City of Liverpool manager Paul McNally hopes they can take advantage of Kidsgrove Athletic’s recent run ahead of their trip.
The Purps continued their impressive run to end January and start February strong following wins over rivals Ramsbottom United, Colne and Hanley Town.
As a result, they moved up to 10th bridging the gap between themselves and the drop zone to six points. A win over Kidsgrove could see them move to eighth – should results go in their favour.
Jack Hazlehurst scored the only goal of the game in their last outing after his looping header found the back of the net after John McGrath’s penalty was saved. However, it was their shot-stopper at the other end who was the hero, Ben Barnes, picking up the player-of-the-match following a number of eye-catching saves to keep the visitors out.
“I thought we played well, resolute, dogged in how we played and had a touch of class at times going forward,” McNally told Off The Park.
“We’ve had three wins on the bounce, we’re still not out of it because no one is out of it from seventh downwards. We’re still going about our business, doing what we’ve been doing, we’ve been doing the same things since Christmas and it’s been quite profiting.
“Apart from the two results against Glossop North End and 1874 Northwich, the other results haven’t been too bad.
“We’ve become a different animal defensively now. We can go to places and defend resolutely and we’ve shown that in the last couple of games. It gives us a platform then to build on, we’ll always create chances, score goals, it was the other end where we needed to tighten up, we’ve done that a little bit,” he added.
The Purps boss still believes there is more room to improve for his side but they are going in the right direction.
He continued: “We’re still not there, we’re still not 100 per cent where I want the team to be, we’re slowly getting there, moving in the right direction.
“The club are always looking to try and progress, we won’t rest on our laurels and think the job is done because it’s not, we’re looking to finish as high as we can in the table.
“Whether that’s 10th or even higher, who knows? We’ll keep taking each games as it comes and see how the table pans out because it changes every week.
“It’s going to be a really tough game, we know they’re a big, tough, solid team,” he said ahead of their trip to Kidsgrove. “We’re not going there anticipating anything other than a tough game, form goes out the window, it’s an away game for us. We’ll be going there and looking to see what we can get from it.
“It’s always a tough place to go anyway, it’s never an easy place but on the back of two home defeats, they might be riled up even more. We’ll be anticipating that but it could be a good time for us to go there and take advantage.”
[Featured Image: City of Liverpool]
