South Shields boss eyeing new signings after Sunderland defeat
South Shields kicked off their pre-season fixtures with a home defeat against a strong Sunderland side.
South Shields head coach Ian Watson wants to add ‘one or two’ new signings to his squad - but he warned any potential additions must hit the standards set by his most recent recruits.
The Mariners boss got to see his new side in action on Saturday as they fell to a 4-0 home defeat against a strong Sunderland side containing the likes of Enzo Le Fee, Wilson Isidor and club record signing Habib Diarra. Watson was able to showcase a number of his own summer recruits as several players made their Mariners debuts in front of a sell-out crowd of 3,800 at the 1st Cloud Arena.
With the likes of Caden Kelly, Jasper Sheik and Cain Sykes in his starting eleven, Watson watched on as his side fell behind to a Wilson Isidor goal inside the opening 90 seconds. The Premier League newcomers went on to claim a routine win thanks to goals from Romaine Mundle, Milan Aleksic and Ahmed Abdullahi all found the net - but there were moments over positivity for the new Mariners boss.
With another home friendly against Northern League club Shildon next on the agenda, Watson has admitted there are plans to further strengthen his playing squad ahead of his first season in charge at the 1st Cloud Arena.
When asked if more new signings were in the works, the Mariners boss told The Gazette: “Yes, we are still looking to bring in a couple more new faces because we need to strengthen the squad. There will hopefully be one or two more coming in because we have been really fortunate with getting out work done fairly early.
“As you can see today, the quality of the players we have brought in is there to see and that’s the standards we are looking to set. Hopefully, by the time the season starts, we will have been able to bring in a couple more players that can help us hit those standards.”
Reaction
Just two weeks have passed since Watson and assistant manager Carl Magnay got to grips with their squad when they returned for pre-season training and there were signs of the defined style of play that will be implemented under the new Mariners management team as they faced a Sunderland side preparing for life in the top tier.
Watson praised the way his players approached the game and was impressed with how they showed a positive reaction to falling behind to Isidor’s early opener.
He said: “We asked the boys to be really brave and to play with a lot of courage before the game and I thought we did that. I thought we worked really hard, which was pleasing and our body language when we went behind after a minute and three seconds of my first game as a head coach was outstanding.
“We showed we wouldn’t let that impact on how the rest of the game would pan out for us, we reacted really well and we have a really good spell before the first water break. You can see we are working hard to gel everything together and there are a lot of new concepts that we are trying to introduce. But they were brave and they played with a lot of courage to try and implement the things we wanted to do against a very, very strong Sunderland side.”