Seventh heaven for South Shields as Mariners romp home in Olympic trial

Elliott Dickman hailed South Shields for a professional display as the Mariners claimed a big win against ten-man Rushall Olympic.

After making a bright start to the game, the visitors were reduced to ten men with just ten minutes on the clock when captain Nathan Cameron was shown a straight red card for hauling down Iestyn Hughes as the Mariners defender looked set to fire his side in front. Paul Blackett converted the resulting penalty before midfielder Martin Smith doubled the lead eight minutes later with a clever finish into an empty net after Pics keeper Paul White had beaten Blackett to a ball in behind his defence.

Blackett came to the fore once again just after the half-hour as he doubled his personal tally before completing a first-half hat-trick just three minutes before the interval. Dickman’s side continued to dominate possession throughout the second-half and added to their lead with 20 minutes remaining when new signing Tom Allan stroked the ball beyond White after good work from Smith. Allan grabbed his second goal of the game eight minutes later when he rounded off a remarkable passing move involving Hughes, Smith and substitute Will Jenkins.

Recent signing Hughes rounded off what Dickman described as ‘a really good night’ when he opened his Mariners account in the closing stages to put the seal on an emphatic display that left his new manager to laud the attitude of his squad.

He told The Gazette: “Things just fell for us tonight in certain aspects. I thought we started the game really well, they was a good intensity to our play, I thought we moved to ball really well and it’s never easy against ten. Teams can struggle against ten but the lads were excellent, (they were) very professional. I think we can sometimes find ourselves stuck as a team and we get a little bit caught up in certain aspects but tonight we didn’t do that. We moved the ball with a real purpose and quality, there was some really good movement and some excellent goals. It was a really, really good night for us.”

Although hat-trick hero Blackett stole the limelight, recent loan signing Allan marked his debut with a two-goal display less than 24 hours after agreeing to spending the remainder of the season with the Mariners. The move to the 1st Cloud Arena saw the Gateshead forward reunited with his former Newcastle United academy coach and Dickman is delighted to be working with Allan once again.

He said: “He trained with us on Monday and you could see straightaway the buzz around training. Tommy has quality, I’ve had the privilege of working with him before and he scored one of the best goals I’ve ever seen to be fair. I’m delighted he scored tonight and I’m delighted he has joined us because he certainly adds something to what we’ve got. Tom is a fantastic addition and hopefully his form and his goalscoring ability continues to prevail.”

The Mariners are back in action on Saturday afternoon when they visit National League North leaders Curzon Ashton. Dickman will hope to have David Carson available as the midfielder awaits FA clearance to make the first appearance of his latest spell with the club.