South Shields striker backed to play 'a big part' in Mariners future plans

South Shields see top goalscorer Paul Blackett as ‘a big part’ of their bid to improve on a solid first season in the National League North.

The former Gateshead and Spennymoor Town striker has been an overwhelming success since he moved to the 1st Cloud Arena last summer and he plundered his way to 30 goals in 44 league appearances as his side narrowly missed out on a play-off place. Such was his form in front of goal throughout the campaign, Blackett was reportedly the subject of interest from clubs in the EFL and National League in recent months - but newly appointed manager Elliott Dickman has stressed his determination to retain the striker’s services during his first season in permanent charge of the club.

He told The Gazette: “As far as I am concerned Paul is not going anywhere. He’s a valuable member of our team, we love him, we rate him very, very highly and he’s been outstanding. He’s the top goalscorer in the division and that speaks volumes in itself. He is a real asset for us as a football club and we will be making sure he doesn’t go anywhere.

“I know, in football, things do change, but at this moment in time, as far as we are concerned, he’s a top player, we love him, he’s certainly in our plans next season and we want to kick on from where we’ve been and take that next step to either get promoted or make the play-offs. People like Paul are going to be a big part of that.”

Blackett may well have further competition next season as Sam Hodgson prepares to return to South Shields after a successful season-long loan at Northern Premier League Premier Division club Morpeth Town. The Mariners academy product bagged a hat-trick in front of Dickman as the Highwaymen rounded off their season with a 6-0 hammering of Stafford Rangers on Saturday - and the Mariners boss has admitted he is ‘really pleased’ with Hodgson’s goal return in Northumberland as they prepare for talks over the striker’s future.

He said: “He’s had a really good season at moment and to score 25 goals at that level is really impressive. He took his goals really well at the weekend, it was great to watch him play and he was sort of out of favour a little bit and he wasn’t even in the building at times, which was disappointing. One of the first things we did when we came in was to get him and Jen (Will Jenkins) back training with the group. We had to manage what they did, where they did it. We didn’t want to disrupt Sam’s games programme by getting him back to sit on the bench when he was playing week-in, week-out at Morpeth. From a personal point of view, the fact he’s scored a lot of goals is credit to him and we are really pleased with him.”