WAYNE Goodison believes a platform is in place for crunch matches to come.

Between now and Christmas his side will face new leaders Bootle twice, fifth-placed Longridge Town twice, third-place Whitchurch Alport as well as bottom sides desperate for points – including Saturday’s visitors Burscough, twice.

But with Tuesday’s Cheshire Senior Cup success over higher-league Witton Albion making it seven matches without loss, and a healthy squad to call on, co-manager Goodison sees strong building blocks laid for his second-placed side.

“Any win is good, and particularly a cup win against a local rival on Tuesday was great for the fans,” said Goodison.

“It’s the confidence that comes with continuing our performance levels. It’s another game we’ve not lost and it keeps that little run going.”

Competition for places, with players due back for Saturday’s 3pm kick-off at Townfield, can help to drive the standards the team are priding themselves on.

“Jake Parker will be back in the squad, Ryan Mitchell’s come through his first game back so we’ll see how he is, Lee Jackson will be back for Saturday after little niggles that meant there was no point risking those, and Sam Hind could possibly be back,” said Goodison.

“We’re hopeful we can get to the end of the month, going into the following month, with a full squad of about 18 all fit and ready to go.

“It is an important time of the year to have that because you are going to get injuries, there’s a lot of games coming up, so we need everybody – and in fairness they have been – ready to play as and when called on.

“Over the past few games we’ve managed to get game time for everybody who’s been available – so nobody’s going to play after not having had a game for two to three weeks.

“We’ve got some big games coming up soon, a real run where if we’re serious about trying to be competitive in the league we need to perform in those games.”

Goodison was pleased the fans had a night to enjoy at Wincham Park on Tuesday, beating Witton 4-3 on penalties after fighting back from 2-0 behind and levelling the tie in the 91st minute courtesy of Scott McGowan.

“I think the fans would say it ranks up there with our best wins because it was against a local rival,” he said.

“I think we’ve won the last three occasions we’ve played each other, albeit in the Cheshire Senior Cup.

“The aim for us is to have those days when we’re on an equal footing, so try to get up a couple of leagues in the years to come and have it on equal footing that way.”

Reflecting on Tuesday night’s performance overall, Goodison said: “In the first half we didn’t feel that we’d played the game we wanted to play, or how we’ve played all season.

“That was testament to Witton though. They worked really hard to stop us, had a good game plan, were very compact and hit us at pace.

“We said at half-time that if we were going to lose the game, we wanted to try and do what we’re good at and get back at them a little bit – basically play our game, and I think we did in the second half. We stopped them in the second half.

“They were the better side in the first half and we were in the second half.

“We know we’ve got goals in us. We knew we’d get chances. We were probably a bit fortunate with the first goal, an own goal, but it was a good ball in so it was difficult to deal with.

“Ultimately, we were delighted to get the equaliser, take it to penalties and to go through.”

Did he see it as a reward for a never-say-die attitude?

“We’ve got that and I think the other thing we’ve got is that we’re quite brave and quite positive, so we thought we’d commit a bit more in the second half,” he said.

“If they’d picked us off then so be it, but we were brave in possession in the second half, much better with it, moved it quicker.

“We’ve got good character in our side. We’ve got lads who have been with us a while now, played a number of games and understand what we’re all about. And they understood what it meant for the fans as well.

“Ultimately we ended up with a performance that we wanted.”

And was he confident going into the penalty shoot-out?

“Not really, because you just don’t know,” he said.

“All I will say is that we have practised them.

“Whenever we’ve had cup games coming up, we’ve practicde them in advance, so we’ve got lads who have an idea with what they’re going to do with the penalties.

“It’s all on the night. Two went over the bar from both sides, there were saves, sometimes it’s just down to who’s got that little bit of nerve.

“We always felt that Tony Aghayere’s got a chance to save a couple because he’s good on them. He does well with penalties.

“Even when we practice them he saves quite a lot. He’s probably saved two or three in games already while he’s been with us.

“We knew he had a chance to do that, it was making sure we scored them the other way.”

Facing Witton gave Goodison and fellow co-manager Paul Bowyer a chance to assess the team’s current standing, while playing two divisions below in the North West Counties League Premier Division.

“They’re a good side. We know Carl and Gary (Martindale, assistant manager) really well, we see them on a Thursday when we train at the side of each other. So we know they’re a good side,” he said.

“It was a bit of a benchmark and in the first half we didn’t reach that, we weren’t good enough. But in the second half we were.

“We did it with Whitby the other week, we thought we were as good if not better than them on the day.

“We’ve shown in games like that in that quality of opposition that we can more than hold our own.”