City of Liverpool boss Michael Ellison was pleased with the character shown to overcome Market Drayton in a event-filled clash.
Both sides finished with 10 men following red card whilst Ollie Martin proved his growing important between the Purps sticks with a penalty save as Josh Quarless continued his run in front of goal.
Ellison hailed Max Allex for his recent form for City of Liverpool after he opened his account for the club against Market Drayton but was dealt a blow as he will miss the rest of the season with a metatarsal injury.
Their season has consisted of injuries and indifferent performances but one trend has continued against the top six and the Purps gaffer is hoping it continues.
He told Off The Park: “It had everything, I think the game was full of incidents. I’d love for us to just put our chances away and give me an easy afternoon.
“It was all about the result, their manager has took over in a difficult position, they’re down there, losing games but every couple of weeks they get a good result so the message was make sure it’s not you.
“It’s about getting the three points, it wasn’t pretty, we could’ve made it a lot easier but the lads showed a bit of character and adversity to get over the line, that’s all that matters, we have to take a bit of confidence from it and move onto the next game.
“It has been tough, the last four games, we’ve lost eight players through suspension and injury – we’ll get one of those back – to lose seven over the last four games with the injuries we’ve got it’s really difficult to deal with. It has been difficult.
“I speak about moments, what’s happened throughout the season, we’ve been on the wrong end of moments and it was nice to be the right end. Ollie [Martin] making the penalty save was a big moment then that second goal when we went down to 10 was a big moment, to be on the right end showed a bit of character.
“A few lads stepped up when we needed them and once we got the second it was comfortable from there. First half, we should’ve been out of sight, we’ve hit the post, the chances we’re missing at the moment are clear cut, it’s something we know we need to improve on, we scored three goals in tough conditions.”
On the midfield maestro, Allen, Ellison added: “The last two games, he’s been our best player, 90 minutes against Northwich Vics, one of the few players who got praise after the game, Saturday he was probably head and shoulder the best player on the park but unfortunately we’ve lost him for the rest of the season he’s done his metatarsal.
“Hitting form, finding his feet, his quality on the ball and his technical ability have never been questioned, [the question was] can he do the things off the ball? He was starting to do that then he’s got an injury. [It’s a] Tough one for us to take.
“We’ve got nine or 10 games left, we’ve trained well, we’ll put a tough side together on Saturday but we’re under no illusions how hard it’s going to be there flying high Rylands,” he said previewing the clash with Rylands. “We beat them earlier in the season, they’re a different team – unfortunately so are we. But against the so-called bigger sides, we do well, our two best performances were probably the two games against Leek. We were outstanding in both, against Runcorn outstanding. Beat Mossley, really good performance against Marine at home, should’ve got something out the game, lost a close one away from home, all the teams up there we’ve beat those teams.
“It seems to be finding that consistency, Rylands at the moment are on a good run, got goals in them, they’ve got a lot of options in their squad. It’ll be very, very tough but it’s a test for our lads, one we’re looking forward to, we’re looking forward to get back at home. We’ll put up a good fight, see where we are at five o’clock.”
[Featured image: City of Liverpool]
