Dickman makes South Shields demand ahead of Spennymoor Town test

South Shields manager Elliott Dickman has called on his players to do everything they can to boost their National League North play-off push with a win at Spennymoor Town on Boxing Day.

The Mariners were in dogged and determined mood on Saturday afternoon as a first-half brace from top goalscorer Paul Blackett helped his side to a 2-0 home win against Marine in front of a crowd of just over 1,800 at the 1st Cloud Arena. Dickman hailed his side for bouncing back from their defeat at leaders Curzon Ashton seven days earlier - but the win also moved the Mariners to within two points of the play-offs and they now lie seven points shy of the current frontrunners.

However, two testing festive fixtures lie in wait as the Boxing Day trip to Spennymoor is quickly followed by a New Years Day home clash against Darlington, who claimed a 1-0 win at Needham Market on Saturday to boost their own play-off ambitions. First and foremost, Dickman is focused on the visit to Brewery Field on Thursday and he reminded his squad of the responsibility they have to continue their good form against two North East rivals.

He told the club website: “We are at the halfway point so we just have to keep focusing on us. We have to keep doing what we did (against Marine) and we have to make sure that mindset and that mentality we’ve got, we need to make sure we bring it to every single game.

“We play some excellent football, we’ve got some excellent football players, we’ve got a brilliant squad and a brilliant team and we’ve got to make sure come Boxing Day, going to our rivals, one of our local rivals, we’ve got to make sure we are not, after the game, talking about letting ourselves down and the lads are aware of that. We’ve got a responsibility to do what we can and we will certainly do that.”

Dickman could consider recalls to Bryan Taylor and Dillon Morse after they were named amongst the substitutes for the weekend win against Marine.