Marine must replicate the level of performance in their win over Morpeth Town against Liversedge, says manager Neil Young.
Andy Scarisbrick scored his first goal for the club as he made a late darting run into the box firing beyond the goalkeeper. Then in the dying minutes, Hayden Campbell continued his fine start to the season as he rubber stamped the win with a brilliant finish from the halfway line.
The win saw the Mariners move into the playoff positions once more but the Northern Premier League remains tight as a defeat for Marine could see them slip as low as 12th.
This weekend, Liversedge are the latest visitors to the Marine Travel Arena. Sedge have struggled in the opening stages of the season but surprisingly have picked up all of their points away from home.
But Young reiterated that they must remain focused on themselves and produce a similar calibre of performance as they did at Morpeth.
He told Off The Park: “It doesn’t really matter and if you look at their away record, I don’t think they’ve won a game at home but their away record would be in the top six or eight for form – that’s how I look at it.
“We go round in circles, it’s what we do, if the Marine turn up that turned up at Morpeth then it will take a good side to beat us but we know what football is like for inconsistencies, we just need to produce those performances more often, to give ourself a chance of winning football matches.
‘I think anyone can beat anyone at any given moment, proven again with an unbelievable result for Hyde, great result for Ashton.
“You’ve just got to take the next game, prepare your own team and not worry about form or what other teams have done. Anyone can beat anyone, as we keep saying, we’ve got to concentrate on what we can do and that’s the key things.
“Great win, great team performance in terms of the way we done it, looked nice and solid,” he added on their win over Morpeth.
“I think they had one or two opportunities but generally, we were good, good on the ball, in possession and out of possession.
“I think the lads took a lot of heart out of it, I always think if you can get a good win away from home, particularly a long journey, it unites the group a little bit and they were united when they came into training on Tuesday.”
Hailing the two match-winners for the Mariners, Young said: “I think that’s 10 goals, if you look at the minutes he’s played compared to the goals he’s scored, I think he’ll be right up there, Hayden’s doing really well.
“Scarisbrick’s goal was why we brought Andy to the club, exactly what I expect, third-man run, great bit of play from Solomon-Davies, great stepover from Solomon and Andy Scarisbrick does what Andy Scarisbrick does, he comes in late and finishing.
“I was stood right behind Hayden’s goal, it was so nonchalant, he didn’t chip it, he didn’t curl it, it was a full-blooded strike with very little backlift. It’s an unbelievable finish, I think on the video it looks good but doesn’t do it justice, it was a great finish.
“To go the North East and win, it’s always a difficult place to go. I think for me personally, to go keep a clean sheet and the performance in general, I’ve been saying for a number of weeks, we’ve been winning but wasn’t too happy with the performances but I was happy with the performance on Saturday, that was a proper away performance. If we can produce more of that, we’ll be getting a closer to where I expect us to be.”
It is understood that Connor Evans will extend his loan spell with the Mariners for another month. Young conceded that as their matches ease off to one-a-week, for players who aren’t featuring prominently or returning from injury will need to go on loan.
But he admitted that should they need to strengthen, they won’t hesistate to do so, he continued: ” Injuries at the moment, we have three lads out long-term; Miley, Hollins and Ferguson. Then we’ve got Howarth and Doyle out with ankle injuries, Callum Harris is coming back from a hamstring and back in training but we’ve got to be careful with that one.
“We lost Jack Dunn in training to a hamstring [injury], we don’t think it’s too bad but it is what it is at the moment. We’ve still got lots of injury problems but that’s why we decided to go a different way, a bit like last year, we didn’t throw our money in one direction, we tried to spread it in different directions, think that’s what you need in this league.
“But I think I’m going to contradict myself. If we can get a few back from injury in the next couple of weeks, now we’re back down to one game a week, the lads who haven’t featured a lot and have comeback from long-term injuries, they will need to go out on loan and get some football because we won’t have that facility when we go down to one game a week.
“We can all talk about tactics but at the end of the day, it’s down to players. You can get them organise but it’s about players and performances, if we can get our players fit – I’m sure every manager will be saying the same thing – we will produce more performances like we did against Morpeth.
“We have to make sure that we’re not going to stand still, if we need strengthening that’s what we’ll do, Scarisbrick was a great addition, one I’ve liked for a while, so we won’t stand still, if we can keep improving, we will, we won’t just take anyone but if we can improve the squad we will.”
[Featured Image: Susan Nugent]
