Southport spared themselves Liam Watson’s half time wrath, as they equalised just before the break. Former Port striker Karl Noon opened up the scoring against the run of play on 26 minutes as he was fed from the left, rounding Tony McMillan in the box before deftly slotting the ball home.

The game threatened to boil over after a couple of rash challenges riled the players, but Southport got themselves back into the game just before the interval as Alan Moogan won a free-kick just outside the Motors area. He recovered to whip the ball into the box, where the ball final fell to Ciaran Kilheeny, who had the easy job of slamming the ball into the net from close range.

Motors had a glorious chance to re-take the lead early in the second half as Mattie Burke’s free-kick crashed against the post, with McMillan pushing the ball away for a corner. But Southport took the lead mid-way through the second half as Kilheeney turned provider, delivering a ball into the box from the left wing for Tony Gray to head home from close range.