South Shields aiming to fire themselves back into playoff places when they face King's Lynn Town

South Shields come into Saturday's game against King's Lynn Town off a 10-day break following the postponement of their game against Banbury United. This makes the Mariners win against Scunthorpe United their last league outing. In that fixture it was Dylan Stephenson who shone for Elliot Dickman's side as he grabbed a brace and a place in the team of the week.

Saturday’s opposition find themselves in 20th place, just one position above Banbury United who Shields were supposed to face last week. They find themselves on 37 points after 35 league fixtures.

The hosts haven’t been in a bad run of form recently and have gone undefeated in their last five league outings. However, only two of those last five matches have seen King's Lynn take all three points - with the other three ending in draws. Two of those draws have came in their last two fixtures at home to Farsley Celtic, in a match that ended 0-0, and away at Alfreton Town with Cameron Hargreaves scoring for the visitors.

The danger man for Saturday’s hosts is arguably Bartosz Cybulski who has seven goals this season. He is a former Derby County youth prospect and was signed by the Linnets upon his release in 2023. Prior to his release he made four appearances for the Rams in the 2021-2022 Championship season.

In the previous fixture between these two sides, it was Julio Arca’s Shields side that came out 2-0 winners at the First Cloud Arena back in October. Paul Blackett and James Mongoy both scored in that fixture.

Elliot Dickman's thoughts

Dickman was full of praise for Newcastle United loanee Stephenson after his two goals secured victory against Scunthorpe over a week ago. Dickman said: “He’s a very important player and it’s great that his form has been recognised, he will be crucial in the next 11 games”.

Following two straight league defeats prior to the win in the last fixture, Dickman maintained the belief his side were close to turning a corner: “I don’t think we played bad in those games," Dickman said. "And the Darlington fixture was a strange one as we had two red cards so I won’t think into it too much.”.

Throughout his time as Shields manager, Dickman has said multiple times that 'no game is an easy game' and this will no doubt be his mindset going in against King's Lynn.

Information for supporters

The match will be played on Saturday March 2, 2024 at 3pm. The address for the game is: The Walks Stadium, Tennyson rd, Kings Lynn (PE30 5PB).