Kyle Crossley netted late on to earn South Shields a point at home against Scarborough Athletic in the Vanarama National League North.
The visitors had been leading for much of the match after Will Thornton got a touch following a corner in the 14th minute, but Shields kept fighting for an equaliser they richly deserved.
Elliott Dickman’s side started off strongly, with the first chance falling to Crossley - Will Jenkins had reached Mackenzie Heaney, who brought things forward before finding the attacker.
Alex Wiles almost capitalised on an early chance for Scarborough but Ashton Mee did fantastically to block his strike.
Shields then countered and they were arguably unfortunate not to take the lead from it, especially after Paul Blackett had surged up the field in the hopes of finding a goal.
Just five minutes later, Scarborough would take the lead after Luca Colville’s whipped corner found the skipper, Thornton, who made no mistake from close-range.
Mee would, soon after, try his luck from outside the 18-yard box which forced the ‘keeper, Ryan Whitley, into making a superb diving effort, to prevent that from going in.
A through ball not too long afterwards would fall to Blackett on the edge of the box, who only had Alex Brown to beat, but his attempt would graze the goalmouth and pose little danger.
Shields pursued a renewed effort to find that equaliser following the break and they started the second-half well.
Blackett raced up the right-hand side and aimed an early cross into the box at Crossley, though it was agonisingly a bit too early to make a substantial impact.
Jenkins played a lovely inside cross towards the six-yard box, hoping to find a Shields attacker, and it was headed out for a corner.
Only one minute later, Heaney blasted another ball near the box but Blackett just couldn’t keep his header down.
It was clear to see that the intensity was ramping up as the hosts chased a goal in the latter stages.
Another chance for Shields followed and Heaney was the architect for this one, guiding his free-kick towards Jenkins, whose header struck the bar.
Heaney, again, almost created something special if not for Whitley making an amazing save.
Just minutes before the end, Shields would get what they were looking for.
Martin Smith and Robert Briggs combined nicely before he curled a ball over to Blackett in the box - he managed to lay it off for Crossley to tap-in the equaliser, which set the Shields faithful wild!
Despite pushes from both sides to find a winner, it wasn’t to be and the points were shared.
That result means that the Mariners sit in 14th place with 37 points to their name after 27 games.
Shields haven’t got long to prepare for Tuesday’s clash at 1st Cloud Arena against Hereford, the first of two games at home next week (7:45pm kick-off).
South Shields: Boney, Hughes, Morse, Briggs, Shepherd, Smith, Jenkins, Heaney, Mee (Carson 72’), Crossley, Blackett.
Substitutes: Seymour, Myers-Smith, Sloan, Evitt.
Goals: Crossley (86’).
Scarborough Athletic: Whitley, Weledji, Thornton, Green, Colville, Wiles, Tear, Brown, Waldron (Marshall 90+4’), Woods (Wilson 72’), Bennett.
Substitutes: Duckworth, Glynn, Hudson.
Goals: Thornton (14’).
Attendance: 2,197.
Image credit: Kev Wilson (@KevWilson19)
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