A spirited Marine performance was denied the deserving result to match, as Darius Osei’s second half penalty confirms a 2-1 defeat at league-leaders South Shields.
Neil Young made three changes from the defeat against Warrington Rylands, with Luke Clark, Jordan Lussey and Mo Touray making way for James Barrigan, Lucas
Weir and Hayden Campbell, sticking to a similar shape.
As was perhaps expected, South Shields dominated the ball early on, with midfield duo Martin Smith and Robert Briggs dropping in to receive the ball from the highly experienced Gary Liddle.
Bayleigh Passant was called into action inside 10 minutes, as Lucas Weir’s missed clearance allowed Darius Osei to strike on goal, but the Marine stopper stayed big to deny the forward.
Proceedings lulled, before the ever-involved Smith chipped a teasing ball into the path of Jordy Mongoy, who raced onto the pass before lofting the ball perfectly over Passant.
Sol Solomon attempted a repeat of his exploits up at Lancaster City by shooting straight from a corner, but Shields ‘keeper Myles Boney was on his toes to tip over.
Marine struck on 35 minutes, with the livewire Andy Scarisbrick battling to win the ball back on the by-line, before laying back to Solomon, who found a yard of space to dink a cross to Campbell in acres of space to nod in his 12th goal of the season.
The Crosby side finished the half well, beginning to shift the tide in terms of possession, with Charley Doyle and Barrigan featuring more regularly on the ball.
Manager Young would have been delighted with his team’s performance, as Marine limited the league’s top team to just a couple of chances in the first 45.
Into the second half and the tone to the match resumed in a similar fashion to how the first half had started, with South Shields enjoying lengthy spells of possession.
Osei and Mongoy looked to reinstate the home side’s lead, with the former whipping in a dangerous delivery that just evaded the goal scorer at the back post.
Just before the hour mark, South Shields were awarded a penalty after Thomas Broadbent went down under challenge from Mark Howarth, much to the disgust of the Marine players and coaching staff.
Osei stepped up and fired his side back in front with an arrow of a finish into the bottom right corner, narrowly escaping the outstretched arm of Passant.
Howarth continued his remonstrations after the goal, and was subsequently dismissed by the referee.
Unsurprisingly, the sending off gave Marine a mountain to climb and they had a real task to keep the score down. Young responded by moving Doyle into the back four, bringing on Jordan Lussey in place of Campbell.
Substitute Touray almost sent the away supporters home happy, wiggling his way into the box and unleashing a strike at goal, but was kept out by Boney.
Despite a strong performance, it was not to be for Marine, who are now four without a win in all competitions.
Next up for the Mariners is a trip to Causeway Lane on Tuesday evening, as Matlock Town stand in their way.
Marine: Passant, Solomon-Davies (Clark 63), Smith, Howarth, Barrigan, Spittle, Weir (Touray 78), C Doyle (c), Campbell (Lussey 63), Solomon, Scarisbrick.
Unused subs: Harris, A Doyle.
