"DOWN THATAVENUE"

SEASONPREVIEW FROM SOUTHPORT-MAD

This Saturday 13^thAugust sees Southport FC return to the Football Conference for the firsttime in two years when they face Dagenham down in the Capital. Liam Watson takes his team complete with new signings down to facea Daggers team that recent history suggests should be up therechallenging.  To be honest itwill be a struggle for John Still’s men but you can never rule them outcompletely.

Looking at the biggerpicture Southport-MAD takes a look at what The Sandgrounders will be upagainst this season and where the niche will be for us. We also look at what we can realistically expect to achieve in theseason and what the overall chances are of returning to the FootballLeague come the end of April.

At first glance the teams inthis years Conference make it look like one of the toughest line-ups inthe history of the competition.  Theteams expected to be challenging near the top will for sure be the likesof Exeter City, slowly recovering from their financial trouble, Aldershot– a good model for us having grabbed the conference by the throat sincetheir arrival, Hereford and Morecambe will be expecting to challenge too. None of these sides will be pushovers but Liam Watson will bemindful that if The Sandgrounders are to make progress into the higherechelons of the table.

The chasing pack willconsist of clubs like Halifax, Stevenage, York and I would be as so boldto add the two relegated teams from League Two into that. Kidderminster have come down with the better set-up but theirrecent boardroom drama’s may detract and have an effect on the pitch ifthey don’t obtain a period of stability soon. Similar too for Cambridge but on a grander scale, their financialwoes are common knowledge and they too may be better looking atstabilising as opposed to throwing everything into an immediate push for areturn. 

The teams that I have notmentioned are all good teams in their own right, however it’s up to themto emerge from the shadows and go in and challenge. What about our own challenge? Well, Liam has opted for evolution rather than revolution, thenucleus of the squad which was so successful last term is still there,players like Neil Fitzhenry and Kevin Leadbetter will be key again andbacked up by signings such as the returning Chris Lane the squad has amuch more rounded look to it whilst still retaining the attacking prowessthat we have and of course we will go into the conference a much changedoutfit than the one that slipped out a couple of seasons ago so we willcarry the surprise factor.  Anymanager coming up from level 6 of the Pyramid structure will probably saythat we need to consolidate in the higher division and build from that. Personally I feel that we could embrace the Conference this seasonand initially look towards mid-table but with a few games under our beltscould mount a challenge for the play-offs. Who knows what lies ahead in the new season, but with the first setof games kicking off this weekend, we will soon find out!

Enjoy the season and keepchecking in to Southport-MAD for your news, reviews, reaction andeverything else Southport FC!.