South Shields spirit pleases Watson in Buxton draw
South Shields remained unbeaten with a hard fought home draw with National League North rivals Buxton.
South Shields manager Ian Watson hailed his players for their reaction to falling two goals behind in Saturday’s home draw with National League North rivals Buxton.
The Mariners went into the game looking to preserve their perfect record from the opening five games of the season - but found themselves two goals down by the time the half-time whistle had been blown as a Tai Sodje brace put the visitors in control at the 1st Cloud Arena. However, the Bucks were reduced to ten men and saw their advantage halved by the hour-mark as Max Bardell saw red and Paul Blackett converted the resulting penalty.
The Mariners peppered the visitors goal as they looked to find an equaliser and it duly arrived with four minutes remaining as summer signing Caden Kelly fired home to ensure Watson’s remained unbeaten during his first step into the lead role in the dugout. Things could have got even better for the hosts as they created a number of opportunities to secure a winner - but they had to settle for a share of the spoils and Watson stressed just how proud he was of his players as they hit back in the second half.
He said: “It was good to see how the response was going to be from everyone because we’ve not had any adversity at home especially. It was interesting to see how the ground reacted and how the players reacted to that change in atmosphere. There was a lot of learning from us today, a lot of learning that we will grow from and be better from. But what I do think is that at half-time we addressed a few things and I thought the boys reacted incredibly, they didn’t give up and they ran and ran and they tried and they gave everything. Ultimately, I’m really proud of them for that because football’s not always smooth and there are a lot of downsides. It gets tough, really tough sometimes and it’s how you react to that and we reacted really well.”
Quality
Watson reserved praise for former Sunderland youngster Kelly after he came off the bench to grab his side’s equaliser that set up a ferocious attempt to complete what would have been a memorable comeback in the closing stages. A winning goal evaded the Mariners - but Watson was left impressed by the attitude and ability shown by the former Black Cats midfielder.
“We have a different sort of problem now and we have to play against a really low block and work the ball and try to find openings. We tried and we kept trying and Caden came on with that magic in him. He takes his goal incredibly well and I am so pleased for him because he’s working really hard to make sure he’s right for games. We all know that he has got that quality and to come on and show it was really good.”
The Mariners are back in action on Tuesday night when Radcliffe are the visitors to the 1st Cloud Arena.