Southport manager Liam Watson says they must be stronger when they travel to Kidderminster Harriers following their 6-0 drubbing last season.
Their embarrassing defeat came during their torrid run in the National League North as they faded out of the playoff positions.
This time around, they come in on the back of a decent run after they fired themselves back on course with a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Adam Anson, Tyler Walton and Josh Hmami.
Kiddy themselves have been on a difficult win and are winless in their last three. For Southport, their recent run has seem to move to within touching distance of the playoffs and Watson has called on his players to ensure there isn’t another afternoon to forget at the Aggborough Stadium.
He told Off The Park: “We’ve done as much due diligence, we had them watched on Saturday. We know what we’re going to come up against but we’ve just got to put our game on them.
“I think we were in the middle of a bad run, don’t get me wrong the scoreline was unbelievably flattering the way the goals were.
“There was an incident with Doug [Tharme] and I had to take him off because I thought he was going to get sent off, the goal had gone by then, on the day we didn’t have any forwards on the pitch.
“So it wasn’t a pleasant afternoon, it’s one of them, you take on the chin and next time you go there, you’ve got to make sure you’re stronger.”
“It’s a tough place to go, they went to Kidderminster a week before and won so they were on a high,” Watson added on their win over Farsley Celtic. “Conditions were awful, the lads acquitted themselves really well and come away with a deserved three points.
“It’s four wins out the last five now and the other game, the sad thing was if we won the game against Gloucester we’d be in the playoff places now – that’s how tight the league is. So we’ve got to keep on grinding out these wins and go from there.
“We’re starting to score, Tyler [Walton] is chipping in, nice for Josh [Hmami] to get off the mark, Adam Anson, another two well worked set-pieces so all positive.
“We’ve got them [Connor Heath and Jordan Archer] to come into the side. Connor Woods has gone out on loan scoring goals for Warrington which is good, we’ve got a few options whereas a few weeks ago there wasn’t.”
Connor Woods and Dylan Vassallo continue their development away from Haig Avenue at Warrington Town and Warrington Rylands respectively.
For Woods, he scored two in as many games for Mark Beesley’s side, including the only goal of the game during their midweek win.
Watson continued: “Connor [Woods] needed to build his confidence, score goals and consistently play 90 minutes. Dylan [Vassallo] at the time, we had a lot of midfielders and he was the one who was going to struggle more than the others to get starts.
“I spoke to Bees, he’s made up with him. It’s what he needs to do, he needs to play regularly and play 90 minutes and get 90 minutes in his legs – which he wasn’t doing with us. So he needs to do that, prove a point and perform.”
[Featured image: Julia Urwin – Southport FC]
