Bootle manager Brian Richardson has underlined the importance of adding to their win over Marine.
The Bucks emphatically stunned the Northern Premier League West league leaders with the 3-0 Boxing Day win thanks to goals from Ben Hodkinson, Matty McDonald and Tom Peterson.
A COVID outbreak in the City of Liverpool camp spelt the postponement of their New Year’s Day grudge match with the Purps.
As a result, Mossley won their game in hand and leapfrogged Bootle taking them a place closer to the play-offs.
Richardson’s side eight points off of Runcorn Linnets, who occupy the final spot, and with the belief firmly building at Vesty Road, the former Prescot Cables boss has emphasised the importance to beat 1874 Northwich.
“They’re just behind us in the league, they’re on our shoulder it would be a shame to have got such a good result at Marine and then end up getting beat by a side around where we are,” he told Off The Park.
“We’ve got to be able to keep that consistency against all sides in the league not just because someone’s top and it’s a local rivalry.
“We’ve got to be mentally strong enough to take that sort of game plan into every game whether they’re 1874 or anywhere in the league we’ve got to adopt that same mentality if we want to keep pressure on people who’s above us.
It shouldn’t do,” Richardson explained when questioned over the impact of a week off. “It should do them a world of good. They’ve trained hard and hopefully by Saturday, the week’s breather will help them.
“It’s a funny time, Christmas and New Year because players get a little bit out of routine, you see that in some of the results and I think that a week fresh with a couple of decent training sessions should get them back up to speed.
“Slow starts are a slow start, an ineffective slow is when you lose a goal. Against Marine, I don’t think we started well but what we did was contain them and that’s the same with Mossley, I didn’t think we started great but we did contain them then in the second half we did well, we picked up the game as it went through.
“I do always seem to bang on about that we come better later in the game, maybe they’ve compromised and decided they’ll keep it tight early on and they’ll go for it later on but I don’t think it’s as footballs as scientific as that.
“You want to start well in every game, certainly at home because you want to get the fans behind you and the fans are absolutely buzzing now because they result they got on Boxing Day.
“So we’ve got to keep that momentum and encourage people to keep coming and watching us and that’s really important for the club as well as the players and everyone involved in it.”
