Part time Port is fine for Watson
SOUTHPORT have reverted to part-time status. The Sandgrounders made the switch to full-time under former manager Kevin Davies but Liam Watson who recently managed his 500th game for the club over three spells has taken the decision to change back.
“We are part-time. To be perfectly honest that’s what I’ve wanted since day one,” he said.
“I’ve only ever been part-time at Southport.
“Over the 10-years I’ve been parttime. I don’t really see.
“People seem to forget we had four or five seasons under me in the Conference on a part-time basis and we didn’t do too bad.”
Watson, who does not believe any of his squad will be affected by the switch to part-time contracts, continued: “The best way of answering it is that I prefer good part-time players than average full-time players.
“Unless you’re going to be a Salford, or a Fylde, and you’re going to go [get promoted] and then go again, I actually think it demotivates people because they think they’re full-time footballers.
“Being in the Football League is being a full-time footballer for me, nothing else is. So from that point of view I think it demotivates people.
“They already had what they thought they wanted but really it was false.
You’ve got to throw it out there [and say], ‘Listen, you could easily play in the Football League you just need to be a bit better.
“‘You just need to kick-on or get a bit of strength or consistency and you’ll get there.
“Don’t accept full-time here when you should be striving to be here.’
“That definitely hinders it a little bit, for me anyway.”
Southport are currently third in the National League North following their fourth consecutive victory on Saturday.
A 4-1 win over Leamington means they have a six-point cushion within the play-off places ahead of this weekend’s trip to eighth-place Spennymoor Town.