Match Report. Southport 2 Alfreton Town 3

Football can be a cruel game and after going down to a 3-2 home defeat despite leading into the final two minutes it certainly felt that way this afternoon.

Take nothing away from Alfreton they came and did exactly what we expect from them and went away with the points and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

Alfreton opened the scoring on 12 minutes when Liam Waldock finished from close range after header down from Gerry McDonagh.

It was quite a scrappy affair but Marcus Carver was on hand to slot home after he was gifted a back pass by Kennedy Digie and he finished well from a tight angle in the 24th minute.

It was Carver again who gave Southport the lead in the 7th minute of added time at the end of the first half latching on to a David Morgan corner to finish well from 10 yards out.

Southport should have taken a 3-1 lead in the 52nd minute when a three on one break ended when Tyler Wlton fired just wide.

It looked like we were going to survive the aerial bombardment with Harry Flowers and Festus Arthur clearing everything that was launched at them and Chris Renshaw was rarely troubled in the home goal but he did make one excellent save from a header by Jake Day.

It all changed in the 88th and 90th minutes when first Day was on hand to equalise and then McDonagh made sure the three points were heading back to Derbyshire.

The 94th minute saw Josh Hmami hit a post and a minute later there were loud appeals from the players and crowd for a penalty when it looked like a handball in the area but referee Lewis Dawson waved away the appeals and Morgan got a yellow card for overdoing the protests.

It wasn’t to be our afternoon and the other results didnt go our way and we slipped down to 20th place in the table.

Line Up:Renshaw, Thomson, Doyle, Flowers, Arthur, Morgan, Philliskirk, Burgess (Hmami) Carver (Russ) Bennett, Walton

Unused Subs: McMillan, Quansah & Holmes

Attendance 864

The Southport Brewery Man Of The match chosen by Match Sponsors Birkdale Insurance and also receiving the Adam Le Roi Tropy was two goal Marcus Carver