Mariners must avoid complacency against lowly Liversedge – Phillips

South Shields will stretch their lead at the top of the Northern Premier League to eight points if they beat bottom side Liversedge at 1st Cloud Arena this evening.

The Mariners overcame Lancaster City 2-0 on Saturday to record a third straight win on a day several of their promotion rivals dropped points.

Now they are ready to play one of their four games in hand on second-placed Hyde United as they take on newly-promoted Livers edge. This is the last in a run of three home matches for the Mariners, but manager Kevin Phillips insists his team must avoid complacency.

He said: “Games like these are always difficult, and you have to ignore the league table going into them. We can’t under estimate Livers edge, because this league has already shown that anyone can beat anyone if you’re not at it.

“They will try to be tough to break down and hit us with counters or set plays, because they’re quite a physical team, but that’s not something we haven’t dealt with already this season. As always, we will give them respect, but we will concentrate on what we do and aim to replicate some of what we’ve shown in the last two games, when some of our football has been outstanding .”

It took a late goal for Shields to win in the reverse fixture, with Michael Woods’ strike proving crucial in that October meeting.

This time the Mariners will enjoy home advantage, and Phillips has praised the club’s supporters for their backing in such a hectic period.

He added: “This is our third home fixture in a week and huge credit goes to our supporters for backing us during this run.

“Times are difficult financially and them turning up in their droves so often is hugely appreciated, and a massive help for the players.

“We’d like to think we are rewarding them with our performance sand hopefully we can do that again on Tuesday.

“We aren’t getting carried away with our position and there’s a lot of football to be played, so we have a big job to do.

"With the players, management and fans united, we are such a strong force, so it’s important we all stick together and do whatever we can to make this a successful run-in to the end of the season.”

Shields are without defender Dillon Morse as he continues his recovery from a back injury.