Elliot Dickman aiming for repeat performance as South Shields host Alfreton Town

Michael Woods’ late brace gave The Mariners their first win in eight matches last time out, which ended a winless streak that stretched back to mid-November in all competitions.  Dickman believes the team were “excellent” on the night, and he hopes the victory can boost the team’s morale heading into the weekend’s challenging National League North tie. 

He said: “The result against Bishop’s Stortford hopefully helps breed some confidence within the group. To be fair, the players have trained really well since, and the result has helped with confidence and with team morale and all credit to the players for that.

"They’ve been excellent - they were excellent on the night, especially the second half and they’ve continued that into this 11-day programme that we’ve had.” 

Shields travel to the Impact Arena for the 3pm kick-off and Dickman thinks the team’s lengthy break has given the side ample time to work on some key areas in training. He added: “Within training we’ve cemented and worked on a number of things that we want to try to implement, so we’ve really concentrated on what we can do based on some of the observations and some of the reviews from the games that we’ve played.

“We’ve worked really hard on when we have the ball, certain moments in the game and what we can get better at, so that’s what we’ve really focused on, just continuing to develop what we need to do for ourselves. We are aware how Alfreton can play and we know what their game plan probably will be like, so we’ve done a little bit based around that but the main focus is on what we can do to be better for ourselves.”

John Lufudu is back from illness but Shields will have to make do without Dillon Morse or Luke James. Jordy Mongoy joined Spennymoor Town earlier this week so won’t be available. 

Supporters can buy tickets on Alfreton Town’s club website. Admission prices are £12 for adults and £8 for concessions (over 65s, those between 16-21 and students with valid ID), with discounted ticket prices on offer before midnight on Friday.