South Shields suffer penalty heartbreak at the hands of old foes Warrington Town

South Shields suffered penalty shoot-out heartache as they were beaten by old foes Warrington Town at the 1st Cloud Arena. The two sides battled to a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes as a goal from Jordan Buckley cancelled out a first-half opener from Darius Osei.

But the Yellows sealed the progress as they came through a nervy penalty shoot-out to condemn their hosts to another season in the Northern Premier League’s top tier. Both sides had half-chances inside the opening ten minutes with Mariners captain Robert Briggs firing over from the edge of the area and Jordan Buckley miscuing a shot at the near post for the visitors.

The Mariners faithful thought their side had opened the scoring on seven minutes when JJ Hooper got on the end of a cross from Darius Osei and headed the ball inside the far corner. However, the celebrations from the vast majority of those inside the 1st Cloud Arena were cut short by an offside flag.

Those celebrations were started once again just before the midway point of the half - and this time, they would not be interrupted. Hooper broke into the right-hand side of the area after good work from the impressive Will McGowan and saw his low drive blocked by Yellows keeper Dan Atherton.

It would be a temporary reprieved for the visitors as the ball was worked back into their area and Osei produced a fine turn and finish to give his side a deserved lead. It was Warrington that ended the half on the front foot with Bohan Dixon and Josh Amis both going close to getting their side back on level-terms ahead of the interval.

The teams made their way towards the dressing rooms but an incident in the tunnel saw stewards and the match officials forced to separate players from both sides. No punishments seemed to