Chester FC came from behind to secure a welcome three points with a 2-1 win at struggling Southport on Tuesday night .
The Blues again lacked fluency in possession and found it difficult to create clearcut chances with the hosts taking a first-half lead through Louis Almond, albeit slightly against the run of play.
Southport looked to protect the lead in the second period and there was no real sign of a comeback until the final 15 minutes or so.
Craig Mahon came off the bench and Chester started to look capable of getting back on terms, which happened in the 79th minute when Michael Kay fired home.
And it was Mahon who provided the winning goal six minutes later when his shot squirmed through Andy Coughlin in a crushing blow to the hosts.
The Chronicle's Jim Green selects three things that caught his eye at the Merseyrail Community Stadium:
Wing wizard Craig Mahon is rediscovering his mojo
He might have been involved for only 30 minutes but Craig Mahon was a deserved man of the match. That might be down to the poor performances of others as much as his own, but the winger could do no more than he did. Mahon has admitted his form has not lived up to last season, but the his workrate and desire have never been questioned. There's been no sulking or hiding, even when struggling he wants to be on pitch, doing whatever he can to help the team.
Last night the smile returned to his face and he's the sort who needs to be enjoying his football to produce his best. Southport were at sixes and sevens once he started running at defenders and he came up with the match-winning goal. The confidence has returned and I'm sure he can't wait for Saturday.
George Thomson needs to grasp his next chance
It's nine months since George Thomson arrived at the club from Kings Lynn Town and there are still a lot of questions to be answered. The biggest being what's his best position? He started up front at Haig Avenue but failed to have an influence on proceedings in the hour he spent on the pitch.
In his defence, too often the ball was knocked long from the back as the midfield struggled to get into the game and that's never going to work with two small men like Thomson and Ross Hannah. The concern now might be how many more opportunities Thomson gets to impress. He showed against Nuneaton Town in the final game of last season what an exciting talent he can be, but that feels like a long time ago now and perhaps a spell out on loan, as worked for Craig Mahon when he first came to club, is worth considering.
Shape matters but individual performances are more important
It's always interesting how opinions differ and views on how well last night's experimental formation worked seem to be split down the middle. In the first-half the three central defenders appeared comfortable but it was a concern how quickly the hosts broke out when the ball was given up. Bigger worries for me would be lack of presence in midfield, poor delivery from wide areas and a reliance on long balls, in large down to Southport winning the battle in the middle of the park.
Chester changed things as the game wore on, switching to something between a 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 and it pushed Southport backwards, helped by them sitting on the lead. The introductions of Craig Mahon, Craig Hobson and Kane Richards had a bearing on that too, but the three players they replaced had off nights.
There'll be plus points and down sides to every formation, particularly when working with such a small squad, but the decisive factor in most games will be the performance of the individuals and of the team as a collective. There's still too many players not quite on song but when that happens it won't matter too much whether the Blues go with four at the back, three up front or five in midfield.
