Local cricket: Southport & Birkdale skipper Chris Cunningham sure his young side can climb out of danger

Chris Cunningham is confident his Southport & Birkdale team has what it takes to pull itself out of the knockout.

S&B sits third in the bottom of the Love Lane Liverpool competition in the ECB’s Premier Division.

They are just four points behind the defending Champions Firwood Bootle, where Cunningham would probably have bitten your hand in a normal situation – but this season is not normal.

In the last four weeks, five sides of the Premier Division have lost at least one game of Covid postponements. Three – Leigh, Orrell Red Triangle and Bootle – have lost two; Orrell occupies a second relegation spot, six points behind the S&B, but two games in hand, the first of which will be formed when they face New Brighton on Sunday.

It’s only July and there’s a long way to go – but for someone who was part of S & B’s last survival in 2019, Cunningham knows full well that every game is crucial.

We just tried to keep it simple and clear – just to win cricket events, he said.

We didn’t try to figure out the details of how many points we needed per game, or possibly tried to predict how many points we would collect against certain teams – it’s more of a case that we just get up on Saturday and try to win cricket.

I think every game we play can win – and I know most captains say that, but I look at what we got and what we were able to do. When it snaps, for two or three hours dominated the games against some of the league’s best teams – it’s capable of moving it to seven hours, because that’s what Comp Cricket is all about.

So I’m pretty nice and sure we’ll take the results we need.

The Cunninghams side this year is characterized by a few experienced heads and a lot of young talent. In recent weeks, there have been signs that the formula is starting to work.

A cathartic eight-color win from New Brighton on July 3 followed a rain-induced draw against Wallasey and then a dramatic 10-round win at Orrell Red Triangle, where the hosts reached 114/4 by chasing 150 before Cunningham and his fellow bowlers caused a collapse.

The invincible three isn’t much – but that’s a start.

Cunningham added: Weve played quite a bit of good cricket all season, but we have crazy spells at important points.

It seems like we’re just missing the app in these cases, but we’re getting ourselves in very good positions for most of the weeks.

In recent weeks, we tried to be clearer in our thoughts and just played cricket in front of us.

The new Brighton game was a penny suit for the boys in the dressing room where they thought they knew there were decent cricket systems in our time.

We weren’t a Galacticos team – we haven’t had one or two boys we can count on every week, and we all have to get involved.

Three of the 16-year-olds – gate master Jack Carney, Jack Stanley and Basil Sultan – in regular batting order are more or less cursed for inconsistency.

Slightly older heads such as openers Isaac Lea (20) and Lancashire potential JJ Fielding (18) have started to get good in recent weeks – Lea finished unbeaten in 67 wins from New Brighton when Fielding scored 79 against Wallasey.

Sri Lankan importer Dinuka Dilshan has also found his footing – Cunningham believes his players are entering a steep learning curve.

We tried to create an environment where people can go out to play, he said.

Every batsman is different – my job is to try to bring everyone together and hope that all the different skills together can achieve this greater goal.

Tomorrow, Northern leaders will visit Trafalgar Road, behind a slightly uncomfortable shape, which has seen them lose two and draw one of the last four.

Last Saturday, Wallasey openers Jamie Crawley and Danny Beaver took over a bowling attack with a sword from the Crosby parties to win a six-gate victory.

Cunningham said: They weren’t naive – these guys are at the top of the league and they gave us some gluing in place so we had a few wounds to lick.

But what they showed in recent weeks is that they are people – these boys are talented cricketers, but they are entitled to holidays.

Last week was the first time in a couple of years that Northern has rolled – I think it gives everyone hope to see that these guys are good crickets, but they can be turned around.

Had a positive mindset, we played at home, and hopefully we can go there and present a performance.

Ultimately, if they are better than us during the day, as a captain, I will never be dissatisfied with it. It happens when you fight, cunning, when teams play with a bigger heart – that’s what really gets me.