Still unbeaten but we can do much better ‘C
OULD do better’ was the massage from Southport manager Liam Watson after his side scraped a 1-0 win over Chorley on Saturday to remain unbeaten in National League North after two games.
Watson said of the Sandgrounders’ victory over their near neighbours: ‘‘I’m delighted with the points, not delighted with the performance. I thought we were miles off from where we were on Tuesday (against South Shields in the FA Cup) performance-wise.
‘‘I think certainly up the top end of the pitch we’ve got to do an awful lot better, very wasteful... the workrate wasn’t there which it was Tuesday,
‘‘Have I managed the squad OK? I think South Shields lost at home to Matlock, so they haven’t made six changes but we have.
‘‘A couple forced upon us, and then a couple tactically. But we managed to get through. We’ve only got a 17-man.
‘‘We’ve got to share the workload but what you’ve eventually got to understand is you get to the stage in a few weeks’ time, especially when it goes to Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, rather than Saturday-Tuesday, you play yourself out of the team.
‘‘It is very rare you play into the team, you play yourself out, so that’s just a little..
‘‘I know where we are, I’m not going to keep on rotating it...
It’s the second league game gone, another 40 to go so it’s going to be a long road.’’
The manager agreed his side were ‘busting a gut’ for the last five minutes of the game. “The game’s over 94 minutes and we had a right good go for the last five minutes.
‘‘The first half was nowhere near what I would expect. And we had a tendency... when we should have got a foothold in the game we dropped deep and that put more pressure on us.
‘‘However what I would say. Dan Hanford has pulled a great save off when the lad should score, he should equalise.’’
Watson conceded Chorley probably had one or two breaks down the sides where they could actually score, they could have equalised but they didn’t.
‘‘But we’ve had three or four great chances, Adam Anson should have scored two at the far post and George Newall’s missed a great chance... and just decision-making in the last third needs to be better.”
The boss said he would have had no complaints with a draw.
‘‘But it wasn’t a draw, we ground it out. Did we deserve a draw on Tuesday night? No we didn’t. That’s football, take it on the chin when it comes your way take the luck with you.’’
Two enforced changes had been brought about by injuries to Mo Ali and Jack Bainbridge.
Watson said he didn’t want to take a chance on Ali from the start as he had still felt the effects of a challenge 48 hours after Tuesday’s match. ‘‘I didn’t want to take the chance because he’s a massive player for us.’’
Jack Bainbridge’s hamstring had tightened in the previous game and his previous injury record with that issue meant the manager exercised caution.
‘‘So Dylan [Vassalo] has come in and got the winning goal.’’
‘‘Niall [Watson] came in, Marcus [Carver] came in and Dan Hanford came in for Tony McMillan so it’s nice to have two really good goalkeepers.’’
The manager also had time to reflect on the controversial manner in which Port exited the FA
Cup last week, following South Shields’ move ending in an owngoal equaliser.
‘‘The goal against South Shields does seriously stick in your throat because it’s not even close, it’s three or four yards offside and the linesman’s got to have a long, hard look at himself. but he probably won’t.’’
But Watson said he would put that shoot-out defeat – and this narrow win – behind him for a full week’s training.
‘‘It’s just good to reinforce what we have been doing, reinforce habits.’’
This weekend’s opponents Blyth Spartans were on the end of a six-goal hiding by Gloucester City at the weekend but, as Watson said: ‘‘It’s a game isn’t it – I have been beaten five or six and then win the next game so I’m reading nothing into that.’’
Match report: p39