Dickman remains confident after South Shields defeat at Blyth Spartans

Interim manager Elliott Dickman refused to criticise his South Shields players following their agonising late defeat at North East rivals Blyth Spartans.

Dickman’s side made a perfect start at Croft Park as top goalscorer Paul Blackett put them in front with just five minutes on the clock after fine approach play from Lirak Hasani.  But an equaliser from home defender Fin Cousin-Dawson and an injury-time strike from former South Shields striker JJ Hooper ensured Spartans completed the league double over the Mariners.

Former Newcastle United and Sunderland coach Dickman described the defeat as ‘a bitter pill to swallow’ but praised the Mariners squad for their reaction following the departure of former manager Julio Arca earlier this week.

He told The Gazette: “We were at a point in the game where we have to make sure we see the game through.

“Unfortunately for us, we conceded late and it’s a bitter pill to swallow but I can thank the lads enough for everything they’ve tried to do in the few days we’ve had together.  We’ve put a lot on them, we’ve given them a lot of information, and there were moments when they executed what we wanted really, really well. When you’re not winning games, confidence is not as high and we just have to try and continue going with the positive reinforcement over the excellent things they have done.”

Dickman had rang the changes from the Boxing Day home defeat against Spartans as Robert Briggs, Michael Woods, Lirak Hasani, Jordy Mongoy and Tom Broadbent came in for Dillon Morse, Jed Abbey, CJ Clarke, Luke James and Aaron Martin.

One of those changes paid immediate dividends as on-loan Gateshead midfielder Hasani produced a stunning pass to release Paul Blackett in on goal and allow the striker to produce a cool finish beyond the advancing Dan Langley to put the Mariners ahead.

After enjoying the better of the opening 20 minutes, South Shields were unable to continue their momentum and they were pegged back just before the half-hour when Spartans defender Cousin-Dawson beat Myles Boney after getting on the end of a free-kick from Nicky Deverdics.

The decisive blow came in the first of four minutes of added-on time in the second-half as former Mariners frontman JJ Hooper came back to haunt his old club with a well-taken header that ensured his current club claimed a second win in four days over his former employers.

Despite the defeat, Dickman remains ‘confident’ his side can move on from what has been a challenging period at the club and return to winning ways when Warrington Town visit the 1st Cloud Arena next Saturday afternoon.

“When things don’t go your way, everything gets over-analysed a little bit and everything is questioned,” he explained.

“We’ve just got to be careful we don’t do that.  It’s important to learn from games and look at what we can do better.  We will do that but at the same time we have to look at the good bits, the good reaction in two training sessions from what’s happened this week and little bits of today’s performances. I’m confident results will come and we all have to believe that.”

Blyth Spartans: Langley, Evans, Liddle, Cousin-Dawson, Bodenham, Hickey, Forbes, Deverdics, Oliver (Clark), Main (Hooper), McGowan (Gordon) Subs: Joisce, Hogan

South Shields: Boney, Lufudu (Clarke), Adams, Liddle, Broadbent, Smith, Briggs, Woods, Hasani, Blackett (Heaney), Mongoy (Martin) Subs: Abbey, Sloan