'Completely professional' South Shields claim deserved win at Warrington Town

Elliott Dickman reflected on a ‘completely professional performance’ after South Shields produced a confident display to collect all three points from their visit to old foes Warrington Town.

The Mariners had claimed just one win in their last seven National League North games ahead of their trip to Cantilever Park - but they shook off any thoughts of a lack of confidence with a dominant display from the opening stages. Mackenzie Heaney grabbed the first goal of the game with 12 minutes on the clock before Dillon Morse doubled the advantage with a well-taken header moments later. Paul Blackett stretched the lead to three just after the midway point of the half and that was enough to claim a deserved win that saw the Mariners earned praise from their delighted manager.

He told The Gazette: “I think on the whole, the performances in recent weeks have been good but we haven’t been clinical, we haven’t taken our chances and it hasn’t been a nice feeling for anyone at the club. But today was one of those performances when everything fell into place and we are absolutely delighted to go and get a win at what is always a difficult place to go. The players started well, they were excellent from the off and that settled us down. It was a completely professional performance and it was a deserved win.”

The performance of the versatile Heaney played no small part in an impressive away performance as the former Newcastle United academy star opened the scoring and provided assists for Blackett and Morse that took their side out of sight. Heaney would not have featured at Cantilever Park had it not been for a successful appeal against the controversial red card he received in the recent home defeat against Radcliffe - and Dickman was happy to see the wing-back make the most of that decision.

He said: “To be fair to Mackenzie, he has been excellent all season, no matter where we have asked him to play for us. Credit to Phil Reay (Mariners secretary) for getting his red card rescinded because he wouldn’t have been able to play without that. Mackenzie has scored one and set up two but his attitude was just as important as he led by example and played his part in a true team performance.”