In-form South Shields showing belief as Chester visit lies in wait

South Shields manager Elliott Dickman wants to ensure his squad take confidence from their upturn in form as the Mariners look for a fifth win in six games at Chester on Saturday.

After goals from Kyle Crossley and Paul Blackett helped Dickman’s side to a 2-1 win at Scarborough Athletic last weekend, the Mariners battled to a 1-0 home triumph in midweek thanks to an Aidan Rutledge goal. The latter of those victories came in adversity after Mariners trio Blackett, Will Jenkins and Jid Okeke all suffered injuries during the game. However, a youthful looking side battled to secure a deserved three points and left their manager wanting more of the same during Saturday’s trip to Chester.

He told The Gazette: “The main thing to manage for us is that confidence because we want that self belief, we want them to believe in themselves. It’s taken us a little while to build on our connections within the game and we’ve managed to do that in the last few games. It’s brilliant that we’ve won four out of five but we need to make sure we take stock of what’s happened against Buxton, train well on Thursday and get ourselves fully prepared for Saturday.”

Dickman and assistant manager Andy Innes will assess the fitness of Blackett, Jenkins and Okeke ahead of the visit to the Deva Stadium. However, summer signing Dan Ward is likely to remain out for the foreseeable future and may need an operation on the injury he suffered in last month’s home defeat against Curzon Ashton. That could mean more opportunities for the likes of academy trio Bryan Taylor and Ewan McGowan, as well as on-loan Sunderland youngster Ben Middlemas.

After ending Tuesday night’s win with a side with an average age of just 20, Dickman insisted he will continue to trust his youngsters to thrive in the challenging environment of the National League North as he continues to contend with a number of injury issues.

“We trust the young lads, we know they’re good players, we know they’ve got good qualities,” he explained. “The thing we need to do now is get our training intensities right to make sure we aren’t flogging a dead horse. Hats off to everyone, they’ve been brilliant from day one, and we know we’ve had ups and downs but that’s football.”