Ford along with Crane and Aidan Davison formed a formidable triangle that almost locked out the Bristol City attack. Christian Roberts had to wait till the 91st minute to break the deadlock.
The former Charlton youngster is starting to form a solid partnership with Crane in the heart of the defence, the pair were simply awesome on Saturday and deserved to be on the winning side.
Ford confesses that the scoreline eventually flattered Town, but is willing his team-mates to bounce back to winning ways, starting with Peterborough at the weekend. With Anderson set for a spell on the sidelines injured the responsibilty to attack from midfield will fall on Marcel Cas when he returns from suspension, for Ford that return can't come soon enough.
We've got to pick ourselves up. We never gave in and our heads never went down. We dug in and worked for each other," Ford told the Grimsby Telegraph.
"We've got to get some quality back into the side, get it down and start playing. We'd done well with the two wins last week, but then to have three missing it showed.
"Macca came in and showed his quality, but we missed the rhythm that we'd had. It's difficult for people to come in for a big game like this. We just have to forget it, put it behind us and try and repeat against Peterborough what we did last week.
"If we had got beat two or three nil here we couldn't have any complaints. But to get through it for so long, start thinking we were going to get something, and then concede a goal through a lack of concentration - it just killed us.
"We have to put it to the back of our minds and start again."