City of Liverpool manager Michael Ellison has discussed their clash with Runcorn Linnets this weekend.
It could hold extra importance for the Purps boss after leading Linnets to promotion during his time in charge of the club.
City of Liverpool haven’t played since their controversial defeat to Ramsbottom and they return to action – weather and circumstances permitting – against Calum McIntyre’s side who just hit Kendal Town for seven.
The Purps defence will have a difficult task on their hands of nullifying the league’s top goalscorer Ryann Brookes who scored four in the rout.
Despite not playing since mid-December, Ellison insists he is looking forward to the clash.
“It’s a tough one to comeback to, they’re flying high Runcorn think they’ve won five or six on the bounce,” he told Off The Park.
“I went and watched them on Saturday, I think my assistants watched them the week before so scoring goals, they’re in form and they have been all season. Good match to come back, big one, tough one but we’re looking forward to it.
“You look at the two sides where we are in the table, a few games in hand but they’ve accumulated more points than us I think the previous game was very close, could’ve went either way,” Ellison said on their 3-3 draw last time they clashed.
“If you look at it after the dusk settles, a draw was a fair result, overall it was a good game six goals, two good sides and it won’t be different on Saturday.
“We’re going to try win the game as I’m sure they will, they’ve had a number of games and we’ve had one, in that space of time they’ve had five or six, especially with these results they’ll be going into it a little bit more prepared with us not training over COVID. Listen, we trained well last week a couple of really good sessions and we’re raring to go.
“They’re scoring goals at the minute, they’re in a good vein of form, Brookes – the top scorer in the league got that with his four goals on Saturday – he knows where the net is.
“We know what to expect, I don’t think there will be any surprises on the day. They’ll be tough to stop, we know that. On our day, if we turn up we’re capable of beating anybody.
“If we beat them, it’s three points, I wouldn’t say it’s a statement [beating Runcorn]. We’ve beaten Clitheroe, Rylands so we’ve beaten some really good sides, Mossley, I don’t think it’s a statement.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the two sides, we want three points, they went three points in expecting a very good game, two sides with a lot of decent footballers in them, if we win, we’ll take the three points and move on. If we don’t, we’ll take the defeat and move on.”
[Featured image: City of Liverpool]
