Match Sponsored by Syno Education

The Lions return to action on Saturday with Southport the visitors for the 3pm kick-off at Nethermoor Park. 

Southport come into the clash with back to back Saturday 0-0 draws against Darlington and FC United of Manchester respectively, they were however edged out at Edgeley Park by Stockport County 3-2 in between those stalemates.

These results came after a 5-3 home win over league leaders Chorley the weekend before.

The Lions however are without a home league win since 13th October and no victories away since New Year’s Day.

The poor run of form was compounded by a 1-0 defeat at Nethermoor on Saturday to Alfreton with Ashton United halving the six point gap to the relegation zone with their 1-0 win over Chorley.

The fixture between the two sides ended 1-0 at Haig Avenue to the hosts on Tuesday 8th January 2019.

Josh Langley is ineligible for this fixture against his parent club but Andy Halls does return from his two match suspension.

Following Saturday’s loss at Nethermoor against his former side Russ O’Neill said “I don’t think we played with a lot of quality but I think in terms of territory and chances into their box they have defended a lot and defended well. We had a few blocks and a couple of penalty shouts, they had one shot on target and scored it.”

“If you don’t take your chances when they drop that’s what happens.”

When asked about the result and the matches of late the Joint Manager said “It is difficult to put your finger on it, we have had our chances they have blocked on the line, we have corner after corner, long throw after long throw, we kept the pressure on all day long but to be fair to Alfreton they defended well and took their chance on the break.”

Looking forward to the free midweek, including two training sessions ahead of Saturday’s game O’Neill added “We have just got to keep going, we had a lot of momentum, we were lacking a bit of quality in the final third so we will work on that this week and see where it takes us on Saturday.”