MARINER MAGIC IN FIVE-STAR SHOWING
Shields halt horrible trot with goal-glut
SOUTH SHIELDS threw their recent bad form in the bin to keep themselves in, and dump Grantham out of, the early play-off places.
Shields ended a run of three defeats, their worst under joint-bosses Graham Fenton and Lee Picton.
Rob Briggs opened the scoring on 12 minutes with an impressive strike from distance, the only goal of the first half.
David Foley scored the second, latching onto Josh Gillies’ right -sided corner on 48 minutes.
Experienced defender Gary Brown made it three before Carl Finnigan and Ben Harmison completed the rout.
Delighted Shields jointboss Picton told The NLP: “Teams generally come here and try to make the game difficult for us.
“It was an incredible goal to get us off the mark by Gillies. We could have been two or three up by half-time. As the game got stretched we were able to move the ball around really well.
“A lot of players were one step ahead in their minds today. We were much quicker and got the game stretched on both sides.
“It’s great to see players come on and do well. Finnigan and Harmison offer something completely different off the bench.”
The Mariners took the lead after 18 minutes when midfield man Briggs was given enough space to rifle a shot into the top corner from 25 yards.
The South Tyneside club continued to dominate but were unable to double their lead until Foley got the second half off to a flyer, stabbed in Gillies' far-post corner when un-marked in the six-yard box.
Brown then made it three from close-range after a short corner, Gillies again the architect.
Carl Finnigan came off the bench to score the fourth, hitting a low shot across Theo Richardson.
Harmison added a fifth, also off the bench, nodding home a cross from the left from Craig Baxter.
Generous Grantham boss Ian Culverhouse was full of praise for the hosts.
He said: “They were excellent and knew how to play all over the pitch.
“They switched the play really well on us, though we allowed them to do it too easily.”