South Shields re-entered the top half of the table with an impressive and professional two-nil victory away at Peterborough Sports. Sports, going into the game six games unbeaten and sat in eleventh, were thoroughly outplayed by the Mariners with a goal either side of half-time enough to comfortably secure back-to-back away victories.
With a shift to a back five, with Alfie Myers-Smith coming in for his first start on the right, he impressed throughout with a mature performance as Shields dealt with Peterborough’s direct approach with throw-ins and corners targeting the head of Dan Jarvis.
It was Shields who took control of a scrappy opening, though, inside fourteen minutes when Robert Briggs superbly found Mackenzie Heaney with a delicately clipped ball over the top. Heaney collected it over his head excellently after staying onside, before calmly rolling the ball through the legs of Peter Crook and into the net from ten yards.
Two moments of true quality had given the visitors the lead and whilst Peterborough looked to a lineman’s flag which never came for the opening goal, Shields stepped onto the accelerator with top scorer, Paul Blackett, denied twice by Crook before the half hour mark as they looked to double their advantage.
Heaney found his striker with a lofted ball and when Blackett collected and lined the keeper up outside his area, his lobbed effort, a signature goal of the forward, looked goal bound until Crook did well to palm the ball over the crossbar.
The second save was more routine when Blackett collected one from twenty-five yards and unleashed a fierce strike on target, however the ball travelled at an idea height to the right of the Peterborough captain, who palmed the ball away.
In an action-packed first half spell, Michael Gyasi came very close to drawing Sports level with ten minutes until the end of the first half when he was found in behind. Whilst his initial strike was kept out by the impressive Kyle Seymour, the rebound fell to Gyasi on the bye-line and his rolled effort across the face of a vacant net rolled agonisingly along the goal line before ending up on the wrong side of the post for the home side as Shields survived.
It was then Blackett who came close once more as Will Jenkins found him with an excellently disguised reverse pass and, with just five minutes until the end of the half, Blackett collected on the half-turn and just six yards from goal and unmarked, he managed to poke the ball over the crossbar, passing up a gilt-edged opportunity to double the Mariners’ lead. The visitors did enter half-time a goal to the good though in what they knew would be a vital three points after their second long journey to the midlands this week.
They were not made to rue their missed chances, though, when a clinical break on fifty-two minutes involved Heaney and Blackett with the latter firing the ball across the face of goal from the edge of the area where Kyle Crossley was on hand to tap the ball in from close-range with the keeper beaten, doubling the Mariners lead in front of the travelling fans.
Shields’ second goal was crucial in helping to see out what was a physical contest, however they needed their keeper, Seymour, to be at his best after Jarvis showed good feet to create a shooting opportunity from the edge of the box and his left footed effort was heading for the top corner until Seymour produced a wonderful fingertip to palm the ball onto the crossbar and out for a corner as Peterborough pressed for a route back into the game.
That would be the closest the hosts would come to a way back, though, as the Mariners calmly closed out the final fifteen minutes and despite a few late challenges and sparks igniting the home fans in stoppage time, involving Seymour and Dylan Stephenson off the bench, referee, Nathan Oakes’ whistle sounded ten minutes into added time as Shields celebrated another three points on the road.
Attention now turns to Saturday where Kidderminster Harriers visit the 1st Cloud Arena after four games on the road for Shields. The Mariners now sit 12th, eleven points behind Hereford in seventh and with a game in hand, looking to close the gap on the play-offs to eight points with nine games remaining.
Peterborough Sports: Crook, Putman, Van Lier (Mukana, 76), Jarvis, Felix (Muenda, 64), Alban-Jones, Kamson-Kamara (Fryatt, 63), Gyasi, Gash, Bondswell (Osagie, 73, Challinor, 90), Straughan-Brown
Unused Substitutes: N/A
South Shields: Seymour, Myers-Smith, Briggs, Broadbent, Shepherd, Hughes, Carson, Jenkins (Ward, 73), Heaney, Blackett, Crossley (Stephenson, 78)
Unused Substitutes: Boney, Smith, McGowan
Goals: Heaney (14’), Crossley (52’)
Attendance: 348
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