Middlesbrough youngster Sonny Finch targets promotion with South Shields
Sonny Finch grabbed the only goal as South Shields claimed a home win against National League North rivals Southport.
Middlesbrough youngster Sonny Finch has set his sights on helping South Shields secure promotion after making an impressive start to his loan spell with the National League North leaders.
The Boro academy graduate was handed a chance to impress away from the Riverside Stadium when he agreed to spend the rest of the season with the Mariners last week and he made an immediate impact on debut to provide an assist for top goalscorer Paul Blackett in a 3-0 win against Leamington on Saturday. Finch was handed his first start for his temporary employers in Tuesday night’s home clash with Southport and marked the occasion by grabbing his first South Shields goal when he scored the only goal of the game with just six minutes remaining.
The win has taken Ian Watson’s side five points clear of nearest title rivals AFC Fylde ahead of this weekend’s visit to Marine - although the Coasters do have the benefit of holding a game in hand. As he assessed an impressive start to the second loan spell of his young career, Finch admitted he has settled easily into life at the 1st Cloud Arena and expressed his determination to help South Shields secure promotion into the National League.
He said: “It’s a goal and an assist in my first two games and I just want to help as much as possible so we can reach that end goal of promotion. That’s why I’m here. We need as many points as possible and we can’t drop many because Fylde are so close. We just need to keep pushing. I’m really enjoying it here, they’ve helped me settle in so easily and there is just one goal for us now and that’s promotion so that’s all going to help. We now need to go to Marine, keeping the moment and just keep picking up points and scoring goals.”
Target
Finch’s late strike against Southport was met by a mix of relief and excitement from the vast majority of those inside the 1st Cloud Arena and a usually cool Mariners boss Ian Watson admitted he got ‘lost in the moment’ in the aftermath of the goal. After enduring a largely frustrating night before finally breaking their visitors resistance, the Mariners showed their class as a driving run and neat pass from former Middlesbrough and Hartlepool United wing-back Dan Dodds allowed Finch to rack up his first goal for the club and boost their bid for promotion.
The young forward was delighted to get off the mark for the Mariners and described the goal and the celebrations as ‘a great moment’.
“The team stuck in and it was just a great move at the end,” explained the Boro youngster. “It was just about getting the ball out of my feet, I had a quick look at where the keeper was and then it was just about getting it on target because it was bobbling all over the place when I went to hit it. I don’t think you can not celebrate when you score a late goal like that, you have to celebrate. It was a great moment.”