High on the excitement of Saturday’s cup win, despite the torrential rain, the Stan travelled to play South Shields who are now back at Mariners (formerly Filtrona) Park after 2 years exile in Peterlee. Along one side of the ground was a line of articulated lorries with IKRA on the side but luckily they were not part of IKEA’s terrorist wing. Watson was injured in the warm up but Wright played despite illness and birthday boy Telford was also allowed to play by his mum. There were two changes from the cup line up and Grieveson made a competitive start from the bench.

After strong defending by the Stan early on, Shields had two free kicks that were shot over with a Stan free kick in between being caught by the keeper. An injury to Bailey in 19 minutes resulted in him being replacedby Grieveson. In 22 minutes, Wright appeared to beat the off side trap but was flagged offside. A Dodsworth free kick 3 minutes later was caught by the keeper. A minute later and Shields were 1-0 up when Phillips took a free kick which bounced twiceand missed everyone on its way into the net. Rule then saved another shot and, after a Stan attack, Shields wasted a good opportunity when a forward failed to meet a pass when in front of goal.

In the 34th minute, Wright passed to Dodsworth whose shot was parried by the keeper. Wright hit the side netting with the rebound and it was the Stan who were now putting the pressure on including with attacks. In the 41st minute Rule had to punch the ball away with the returning ball put over the bar. The Stan kept trying to attack but it was Shields who scored and increased their lead to 2-0 in injury time. After a Shields attack, the Stan defence failed to clear the ball and Byrne shot into the far corner of the net easily beating Rule.

The start of the second half saw Wright back on the attack. In the 50th minute, a Wright free kick was quickly passed to Dodsworth on the right who ran into the edge of the box and shot low and hard to the far left ofl to make it 2-1. Rule then had to make a clearance followed by a save. Wright continued to threaten the home defence as the tackles got more crunching from both sides although the home side received thefirst 5 bookings. In the 70th minute, after a Shields corner had been cleared, the ball came back into the box. Grieveson mishit the ball and Rule had to put it out.

The home side were now back putting pressure on and Rule had to make 2 saves, although the second ball was offside. After 79 minutes, Scott made a great tackle then shot just wide. It was now the Stan who were back putting the pressure on with shots from Morrison, Imray, Dodsworth and Wright. Wright then had another two efforts with the first being parried by the home keeper in the 85th minute. Shields then had an attack blocked by Ray and Rule.

At the start of injury time, a Wright free kick went just wide followed at the other end by Wear clearing a Rule mistake. There was controversy when a Stan attack in the box was blocked. The ball went out to Grieveson and, as he turned on the edge of the box, was brought down. It appeared a clear penalty to the Stan players although the referee turned down their protests more quickly than an application to vote in the labour leadership election.

Grieveson then shot just by the post but the match ended undeservedly 2-1 to Shields.Wear was then shown a red card as he left the pitch, for complaining to the referee about the penalty decision. The Stan though can be proud that there was not much difference between them and their cash rich hosts.

Stan Team: Rule; Scott; Morrison; Ray; Wear; Bailey (Grieveson); Telford; Imray; Wright; Dodsworth; Burns.

Unused Subs: Stoddart; W.Walker; Axon; Quine.

Goals: Dodsworth 50.

Yellow Cards: Imray, Dodsworth, Burns.

Red Card: Wear.

Attendance: 279.

Kevin Mochrie