Preview By Rob Urwin
The 2023-24 season starts on Saturday with a visit from newly promoted Warrington Town a somewhat surprising start to get a local game to start the season but one to look forward to.
We were all glad to see the back of 2022-23, described by manager Liam Watson as the worst he has ever managed with off field issues and a poor end to the season on the pitch not what we wanted to see. The eight consecutive defeats at the end of the season broke the club record but that can be put to bed as we embark on a new campaign.
There is renewed optimism around the club. A good recruitment campaign has seen new additions in key positions with Marcus Carver in on a season long loan from Scunthorpe and David Morgan adding great experience to the squad. The “Morgs” transfer has been in the air for a long time and it was with great relief that it was finally sorted this week.
Southport go into the season with a 19 man squad whose total league starts number 966, if you count all games that figure rises to 1205 and bear in mind that 5 of the 19 players have zero starts it is a squad with a lot more experience than we have had in recent seasons.
The bookies who are not often wrong have us as one of the favourites for relegation at 66/1 to win the league. We all have a feeling the bookies will be wrong this time and several supporters have had a small wager each way to pay for the 2024 holidays.
It’s important that everyone gets behind Liam and the lads from the start and shows the level of support we know we can get at the newly named Big Help Stadium
Elsewhere around our league, Scunthorpe are red hot favourites and the pressure will be on them to live up to the billing. They have a good (and large) squad and must be the team to beat.
Take Scunthorpe out and it looks to be wide open. Several teams have reduced the numbers in their squads and it is hard to call. You would expect Chester, Brackley and King’s Lynn to be up the top end again but they have all lost key players in the summer.
It will be interesting to see how the new boys get on. South Shields finally got the promotion after a few near mises and they look likely to be up the top end.
A lot has been said about Bishop’s Stortford being in National North and it is crazy having a team that lies 6 miles south of Stansted Airport in our league but we welcome them into the league, They didn’t want to be here and appealed but have had to get on with it. It does make you wonder if any club’s in a similar position next season will actually want the promotion!
A few 4G pitches to contend with at Scarborough, Gloucester, Buxton, Rushall and Tamworth.
We will be playing Warrington, South Shields and Rushall Olympic for the first time in a Non League league match. We did play South Shields in the late 1920’s as a Football League side.
Our first away game at Alfreton on August 12th will be our 19th meeting in National North and they are the team we have played the most in National North. Next Best? Blyth Spartans with 17 meetings.
Our Media Team of Joe Cunliffe Social Media Manager, James Houghton and Matty Hurst, Matchday Media, will be bringing coverage of all the action during the season and we are exploring the possibility of bringing commentary from a few games. Games that don’t kick off at 3pm on a Saturday are being streamed on National League TV. Julia Urwin and Lee Durkin will be on hand to capture all the action with their usual excellent photos and our videographer, Gaz Newton has signed up for another season behind the video camera at our home games.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
