Dickman makes bold admission as South Shields fall to Rushall defeat

Elliott Dickman has called on his South Shields players to ‘take responsibility’ after they suffered a desperately disappointing defeat at relegation threatened Rushall Olympic.

The Mariners boss warned his squad of the threat posed by their hosts as they looked to gain revenge for the 7-0 hammering they suffered in the first meeting of the two sides in December. However, any warnings were not heeded as the Pics boosted their bid for survival with a hard-earned 2-1 home at Dales Lane.

After a goalless opening hour, the hosts grabbed the lead with 20 minutes remaining when Louis Hall rounded off a neat team move to give his side the upper hand. The Mariners’ hopes of claiming something from the game appeared to be boosted when the Pics were reduced to ten men just moments after their opener as Brad Bood saw red for a high challenge.

An own goal got Dickman’s men back on level-terms - but parity was not in place for long as Aaron Forde grabbed the goal that ensured the points remained with Rushall and left Dickman to rue another poor away display from his side.

He told the club website: “We all need to take responsibility for the games when we lose and we have to bounce back from it. There’s only us can get ourselves out of this position we are in where we are losing games. It’s not a nice feeling, it’s not a feeling we all want. Younger players that are playing, they’ll learn from it but they’ve got to make sure they do their jobs and do their jobs really, really well.”

There was added frustration for the Mariners boss after his side failed to claim anything from the game despite facing ten men for the last 20 minutes of the game. Bood was shown a straight red card for a high challenge on Mariners full-back Iestyn Hughes - but that did not prevent his side from earning three points that have now taken them to within nine points of escaping the drop zone with five games remaining in the season.

Dickman praised a depleted Rushall side for making life difficult for his own players - but bemoaned the ‘terrible goals’ his side conceded on their latest away defeat.

He said: “It’s never easy playing against ten, even when it was one-one. When they get the second goal, the goals from our point of view were terrible. There really were terrible. That’s story of our season, we give terrible goals away and when you give terrible goals away you give teams something to hang on to and they had something to hang on to with ten men. They stuck at it, they made it difficult and credit to them - but ultimately we have to be better and people think playing against ten men, the game should be easier, but it doesn’t always work like that.”

The Mariners now have a free midweek to prepare for next Saturday’s home game with Brackley Town.

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