time out, welcomes back goalkeeper Daniel Iversen and wideman Gevaro Nepomuceno who have been away on international duty with Denmark under-21s and Curacao, respectively.

Other than that, the manager is unlikely to make too many major changes to his line-up with Ishmael Miller, Giles Coke and Cameron Dummigan still on the comeback trail from injury and Jose Baxter almost back to full fitness.

Bunn said: “I feel we’ve had a tough six weeks. We’re getting to that stage where some players might just need a bit of a breather and we ease off them a little bit in training.

“We’ve obviously been doing some work tactically ahead of Grimsby, probably more so than the physical aspects. We need to regroup, see how we are and take it from there.”

Michael Jolley’s Mariners sit fourth-from-bottom in League Two after a run of just one win – a 2-0 victory at Macclesfield on August 11 – in their opening seven games.

Last week’s 4-0 defeat at Bury made it five matches without a win for the north Lincolnshire outfit.