Carl Finnigan stuns old club South Shields with late strike for Morpeth Town

Finnigan, who admitted pre-match he wasn’t sure if he would celebrate against his former pals if he scored, netted 11 minutes from the end to cancel out Jason Gilchrist’s opener.

The Mariners made a bright start at Craik Park and Sefton Gonzales almost opened the scoring as his header beat Highwaymen goalkeeper Dan Lowson, but Stephen Forster was on hand to clear the ball from the line.

The hosts settled into the game and on-loan Mariners goalkeeper Ryan Whiteley was thrust into the action on the half-hour mark as he raced from his line to challenge for a long ball with striker Liam Henderson who was brought down by Whitley – but referee Christopher Joyce decided that Henderson was moving away from goal and showed a yellow card to the Mariners number one.

And Whitley was forced into the action for the first time moments later when a loose ball ran to Taylor and he forced the keeper into an instinctive save at his near post to ensure that the deadlock remained unbroken at the interval.

That all changed 10 minutes into the second half as the Mariners took the lead with a goal from Gilchrist.

The impressive Jordan Hunter burst down the right-hand side before finding the striker in the area and he made no mistake with a fine low volley into the far corner of Dan Lowson’s net.

The introduction of new signing Darius Osei added some fresh impetus into the Mariners attack and he created the next chance of the game but Nathan Lowe could only roll a shot narrowly wide of the post.

The Highwaymen got themselves back on level-terms with 11 minutes left on the clock as Shields old boy Carl Finnigan punished some slack defending from his former club.

Joe Walton found some space on the right-hand side of the Mariners area and his cross-shot allowed Finnigan to tap home from inside the six-yard box – and that was enough to ensure that the spoils were shared.