'It’s been very up and down' - South Shields boss wants to end poor run of form against Brackley Town

South Shields manager Elliott Dickman wants his players to show ‘pride and a competitive edge’ as they look to put an end to a poor run of form in Saturday’s home game with promotion contenders Brackley Town.

The visitors will arrive at the 1st Cloud Arena looking to claim a third win in their last four game and staying within touching distance of National League North leaders Scunthorpe United as the season enters its final weeks. By contrast, South Shields have emerged without a point from their last four games and have conceded 11 goals and scored just twice during that time.

That run of form has led to Dickman’s side slipping into the bottom half of the table as the Mariners boss deals with a squad that has been hit with injuries and suspensions. Louis Burns became the latest Mariners academy product to make his first-team debut in the recent defeat at Rushall Olympic and Dickman has revealed there could be more opportunities for youngsters to make an impact during the final games of the campaign

He told The Gazette: “The emotions are mixed and nobody likes losing games, we want to win games and we want to be as competitive as we can be. The mood is fine but it obviously hasn’t been ideal and we are hurting and disappointed that we have lost in a game we shouldn’t have lost. This is the squad we have until the end of the season, the academy lads will have opportunities and we are nursing the main 11 or 12 players through the final weeks. This time next week we are hoping to have a few lads back in contention because it’s been very up and down. We just have to get our heads down, show that pride and a competitive edge that is needed to come through what is a difficult game against Brackley on Saturday.”

With just under a month remaining in a mixed campaign, Dickman has confirmed he could consider recalling a number of players that are currently out on loan and admitted the focus is quickly switching towards summer recruitment plans and boosting his squad ahead of next season.

He said: “I think you always look at the group and the squad and the mindset is we are preparing for next season. We have players out on loan and it might be that they come back and play some part of what we are trying to do like we did with Bryan Taylor. The long and short of it is we haven’t been actively searching for somebody and the focus is to look at the summer, working with Jimmy and looking at how and where we can strengthen. At any level of football, you have to be competitive no matter what and when they cross the white line, they are the best version of themselves, that’s what we need to do over the rest of the season to take some momentum into the summer."

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