Hometown hero David Carson eyeing history with South Shields

Hometown hero David Carson has expressed his determination to take South Shields to within one promotion of the EFL as they prepare for Saturday’s National League North play-off final against Kidderminster Harriers.

The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle midfielder made his first start since December as he produced a hardworking display in Saturday’s semi-final win against Buxton as a Paul Blackett penalty helped Ian Watson’s side move within 90 minutes of a possible promotion into the National League. Carson is now in his second spell as a Mariners after spending time with the club during their Northern League days and is well placed to assess the stunning upturn in fortunes at the 1st Cloud Arena over the next decade.

As a local lad, he will also feel something unique should promotion and a place in the history books be secured with a win against Harriers this weekend.

Lookign ahead to the game, he told The Gazette: “It would be massive. We’ve had some good meetings this week and we know there is history to be made. For myself, I know these boys deserve it. Nothing has been achieved, we have a big game on Saturday, and it’s in our hands. We have full belief we can do it.

“I am a local boy, I love the club and I’ve back here because of the vision and the process of what the club want to do. We have a game to achieve part of that ambition and every fan and staff member will be looking forward to it. I have been away for a lot of my career and I’ve had my family here for a lot of the games and there’s friends there too. I’ve been at the club twice and I have that connection. It’s something I want to do as a local boy to achieve this with this football club.”

‘Outside noise’

Despite the understandable joy over Saturday’s win against Buxton as the Mariners finally claimed a win against the Derbyshire outfit after two unsuccessful attempts, there is a need to fully focus on another tricky affair with Harriers on Saturday afternoon. Carson insisted his side will get their preparations right and warned his team-mates they have not achieved anything yet as they look to secure a historic promotion into non-league’s top tier.

He said: “The outside noise gets blocked out. We are with each other every single day and we know the ability in that dressing room, we know the togetherness we have got and that showed. The outside noise is just noise, we just focus on the day-to-day stuff and we move on to the final. That’s all we can ask and we are looking forward to it. It’s exactly what we have done all season, we got the result we wanted but that’s it. It’s put to the side now, it’s all about the last game now and it’s a game we would have taken at the start of the season. We will look forward to it, we will pack the park and hopefully we can make it a good one for the club.”

Your next South Shields read: 'Absolute warrior' David Carson praises South Shields after play-off semi-final win