Paul McNally says he is proud of his City of Liverpool players after reaching the playoff final.
The Purps will make the short visit to the Joseph Russell Stadium as they reacquaint with rivals Prescot Cables.
Elliot Morris continued his fine run of form with a brace against Runcorn Linnets to send City of Liverpool into the final, in the semi-final.
Saturday, in front of a sell-out crowd in Prescot, will be one of the biggest occasions for the Purps since their North West Counties promotion in 2019.
And McNally has expressed the pride he has for his squad after their “massive achievement”, he told Off The Park: “I’m very proud of the lads, they’ve been fantastic this season and have got their just rewards. The achievement shouldn’t be overlooked, that’s for both teams, it’s a massive achievement for our area.”
The City of Liverpool manager has had a number of massive matches in his career so far. During his time at Skelmersdale United, they reached the FA Cup first round proper where they played Harrogate Town and won promotion to the Northern Premier League after roping past Cinderford own in the promotion playof.
He said: “I’ve been in a few important battles and clashes, it’ll rank up there but you can’t judge it until it’s been achieved or not. It’s another massive game and one we didn’t think we would be involved in at the start of the season.”
However, despite being among the in-form teams in the Northern Premier League West, he has played down the importance of their momentum. McNally added: “In playoffs, it (momentum) doesn’t mean anything, it’s what happens on the day.
“On Tuesday we were fantastic, I just hope we can pull that same type of performance off and if we do, we won’t be far away, if it’s not meant to be it’s not.
“Sometimes you can have the best performance and it doesn’t come off but I just ask that we have a similar level of performance win or lose.”
Prescot Cables done the double over City of Liverpool during the regular campaign and progressed to the final thanks to Kyle Sambor’s extra-time winner against Bootle.
For the Bulls, they are looking to reach the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League for the first time since 2009, while the Purps are looking to end their campaign on a high and reach new ground.
McNally has already led them to their highest ever finish in the football pyramid since their foundation. Despite losing to the Bulls twice already this season, the City of Liverpool boss doesn’t anticipate that it will have a bearing on the full-time result.
He said: “They’ll know the same as us, they’ve beaten us twice, the first one was close then the second was close for the majority of the game before we self-imploded and they took the game away from us.
“It’ll be in both team’s minds but you can’t judge it off the season or a game, it’s a match that whoever holds their nerve and has the strongest performance will come away with it. It’s about holding you nerve and getting over the line on the day.
“We know what we’re good at and what we’re not, we’ve played over 40-odd games this season and we know what our strengths are. As for underdogs, we probably are but that’s not to our disservice – they finished third, they’ve been at the top end of the table since October and now they’re in the playoffs, it’s a big game but we are underdogs.”
[Featured Image: City of Liverpool]
