South Shields manager proud as National League promotion bid gets triple boost after Darlington win

Ian Watson hailed in-form South Shields for coming through a ‘test of character’ in Tuesday night’s win at National League North play-off hopefuls Darlington.

The Mariners were flying high at the top of the table in the aftermath of their Boxing Day hammering of Spennymoor Town and were looking to give another clear sign of their promotion credentials by claiming a fourth consecutive win against another of Watson’s former clubs. After a lively start at Blackwell Meadows, on-loan Derby County youngster Lennon Wheeldon fired the Mariners in front after he got on the end of an Olly Bainbridge cross and that narrow advantage remained in place when the half-time whistle was blown.

The lead was doubled midway through the second-half as Paul Blackett’s deflected effort found its way beyond Quakers keeper Pete Jameson - and that was enough to secure the points despite former Mariners forward Cedric Main giving the hosts some belated hope when he netted in the sixth minute of injury-time.

There was cause for double celebration for South Shields as they left the pitch to discover promotion rivals AFC Fylde and Merthyr Town had both dropped points in their respective games with Radcliffe and Hereford and those combination of results mean the Mariners have a four point advantage at the top of the table as the new year arrives.

Speaking after the win, birthday boy Watson expressed his pride over the way his players ‘found a way to win’ and boosted their hopes of claiming promotion into the National League during the second half of the season.

Entertaining

He said: “The boys gave me an unbelievable Christmas present on Boxing Day and a birthday one that makes it really special. It was a really tough game, a really competitive game, we knew it was going to be because the opposition are really good. They’ve got a really good coaching staff that set them up to work really hard first and foremost and we knew they’d have a game plan to try and stop certain elements of our game.

“We had to try and fine different ways and sometimes the pitch for both teams, because I know they like to play, it was tough. It was bouncing up and people’s first touch was not as clean as it normally is for both sets of players so it becomes a test of character and a test of fight with lots of one-v-one duels. It was actually a really entertaining game in terms of how intense both teams were, how much both teams wanted to win the game. I am proud of the boys for finding a way to win the game, they found a way to score a really good goal in the first half and Blacky (Paul Blackett) has a moment in the second half as well.”

The Mariners will now focus their attention on Saturday’s trip to Buxton as they look to take their impressive recent form into the new year.

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