It was against Salisbury City back in December that John Coleman’s reign as Southport manager began.

From bringing in eight new players to introducing a new training regime, Coleman has overseen plenty of change during his two months in charge, and now the transformation has extended to results on the pitch.

Coleman has made a point in recent weeks of stating that the green shoots of a recovery are starting to appear, and this was the surest sign yet that the Sandgrounders could be on an upward curve.

Southport recorded arguably their most impressive attacking display of the season to sweep aside a Salisbury team who started the day in the play-off places, dragging themselves out of the relegation zone in the process.

There remains plenty of hard work ahead if the Sandgrounders are to keep their heads above water in the Skrill Premier, but maintain this level of performance and they will have a fighting chance.

The fact that such a convincing victory came against Coleman’s first opponents shows just how far Southport have come in recent weeks. Having won only one of their nine games under new management before Saturday, the confidence of this performance belied their lowly position.

Scoring goals has been the Achilles’ heel for Southport throughout the campaign, but here they showed the sort of attacking verve rarely seen at the Merseyrail Community Stadium this season.

For the first time since October, the Sandgrounders scored more than one goal in a league game and for the first time all season they managed three.

It took less than three minutes for Southport to take control, Luke George typifying a high-intensity start as he won the ball from Dan Fitchett before feeding Karl Ledsham, who scored with a fine low shot from 25 yards.

Having set a high tempo in the opening stages, the Sandgrounders had Salisbury penned in for large parts of the first half, Brown twice going close before sending a thumping effort against the crossbar.

Southport claimed a deserved second on 29 minutes, Danny Hattersley meeting John O’Sullivan’s free-kick with a far post header to which goalkeeper Willy Puddy could only get his fingers.

Some of the home team’s good work was undone nine minutes before half-time, Fitchett stealing in behind the Southport defence to score as they appealed in vain for off-side.

However, the Sandgrounders maintained an impressive level of control throughout the second period with chances for Hattersley, Ledsham and Yamen Osawe.

Salisbury defender Brian Dutton was shown a straight red card with two minutes remaining for a wild lunge on Charlie Joyce and, from the resulting free-kick, captain Scott Brown scored with a peach of a strike into the top left-hand corner.

If anyone deserved a goal it was Brown, who delivered another dominant midfield performance and was the driving force behind arguably Southport’s most commanding win of the season so far.

Report by Alan Jones
Source: http://www.southportfc.net