Evans spot on as Southport beat South Shields

A contentious penalty was the difference between Southport and South Shields at the Big Help Stadium.

The deadlock was broken just after half-time when Brad Holmes won the hosts a spot-kick, which resulted in Declan Evans calmly slotting home his effort in front of the travelling North-East support.

The opening stages proved to be close but with neither side managing any clear-cut chances.

South Shields’ Paul Blackett proved the liveliest early on, with the striker finding himself in behind the hosts backline on multiple occasions.

Around the 20^th minute mark, the poacher skipped past Chris Renshaw, before turning back and finding a neat ball across the 6-yard box only for teammate Lirak Hasani failing to pounce.

Julio Arca’s top goalscorer this term went close again with a one-touch lofted effort sailing over Renshaw, onto the roof of the net.

The second half commenced with Jack Doyle managing to keep the sides level with a clever goalline clearance from a well-hit strike by Mackenzie Heaney.

Holmes then went up the other end to win an excellent chance for Southport to open the scoring from 12-yards-out.

Centre-half Evans stepped up for the awarded penalty before calmly slotting the ball home, sending Myles Boney the wrong way.

The North-East side refused to let The Yellows dictate the rest of the meeting however, coming out of the blocks with an attempt of an instant response.

Successive chances saw Jed Abbey become heavily involved in the action, his close free-kick being followed by an inviting ball that brushed Blackett’s feet.

Jim Bentley’s side continued to frustrate The Mariners and tempers flareed in the closing stages. However, the hosts saw out the latter stages in strong fashion with home advantage pushing them to the final whistle.

It was a deflating afternoon for the title-chasing visitors as they left The Big Help Stadium unsure of how they did not manage to score as their worrying form on the road continued.

Southport, however, managed their first consecutive wins in over a month after an unsteady period of form.