Jim Bentley has urged Southport to stick together and continue fighting after returning to winning ways against Darlington.
Richie Bennett scored twice to end a dismal run of six games without a win for the Sandgrounders. The triumph followed on from their comeback away at Gloucester City that saw them overturn a two-goal deficit to earn a draw.
During their difficult run of form, in the National League and FA Trophy Southport endured defeats at Chesterfield and Tamworth, as well as home disappointment to King’s Lynn Town and Curzon Ashton.
Mistakes have largely been the culprit for the Yellows gifting leads to their opponents but Bentley’s side have moved to shore up their play, something that was evident against the Shakers in midweek.
“We’d done a lot of work on the teams and it was disappointing in the manner we conceded the goals,” the Southport boss told Off The Park.
“We sacrificed a goal against Curzon and you could feel the energy drain, not just on the pitch but off it as well, it was almost ‘here we go again’, it’s important everyone stays calm, sticks together and we come out fighting.
“When you do that, it does have an effect and that’s what we did on Tuesday, we cleared it when we needed to, put our foot in and protected Chris’ (Renshaw) goal, it was miles better.
“The last couple of weeks have been frustrating and have left us with a few questions over how and why we’ve conceded the goals.
“We’ve been conceding far too many mistakes leading to goals so we need to take what we’ve done against Darlington, what we’ve done when we’re winning and take it forward. Hopefully we’ve learned from the mistakes and being easy to score and it doesn’t happen again.
“It’s a professional thing, you’ve got to get on with the job, it’s not just defensively it’s across the board,” Bentley added.
“We conceded a set-play from Kings Lynn, it’s the whole team, when you’re defending you give yourself a foundation, be robust, get around each other, take no chances and I think we’ve got enough in our armoury at the top end to create something – if we do that, we’ll win more than we lose.”
Due to Bishop’s Stortford’s progression in the FA Trophy, there is a free weekend for Southport – and a welcome one – before they return to action in the Lancashire Challenge Cup against Bacuo Borough.
They travel to Cantilever Park next Saturday looking to atone for their opening day drubbing at the hands of Mark Beesley’s side.
After the fast start under Bentley which springboarded them into the playoff conversation, the downturn in form was set to follow.
The difficult spell has caused headaches for the Southport boss and his backroom staff but there is a glimmer of positivity shining through.
He added: “Dips in form happen at any level, right the way down until our level – teams come from nowhere and keep winning, we done the similar then everyone gets excited but you can soon get on a losing run as well.
“That’s what (the basics) we needed to do and we haven’t done it enough in this run but these last two games have given us confidence, if we eradicate the mistakes from our game, it gives you the foundation and we’ve got enough at the other end to score.
“We’ve been disappointed, it’s in the past but we’re positive that we can get another run together, anyone is capable of beating anyone, we’ve got to take each game as it comes and give it our best shot.”
[Featured image: Julia Urwin – Southport FC]
