"I Feel Old!" Watson Celebrates The Big 500 In Port Dugout

That's what Southport boss Liam Watson did last year after two past successful spells.

It's now almost 18 months after his third 'debut' in the dugout and the club is as strong as ever.

Not only that, Saturday's win over Brackley Town took Watson to the 500-game mark in the Port dugout.

"It’s making me feel old," Watson told BBC Merseyside. "But Southport have been my club since 2003, my kids have grown up with it.

"In the football world, I’ve always related to Southport but to actually get 500 games as their manager it probably is [a big achievement]. At times it’s been classed as a poison chalice or a difficult club to manage so to have so many games in the hot seat is something to be proud of.

"At the moment my son is starting on the road to becoming a footballer and I say to him all the time, 95 per cent of your life is a down and five per cent is a high – but that high weighs the 95 per cent down."

Watson is one of the club's most successful managers ever having won the National League North title in 2005 and 2010.

"In Southport’s history of 120 years, they’ve won four titles so it’s something that doesn’t come around often and I’ve been fortunate to have been in charge for two of them," he said.

"You’ll always go back to the days of winning at Harrogate and Eastwood, we had to win both games away from home on the last day.

"We were 5-0 up a Harrogate with 20 minutes to go and I was still convinced we were going to lose. They’re memories that stay with you forever."

PHOTO CREDIT: Julia Urwin