Elliott Dickman takes the positives from South Shields draw with Peterborough Sports

Elliott Dickman preferred to take a positive view of South Shields’ home draw with Peterborough Sports - despite watching his side waste a two-goal lead at the 1st Cloud Arena.

There were high hopes the Mariners could round off what would have been their best week of the season by making it three wins in a row against a Turbines side that were sat in the bottom half of the National League North table prior to their trip to South Tyneside. It was Dickman’s side that started on the front foot and they got their rewards on the quarter-hour mark when former Newcastle United academy duo Kyle Crossley and Lucas De Bolle combined for the latter to fire home his first goal for the club.

Crossley turned from goal-maker to goalscorer on the half-hour as the former Magpies youngster continued his fine recent form with a clinical finish from close range after good work from recent signing Iestyn Hughes and top scorer Paul Blackett. However, the visitors laid the foundations for a comeback with a deflected shot from Dan Jarvis before striker Michael Gyasi ensured his side claimed a point when he restored parity on 66 minutes.

Reflecting on the draw and the week as a whole, Dickman told The Gazette: “There is frustration and that’s from all of us, the players, the staff, everyone - and we are disappointed we have not held on to get the win. That’s a good thing really, there is nothing wrong with that, it just shows that we want to keep pushing and challenging ourselves to get better.

“We’ve had a good week and the main thing is we take stock of the week as we have a bit of a break now. We look at the positives, it’s quite easy to focus on the negatives and I just don’t think it’s productive. We know where we need to improve, that’s the critical part of what we are doing here.”

The Mariners are now without a game until a week on Tuesday when Rushall Olympic are the visitors to the 1st Cloud Arena.