Watson 'really proud' of South Shields after dominant Alfreton Town win
South Shields continued their push for the National League North title with a home win against Alfreton Town.
South Shields manager Ian Watson praised his players for ‘carrying out the game plan’ during Saturday’s home win against Alfreton Town.
The importance of the win can not be underplayed after National League North title rivals AFC Fylde claimed a home win against play-off contenders Darlington as the race for non-league’s top tier shows no signs of slowing. To their credit, the Mariners continue to keep pace with the current frontrunners and they showed no signs of nerves as they maintained their impressive record at the 1st Cloud Arena with a fine performance.
Lennon Wheeldon opened the scoring just before half-time before top goalscorer Paul Blackett and Dan Dodds added to their side’s lead during the second-half - and that left Watson to deliver an overwhelmingly positive analysis of what he had witnessed on his return to the home dugout.
He said: “I thought it was a really good performance. I thought we controlled all elements of the game really. We knew where their threats were going to come from, from set-pieces, so we put more emphasis on the having the ball and giving them less of the ball so it didn’t come into our box as much because that’s their strengths.
“I thought the boys carried out the game plan really well. Everything we asked them to do, they carried out. The goals, I think the second and third goals were outstanding. Lenny (Wheeldon) took his goal really well but the team goals, the second and third goals are really, really pleased and I am really proud of the group for how they’ve handled today.”
Amazing
Watson handed a start to Sonny Finch just 24 hours after the Middlesbrough forward converted his loan move into a permanent switch to the 1st Cloud Arena. The Mariners boss also handed a debut to on-loan Derby County winger Niall McAndrew as he replaced Finch during the final quarter of an hour of the win. Watson is delighted to have secured the signing of the Republic of Ireland Under-19 International until the end of the season and he issued a rallying call to his newly enhanced squad as they look to continue their promotion push.
“Niall coming in just adds even more quality to what we already have,” explained the Mariners boss. “He’s had a bit of a tough time with injuries at Derby but he is a real well-thought of prospect and he’s done really well with Derby in the Under-21s. He’s had some amazing spells there so we are really fortunate to bring him in so everyone at the football club has a role to try and push. We have six games left now and we just need to give everything, whether you’re in the squad, not in the squad, starting, everyone has to pull together and make sure what we are doing is the best for South Shields.”
The Mariners will now prepare for a challenging Easter weekend as Good Friday’s visit to Spennymoor Town is quickly followed by a Bank Holiday Monday home clash with Darlington.
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