'Sloppy' - Watson frustrated as South Shields fall to FA Trophy defeat against Macclesfield
South Shields fell to a narrow defeat against Macclesfield in an FA Trophy third round tie on Saturday.
Ian Watson bemoaned some ‘sloppy’ moments from South Shields as their FA Trophy run was brought to an end by a home defeat against National League North rivals Macclesfield.
The Mariners were looking to secure a first ever visit to the fourth round of the competition by avenging a league defeat they suffered against the Silkmen earlier this season - but found themselves on the end of a narrow loss against their step two rivals for the second time in the campaign.
After a promising start to the contest, the Mariners found themselves a goal down just before half-time as Luke Duffy found the net for their hosts at the second attempt. Although Watson’s side created chances during the second half, they were unable to find an equaliser and the success of their season will now remain firmly on their push for promotion into the National League.
Watson was left disappointed by his side’s performance and believes they lost patience after failing to find their way through their visitors during the opening half-hour of the tie.
He said: “I thought we started the game well. We worked a lot this week on where we want to hurt the opposition and in terms of where we wanted to enter the box and get chances on goal. We started well, we put a lot of dangerous balls into their box, we had a couple of really good moments on 20 or 25 minutes the game became a bit more about transitions. The disappointing thing is I think that was on us, we were sloppy with the ball, we lost patience with working the opposition in their half and then the game became stretched. Then it’s about who is taking their moments and they took their moment before half-time and we weren’t able to recover from that and get a goal.”
Character
The Mariners will now prepare for a home clash with Peterborough Sports on Tuesday night as they look to maintain the pressure on National League North title rivals and current leaders AFC Fylde. That game will kickstart a hectic festive period with next Saturday’s visit to Chester preceding a Boxing Day home clash with North East rivals Spennymoor Town. After suffering consecutive defeats for the first time in his Mariners reign, Watson stressed the need for everyone at the club to show character as they prepare for a potentially pivotal moment in their promotion push.
He said: “We are working really hard in training and we will continue to work really hard. We will continue to really stick together because I think the easy thing to do when you’re winning games is to talk about body language and talk about character. But when you aren’t winning games consistently, it becomes a bit tough, the pitches change a little bit and that’s when you have to show character. That’s what we are going to do.”
Watson confirmed defender Dillon Morse was replaced during Saturday’s defeat due to a calf injury and he will be assessed over the coming days.
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