Match Report: South Shields 1-1 Shildon

South Shields played out a 1-1 draw against Shildon on Saturday in their second game of pre-season.

The Mariners took the lead in the 84th minute when Gary Brown slammed the ball into his own net, but Shildon made amends for that five minutes later with an excellent header by Aaron Cunningham to level the score.

Ian Watson named a familiar line-up for the most part, with the likes of Robert Briggs, Martin Smith and Kyle Crossley starting.

Crossley nearly got Shields off to the dream start in the fifth minute when he struck at goal, but Shildon goalkeeper Sam Taylor got a hold of it. 

Sheik misplaced a ball soon after, which gave the visitors a clean hit on target, but the former Crawley ‘keeper pulled off a terrific stop to deny them.

Briggs later sent Crossley through on goal, though the offside flag narrowly stopped that chance from materialising.  

Dan Ward tried an audacious hit from far out which only just missed the target. 

Shields did well to pass the ball about but they were lacking that final touch, or that final flick on goal, to finish off those chances.

After the break it was a similar story, and with the weather becoming increasingly inclement, that naturally played a part in how the game panned out.

Dan Savage had the ball in the back of the net in the 55th minute, but he was thwarted by the offside flag.

Paul Blackett, a second-half substitue, had a shot on target 15 minutes later but Taylor caught it well.

With only a handful of minutes to spare, the game suddenly opened itself up.

First, a short corner was taken by Shields and the ball later found itself bouncing around in the box - Brown had the misfortune of placing it into his own net with not long to go, though in reality there was little he could have done. 

The visitors made up for things just before the final whistle when a free-kick was carried into the box, to find a roaming Cunningham near the back post who headed the ball past SSFC International Academy's Brycen Miller.

It was an encouraging 90 minutes for Watson to learn more about his side and for the players to work on implementing their new style of play before Tuesday’s home game against National League side Carlisle United (7:45pm kick-off). 

South Shields: Sheik (Miller 62’), Burns (Sykes 62’) (Burns 80’), Sloan (Tinkler 62’), Mann (Morse 62’), Trialist (Dodds 62’), Briggs (Kelly 62’), Smith (Carson 62’), Ward (Jenkins 46’), Crossley (Blaney 32’), McGowan (McGurk 62’), Savage (Blackett 62’).

Unused substitutes: None.

Goals: Brown (OG) (84’).

Shildon AFC (starting XI): Taylor, Day, Banks, Hodgson, Cunningham, Brown, Harris, Allen, Lennox, Reay, Spalding. 

Substitutes: Houlahan, Smith, Ardelean.

Goals: Cunningham (89’). 

Attendance: 521.

Image credit: Kev Wilson (@KevWilson19)