Boreham Wood make the long trip to Southport to face the resurgent Sandgrounders in the National League on Saturday.

The Merseyside outfit were marooned in the relegation zone until the beginning of December when Dino Maamria succeeded Paul Carden.

A run of six consecutive victories through the rest of the month and the start of January helped lift Southport and although their progress has stalled since – they’re without a league win in six – they are seven points clear of the relegation zone in 16th.

Tunisian Maamria has played for and managed Southport previously. He has a Northwich Victoria connection too, having kept them in the Conference North in 2008.

Following his spell there he has been honing his managerial skills as a faithful number two to Graham Westley, spending seven years under him at Stevenage and Preston North End.

Maamria, Southport's seventh manager in two-and-a-half years picked up 23 points from his first eleven games in charge, sending the Sandgrounders rushing up the table to apparent safety.

The former striker’s record of five wins from as many games in December rightly earned him the Manager of the Month accolade.

On the other hand, Luke Garrard’s Wood are back in the bottom four after a poor display at home to Torquay United where they lost 1-0.

Wood need to start picking up maximum points to succeed in the mini relegation table they currently find themselves in.

Southport are yet another former Football League Club who Wood will be keen to test themselves against.

The Sandgrounders enjoyed league status from 1921 until 1978, when they became the last team ever to be relegated under the old re-election process.

They became inaugural members of the Conference North back in 2004 – which they won at the first time of asking.

After two seasons in the top flight of non-league football they were relegated. However, after finishing up as losing play-off semi-finalists twice they swiftly rejoined the National League as Champions at the end of the 2009/10 season.

Their player to watch is 24-year-old leading scorer Louis Almond. He signed from Hyde United on the final day of the 2015 winter transfer window and has netted 12 times in 38 league appearances for the club since.

Almond began his professional career with Blackpool and made two substitute appearances for the Tangerines in six years while spending time on loan at Cheltenham Town, Barrow, Lincoln City and Hyde.

He eventually joined the Tigers on a permanent basis in 2014 and grabbed four goals in 21 league starts before moving to Haig Avenue.