South Shields suffered a 3-0 defeat, in one of their longest trips of the season, against Needham Market on Saturday.
A nightmarish first-half saw three goals conceded and a red card handed to Tom Broadbent, and Shields couldn’t find their way back into this Vanarama National League North match.
Manager Elliott Dickman mainly persisted with the team which came back to draw 3-3 against Chorley a fortnight ago, in dramatic fashion.
Dillon Morse made a welcome return to the fold after spending some time on the sidelines injured, while Mackenzie Heaney wasn’t involved at the weekend.
Needham Market took the lead following Kyle Hammond’s free-kick in the fourth minute, when Keiran Morphew found himself through on goal to stab it home.
He would later find his second in the 33rd minute, off the end of a cross where he was there to head it past Kyle Seymour, into the Shields net.
Things got worse just two minutes later, as a misplaced pass from Jamie Bramwell found Reggie Lamb one-on-one with Seymour, and all he needed to do was shift left before slotting it into an almost empty net.
Matters were compounded in the 40th minute when Tom Broadbent was red carded following two yellow-card offences, and Shields had to try and make do with 10 men for the remainder of the match.
In their credit there were some notable chances for the Mariners, but none truly tested Needham Market keeper Marcus Garnham, except for a close tucked-away finish by Kyle Crossley who was ruled offside in the build-up.
Seymour pulled off some excellent saves too, if there were to be some positives to take from the afternoon, but overall it was one mainly to forget for Dickman’s men.
The Mariners are set to host Gateshead in the Frank Pattison Challenge Cup on Monday night, but the first team are back in action on Saturday when they take on Southport away.
Needham Market: Garnham, Dye, Smith, Hammond, Morphew, Lay (Chambers ‘78), Allen, McGrath (Ingram ‘62), Mills (Fraser ‘62), Hunter, Lambe (Valentine ‘78).
Unused substitutes: Tomlinson.
Goals: Morphew (‘4, ‘33), Lambe (‘35)
South Shields: Seymour, Okeke (McGowan ‘74), Broadbent, Bramwell, Shepherd, Smith, Jenkins, Mee (Taylor ‘74), Briggs, Crossley, Hodgson (Rutledge ‘65).
Unused substitutes: Boney, Morse.
Attendance: 486
Image credit: Kev Wilson (@KevWilson19)
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