More to come from in-form South Shields FC - insists captain Robbie Tinkler
South Shields FC host National League North rivals Merthyr Town on Saturday afternoon.
South Shields FC captain Robbie Tinkler has vowed to ‘drive standards’ as the Mariners bid for promotion into the National League once again this season.
It has been an impressive start to the campaign for Mike Williamson’s men after they collected maximum points from challenging away days at Scarborough Athletic and Morecambe and a first home game of the season against Chorley last weekend.
All three games have brought adversity for the Mariners after they were forced to battle with ten men for the final half an hour of the opening day victory at Scarborough before coming from a goal down to land all three points in last weekend’s win against Chorley. Williamson’s players then produced a stern defensive display to grind out a hard-earned win at much-fancied Morecambe in midweek - and that means they head into Saturday’s home game with Merthyr Town looking to preserve one of only two perfect records in the National League North.
With last season’s promotion push falling at the final hurdle with a play-off final defeat against Kidderminster Harriers, the clear aim for Williamson’s first season in charge at Mariners Park is to go one step further and land a spot in non-league’s top tier.
Tinkler insisted that would mean having to raise standards even further after he admitted he and his team-mates ‘have not hit their stride properly’ despite taking nine points from their first three games of the campaign.
He told The Gazette: “I think it’s a lot harder because, as you see with a lot of teams, it’s difficult to maintain success and last season was a success. Although we couldn’t get over the final hurdle, it was still a success to do what we did.
“Now we have to drive standards to go that one step further this season and that is what we are hoping to do. We have picked up three results against difficult teams and they’ve caused us a lot of problems. Two of them were defensive-minded, Scarborough were the ones that went man-for-man, and it was two away performances and it can’t be overlooked we got results away from home. But I still don’t think we have hit our stride properly yet and that’s where the standards come in.”
Important
Over 1,700 supporters were in attendance as the Mariners marked their first home game of the league season with a 2-1 victory against Chorley last weekend as Adam Campbell and Paul Blackett found the net. Tinkler is confident crowds will continue to rise throughout the season and urged the Mariners faithful to continue backing his side in their bid for promotion.
He said: “It makes a difference and I said it last year, the noise that they make in getting behind us does help. We found that at Morecambe in midweek. We went one up and they had a good spell where their fans were driving the ball into the goal almost. It does make a difference and we know our fans do that for us too. It really is appreciated because we know how important this club is to them and we all want to push things forward.”