“It’s just excitement” – South Shields boss Ian Watson looks ahead to Buxton play-off semi-final

South Shields manager Ian Watson revealed he is looking forward to their play-off semi-final against Buxton, despite losing out on the title to AFC Fylde. 

Watson’s men were two points off top spot heading into last week’s 1-0 defeat to Kidderminster, however, Fylde’s 4-2 win over Merthyr meant the title was there’s, no matter the Shields score. 

The Mariners now prepare to face a Buxton side who have lost just one of their last 11 and defeated Scarborough Athletic 4-2 in the play-off eliminator on Tuesday. 

Speaking ahead of the game, he said: “I think if we’d have lost the Kidderminster game and Fylde had lost to Merthyr, I think that would have been really difficult to pick the boys back up.” 

He continued: “For me, there wasn’t too much disappointment last week and that’s me being totally honest, it’s just excitement for this Saturday. 

“You’re involved in the game for these occasions.

“Now we’ve got an occasion on Saturday that we didn’t know that we were going to have at the start of the season.

“Just embrace it, attack it with everything that we possibly have and just don’t let it pass us by.” 

 The fixture takes place at The 1st Cloud Arena at 4pm.