Sandgrounders undaunted by tough opening
LIAM Watson and his Southport squad head into the new National Conference North season undaunted by what appears a tough start to the campaign.
The Sandgrounders take on several full-time teams in their opening eight matches, starting with the curtain raiser on Saturday against Gloucester City.
In a difficult run of games, they will also take on the likes of Spennymoor Town, AFC Fylde and York City, but Watson insisted: “I don’t think there are any easy fixtures, so you look at your fixtures on paper and say ‘the first eight games are really tough’ but games eight to sixteen are really tough, sixteen to twenty four really tough! You’ve got to play everyone twice.
“There are six full-time teams in the league and a couple of hybrid ones and we seem to play them all early on. But Barrow, Huddersfield, Blackpool are all full-time and we’re not really going to get tested as much as that in our league.”
Southport played their final pre-season match at the Pure Stadium last weekend, when they were edged out 2-1 by a young Everton side. It capped off a good pre-season for
Watson, though he accepts it’s difficult to assess where everyone is at given the unprecedented length of time without competitive football due to the Covid pandemic.
“Pre-season is hard to gauge because we’ve never come back from such a long lay off before,” he said.
“We obviously kept the majority of the players in until the end of April then they’ve had a break before doing four or five days in June.
“All the games in preseason have been really good games. For us to bring Blackpool, Huddersfield, Barrow and Everton to the Pure Stadium – and the Marine game ended up being switched here – means we’ve had five games here, which is good.
“Longridge and Runcorn Linnets were great surfaces.”
Meanwhile, Marine will kick-off their 2021/22 Northern Premier League campaign in Staffordshire.
Following a request from the Mariners to Newcastle Town FC and subsequent approval given by the Northern Premier League, Marine’s opening day fixture – originally scheduled for Saturday 14th August at the Marine Travel Arena – has been switched to Newcastle
Town’s Red
Stadium.
The reverse fixture will now take place on Saturday 18th December at the Marine Travel Arena.
A club statement said: “Marine FC thanks Newcastle Town FC and the Northern Premier League for enabling these fixtures to be switched.”
The Mariners’ opening home league game of the season is set for Tuesday 24th August when Colne visit the MTA for a 7.45pm kick off.
Marine chairman Paul Leary said: “Following our epic FA Cup run last season we are finally looking forward to the staging of games at The Marine Travel Arena with fans in attendance.
“For understandable reasons this is our first home game since January and the visit of Colne will be very special for everyone connected with Marine. It will also be the first game at the MTA since the completion of the major refurbishment of our clubrooms and the installation of new pitch barriers behind the goals.
“I look forward to meeting the players, staff, officials and supporters of Colne FC for our first home game of the season.
“There remains huge interest in our football club since that memorable FA Cup game in January
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resulting in a 160% increase in season ticket sales. The tribute wall acknowledging the thousands of fans who bought virtual tickets has now been installed, and the interest shown already will no doubt see many first-time visitors to the Marine Travel Arena in the months ahead.”
David played two competitive games for Barnoldswick Town last week as agreed prior to signing for Marine, and joined with the squad last Thursday.
Manager Neil Young said: “Once I heard David was potentially looking to get back playing I knew we had to move quickly as there would be a lot of interest from clubs at all levels for his signature.
“He absolutely fits the type of person and player we want at our football club – hardworking, professional, respectful with a winning mentality.