City of Liverpool manager Michael Ellison is hoping the Purps can maintain their winning run against the team they drew on the opening day.
The visit of Ramsbottom earlier in the season was marred by a controversial decision that saw a goal, what the hosts believed to be a perfectly good one, chalked off.
Ellison admits the decision still stings months on but with his side having seemingly turned the corner past their run of dismal results, he hopes their winning run can continue.
Last time out, the visit of Workington was postponed which allowed for the City of Liverpool boss to go off on a scouting mission of Saturday’s opponents who were in action against Marine.
Despite the 3-1 scoreline in the Mariners favour, he is not expecting a easy ride against Ramsbottom.
“We’re on a decent little run at the minute, another tough game, watched them last Saturday with our game being off against Marine and they were always in the game,” he told Off The Park.
“The game was pretty close, so will be another tough but one we’ll be try and get three points out of.
“We’d prefer to have it on, to be honest [Workington game] on the back of a really good result and good performance.
“The lads are pretty confident, we wanted it on but obviously we couldn’t with the weather. We trained well, maybe one or two couldn’t make the game fitness-wise we’ll have to see over the next couple of days. We prepared as best we could, we’re looking forward to it now.
“We’re not looking past Ramsbottom, we don’t look at league positions, they’re a decent side. They’ve got a lot of lads who’ve been there a while, I watched them against Marine although they lost 3-1 they were always in the game so it’ll be difficult, we won’t read too much into form.
“It’s always a tough place to go to, they were aggressive, got good players in the side, a lot of experience they’ll be tough to beat.
“If you look at the results, although they’ve had some not great ones, they’ve also beat some decent sides. Who times up on the day [wins] hopefully we turn up and get another result.
“We still talk about that game now [the opening day of the season] we felt we were slightly robbed on that day, should’ve won that game, we had a goal disallowed for only the referee knows why.
“It was a close game, I’m expecting another close game, I don’t think either side will run away with it. We’re in a slightly better place at the minute hopefully we can take confidence in the game and it’ll show on the pitch.”
The festive pile-up hasn’t been kind to the Purps with local clashes aplenty as they see their side face off against Widnes before going into the New Year with a bang against Bootle, Ellison added: “It’s the most important one because it’s the next one.
“We’ve got three really tough games, I think it’s Rammy, Widnes, Bootle like I say, depends on how these go all winnable games but all loseable games so after these three we’ll have a good idea of where we’ll be and hopefully take us into the new year in a good position.”
[Featured image: City of Liverpool]
