South Shields aiming to strengthen their promotion hopes at Basford United

With the Mariners not in action on Tuesday, Buxton capitalised with a 3-1 win over relegation-threatened Witton Albion which moved them to the top of the standings.

Just one automatic promotion spot is available in the Northern Premier League, but second-placed Shields have a game in hand on the new leaders, who they sit two points behind.

Kevin Phillips’ side have just nine matches remaining and it is imperative any slip-ups are minimised after their last two results, a 1-0 loss at Ashton United and 2-2 draw at Stafford Rangers.

Basford defeated Shields 1-0 in the reverse fixture at 1st Cloud Arena in October and are 15th heading into Saturday’s fixture, having won two of their nine games since the turn of the year.

Mariners manager Phillips said: “This week has given the lads some time to recover from a busy run of games.

“They had a couple of days of rest to completely recover and were back in on Tuesday.

“I told them to switch off from football for the couple of days they were away and enjoy their time with their families, because that’s important.

“We’ve been back to it since Tuesday preparing for Basford, which will be another tough match.

“We know it’ll be a decent pitch because it’s a 3G surface, so hopefully we’ll get the ball down and play the way we know we can.”

Phillips is hopeful that hard work on the training ground will reap dividends for Shields as they bid to return to winning ways.

He added: “We’ve been in a little place recently where we’ve not been getting the rub of the green.

“Every time there was a ricochet it tended to land at a Stafford player’s feet, and it was the same at Ashton.

“You have spells in football like that and the only way you can turn it around is by continuing to work hard and believing in what you’re doing.

“Eventually that luck will turn in our favour and hopefully we’ll capitalise on it.”

News is awaited on the availability of Jordan Hunter (head), but Shields will definitely be without midfielder Callum Ross after he underwent knee surgery which will rule him out for the rest of the season.

Cedric Main and Jon Shaw are hoping to return from injury for the 3pm kick-off at Greenwich Avenue, which has a post code of NG6 0LD.

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