Whitchurch Alport will go into this weekend’s away game at Ashton Athletic looking for a response from their players after a disappointing result on Saturday.

Alport led against Litherland REMYCA but failed to build on their lead and were eventually pegged back before Remy won the game with nine minutes left.

It brought to an end the Reds' outstanding run of six wins and two draws from their previous eight league matches. And after the game, which was missed by Alport supremo Luke Goddard, his assistant Steve May pulled no punches with his verdict on the match.

“We’ve got players in our dressing room that can’t believe we’ve lost that match,” he said. “We don’t tear into them because that does you no good and we’ve also come down quickly on players who were having a go at each other during the match.

“We’ve noted the number of times we’ve let leads slip in matches and it’s cost us something like 13 points. At training this week we discussed this and yet once again it’s happened at home.

"We’ve played nine games on this ground and have led in eight of them yet we have only three wins from those nine. That tells its own story and we should have been out of sight within half an hour.

"We’ve worked on finishing in training but in matchplay we’re not scoring enough goals based on the amount of chances we are creating.”

May has complete faith in the squad that was assembled over the summer and doesn’t believe that wholesale changes are necessary.

He added: “I think we’ve surprised a lot of teams this season. I genuinely believe we are one of the best teams in this league. Results might not have gone our way in some of the matches but they’ve all been close affairs. We won’t be the surprise package next season but can be pleased with the progress we’ve made so far.”

May added Tom Hill is unlikely to return after making a promising couple of starts. He said: “It really was down to a communication problem and in the end we decided not to pursue the player any further.

"It may resurrect itself at some point later on in the season but we don’t allow players to dictate to us what goes on in terms of preparation. We are finding our feet and once we’ve had a look at this league we might be in a better position to have a crack at it next season. City of Liverpool are a good example of what we are trying to do here."

The likeable assistant also said that the club refused to simply get out the cheque book and upset the spirit in the camp. He said: "That’s not our way and we are not moving away from the principles we instilled here from day one.

"Some players at a similar level to ours are wanting in excess of £300 a match to play a game that so many of us would play for nothing. That’s insane. Players like that are of no use to Whitchurch, we want them to come because they want to be part of something special.”

nAlport are hopeful of getting a deal for a new striker over the line ahead of this Saturday’s game so he would be available for the trip up the M6.

nMatch sponsors for the Litherland game, Green End Pharmacy, chose Leon Ashman as their man of the match.