Marine manager Neil Young was pleased with his side’s win in difficult circumstances against City of Liverpool.
James Barrigan and Lewis Reilly’s penalty was enough to secure an important three points in the title-race.
The Purps went down to 10-men after goalscorer Jack Hazlehurst was sent for an early bath shortly after Marine regained the lead.
Successive wins after their recent dip keeps them in the hunt for the Northern Premier League West title as Workington continue to set the pace.
With a game in hand, the Mariners could cut the gap to two points.
But this weekend poses a different opportunity for Young’s side as they face rock-bottom Market Drayton.
“It was to be expected to be a tough game, the conditions were difficult for both teams particularly us first half but I thought we dealt with them well,” Young told Off The Park.
“We tried to play out where we could, I thought generally the weather made the game what it was, it was always going to be tight but I thought overall although there wasn’t much in it I thought we deserved to win the game, just.
“Possibly [during their difficult run it would’ve been a game they’d have lost] I think we were in a rut because we lost three out of four games at the time.
“I said then and I say now, a lot of them were mistakes I think only one goal out of all of them that wasn’t a mistake and not just a small mistake, an error that led to the goal, a considerable error that led to the goal.
“The lads have said for weeks it’s about trying to build confidence after that but lads have done really well; we lost Connor Teale late on Thursday afternoon, Danny Shaw’s out injured, Joe White playing out of position, a left-back playing left centre-half, Mark Howarth a midfielder playing centre-half, so we have to take all these things into consideration.
“Overall, a derby win in difficult conditions so we’ll take it.
“They scored a decent goal, in terms of the take, I wasn’t happy with the defending from the straight ball, got to be better, and when he’s brought it down we’ve got to be closer but he’s took his goal well.
“We got a reaction, it would’ve been easy for us to fold, took the penalty then just seen the game through.
“We seen that when we went there, although we had all the play and all the ball, the chances we couldn’t break them down and it took a bit of quality from Lewis Reilly to break them down.
“I don’t know a lot about them now because they’ve had a fairly high turnover of players in the last three or four weeks, new manager, new assistant manager, the results haven’t been great but I’m sure there’s a bedding in period.
“We’ve just got to turn up and play the game, it’s not about who you play and what you do, it’s about winning football matches and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“In any normal season, if you look at our points per game – in a normal world – we’d be top of the league but Workington, you’ve got to give them great credit and they’re top on merit.
“I don’t think there will be complacency [against Market Drayton] on the back of bad results you don’t get complacent, you’ve got to find a way to win football matches and we’ve got to do that in the last two games and we’ve got to carry that on really.”
[Featured image: Karl Dunkerley]
