“There are five or six teams ahead of where we need to be!” Elliott says Stockport County are proof that building a winning squad takes time

As the Pilgrims head to Southport today, he has set his squad the target of repeating the performances they put in against the Hatters and Telford in the past week, also picking up three points that will help the club edge closer to surpassing last year’s total of 60.

But the manager conceded that his side are still a way off the league leaders, who beat Boston 3-1 in midweek.

“There aree five or six teams ahead of where we need to be. (Stockport) are a prime example,” he said.

“They’ve been trying to get to this level for five or six years, and they’ve slowly got there.

“They’ve pecked away and slowly tweaked players and you can see now they’re probably a finished article.

“Two or three years ago they were maybe where we are, and you can see, in both boxes, they’re just better than us.”

Turning his attention to the Sandgrounders, Elliott is looking for a three-point haul at Haig Avenue.

“We got 60 points last year, that’s got to be the target again,” added Elliott, whose team have 45 points with nine games left.

“It’s another hard game. They don’t get easier.

“We’ve got nine games left, 60 points last year. Can we get more than that? That’s what we’re trying to do.

“I do feel sorry for the players, the last two games we’ve played well and we’ve been punished by two good teams.

“We deserved better than one point from those two games.

“I hope we get a bit of luck and a bit of confidence so we can kick on as a group.”

Southport scored in stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win at Boston in November.

They have only been beaten once in their past six league contests, and that was against Stockport.

Kick off will be at 3pm.