South Shields eye crowd boost as Leamington test lies ahead

South Shields manager Elliott Dickman has backed a club initiative that the Mariners hope will boost their home crowd for Saturday’s game with Leamington.

The Mariners will return to the 1st Cloud Arena for a National League North fixture for the first time in just under a month after suffering consecutive 3-0 defeats in away games against Needham Market and Chorley over the last fortnight.  With a long-awaited return to home soils now just hours away, the South Shields hierarchy have announced an initiative that will allow season ticket holders to bring two free guests to the game as they look to compete with two ‘football giants’ in the region in Newcastle United and Sunderland.

Dickman has praised the club for their attempts of increase the attendance for Saturday’s game and is hopeful his players can put on a ‘positive performance’ in front of supporters new and old.

He said: “It feels like we’ve been on the road for a long time and it feels like it’s been a while since we’ve played in front of our home fans, which is something we like to do.  It’s good to be back on home soil and we are excited to playing in front of them once again.  It’s a brilliant idea to see the club reaching out to try and extend our fanbase and to get more people coming to watch our team play.  We are a team that likes to play and with a good crowd behind us, like we always have, that will be even better for the lads to hopefully go out and put on a positive performance for them.”

Saturday’s meeting with Leamington will provide a sizeable test for Dickman and his players as South Shields look to secure a league win for the first time since a 1-0 home triumph against Buxton in the first week of September.  Their visitors will arrive on South Tyneside looking to continue what has been a fine opening two months to the season after they lost just two of their first 10 league games.  Avoiding defeat against the Mariners could see the Brakes move into the play-offs places if results elsewhere go their way - but Dickman has insisted he will only focus on his own side and urged his players to find their creative side to claim a win that would end their underwhelming run of form.

“We have watched them in a lot of detail as we do with everyone we play.  They’ve got a good way of playing, they’re a difficult side to play against and they’ve got some really good momentum behind them and we know it’s going to be a difficult game.  We just need to make sure we play the way we play, create and take more chances and get more opportunities higher up the pitch to create some problems.  Teams make it difficult for us with a low block and their compactness.  It will be the same on Saturday so we have to be creative in the way we play to break this down to hopefully win the game.”

Dan Ward and Paul Blackett remain on the sidelines for South Shields as Dickman goes into battle with the same squad that fell to a 3-0 defeat at Southport last weekend.