South Shields aim to strengthen playoff push after memorable stoppage time victory v Chorley

South Shields hit the road again on Saturday after overcoming 3rd place Chorley Town on Tuesday night. The scoring was opened by Aaron Martin in the 21st minute before Carlton Ubaezuono levelled for the visitors shortly after the second half kicked off. Loanee Dylan Stephenson then provided one of the highlights of the season, scoring in the 4th minute of injury time to seal all 3 points for the Mariners.

The hosts for Saturday’s fixture are in a great run of form at the minute having won three of their last five league games. Buxton have won back-to-back league games by 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. Despite this recent good form however, they are still two points and three places below Shields who find themselves in 11th place as of this moment.

The main dangerman for the hosts is Diego De Girolamo who has previously been at both Sheffield United and Bristol City. In 27 games this season he has scored an impressive 13 goals - a haul which makes him Buxton’s leading scorer.

In the previous fixture between the two teams Shields came out on top, winning 1-0. Paul Blackett scored the only goal that day.

Elliot Dickman's thoughts 

Shields currently find themselves in a good position to creep into the playoffs during the season run-in and are only five points outside of the playoff places with a game in hand on teams above. Speaking about his side's chances of securing a spot in the playoffs, Dickman said: “As a team and a club we are all on the same page, it’s been a good season so far but if we can build on Saturday, I believe we will be up there come the end of the campaign.”.

Dylan Stephenson has impressed during his time in South Tyneside with five goals in ten appearances. Dickman worked with Stephenson whilst at Newcastle United and has been full of praise for the striker: “As a player we have seen a great improvement in Dylan, he is a lot more confident in how he plays and I’m excited to see how his career unfolds.”.

On Buxton, Dickman added: “We continue to build confidence and Tuesday certainly helped us with that, we have trained hard and we know what needs to be done. If our game plan comes off or not is completely down to us.”.