South Shields boss Watson sees positives in Carlisle United defeat

South Shields manager Ian Watson believes his players are showing they are ‘desperate’ to be part of the starting eleven for the first game of the new National League North season.

The Mariners produced a promising performance in a 2-1 friendly defeat against Carlisle United in midweek as they continued to work their way towards the first competitive game of Watson’s managerial reign next month. There was an air of familiarity about the first goalscorer at the 1st Cloud Arena on Tuesday night as former Hebburn Town striker Cedwyn Scott, who was a former Mariners target and worked under Watson at Gateshead, opened the scoring on 12 minutes.

Cumbrians summer signing Regan Linney doubled their advantage on the hour-mark just seconds after his introduction before academy product Dan Savage gave Watson’s men some hope of getting back in the game. Despite some late pressure, an equaliser remained out of reach as Mark Hughes’ men claimed a narrow win - but Mariners boss Watson took plenty of positives from a heartening display.

“We are really trying to concentrate on us so it’s about us and it’s about the concepts that we are trying to build,” he told the Mariners website.

“Carlisle are one league above us and they will be a really strong side that are one of the favourites to get promoted. We have given them a really good game, I thought it was competitive and I thought we kept the ball in moments really well. I thought we could have penetrated a little bit more in the first half, we wanted a few more shots and a few more box entries.

“The boys came on after 60 minutes and gave that real injection into the game and you could see they really wanted it. Everyone has shirts to play for for the first game of the season and I think you can see that from the performance that they are all desperate to be part of something.”

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