South Shields are within sight of Wembley after winning the first leg of their semi final against Coleshill on Saturday – but they will need to produce a much better performance to go through.

They came from behind to win 2-1, with Andrew Stephenson – who scored in both legs of Spennymoor’s semi final win over Guernsey in 2013 -- scoring the winner to send the 300 or so travelling Shields fans home happy, but not exactly 100 per cent confident that a Wembley place is theirs for definite.

Shields were well below their best, a fact that wasn’t lost on joint manager Graham Fenton. “I thought our performance was abject at times because we weren’t up to our normal levels, especially in the first half,” he said. “I think we were trying to feel them out a little bit in the first half and they came out at us and took the game to us. They were a little bit physical and went 1-0 up.

“We had a few words at half time, and the lads came out for the second half and gave it a real go. Yes, we weren’t at our best, but sometimes you have to dig in, like we did in the second half.

“We’ve won our last 23 games in a row now, and we’ll be looking to make it 24 on the trot for the second leg. It will be a great occasion for everybody and we’re going to have 3,500 in there cheering the lads on. We’ve got to get the supporters on our side from the first thing that we do, so we’ve got to come out really quick.

“We know that we can step up a couple of levels, and if we can do that, then Coleshill will have their hands full next week.”

Coleshill had the better of the first half and took the lead just before half time, Jordan Nadat scoring from a loose ball after Shields keeper Liam Connell had blocked a header by Gio Dainty.

But Shields were level two minutes into the second half when David Foley equalised after the Coleshill keeper failed to a hold a driven low cross by Andrew Stephenson.

Shields slowly got on top after that, and got the winner with a minute of normal time left when Darren Lough’s low shot was turned in by Stephenson.