Mariners find cure for travel sickness

SOUTH Shields put their recent away day woes behind them with a narrow win at Whitby Town.

Craig Baxter was the Mariners’ hero as his late goal gave them all three points at the Turnbull Ground.

It was the hosts that started the game on top with Lewis Maloney, Dale Hopson and Junior Mondal all going close in the opening 10 minutes of the game.

The Mariners slowly found their feet and Jon Shaw headed narrowly wide of the far-post on the quarter-hour mark.

But that was as good as it got in the way of chances in a low-key first-half.

Only the width of the crossbar prevented South Shields from taking the lead seven minutes into the secondhalf.

David Foley was found by Josh Gillies and the former Spennymoor Town forward curled a sublime effort beyond Whitby keeper McHugh, only to see the ball cannon off the crossbar.

The Mariners took heart from that chance and created three chances in as many minutes with substitute Ben Harmison, Lee Mason and Shaw all going close.

The chances continued to arrive but it wasn’t until nine minutes from time that one was taken.

A neat move allowed right-back Craig Baxter to break into the Whitby area and he made no mistake with a low drive past McHugh.

There was a late chance for Whitby to sneak a point as Hopson tried his luck from distance but it went wide of Liam Connell’s goal.

The three points sees the Mariners in sixth whilst Whitby remain in ninth place in the table.