Boreham Wood got to Southport on Saturday and will be hoping for a repeat of their successful first trip to Merseyside this season when they returned with a 2-0 win at Tranmere Rovers in August.

Altrincham's fine 3-1 win over Woking in midweek leaves Luke Garrard's men in the bottom four and with just six wins from 29 games. An upturn in results needs to come sooner rather than later if Wood are to avoid an immediate return to National League South.

Recent league form has slowly improved with Wood losing just two of their last ten outings, but a raft of draws has not helped the cause.

Wood's slow improvement pales into insignificance compared to that of Southport. Since the appointment of Dino Maamria as manager in late November, the Sandgrounders’ transformation has been second to none.

Currently 15th and ten points clear of the relegation zone, Southport had been marooned in the bottom four before he replaced Paul Carden.

Born in Tunisia, 44-year-old Maamria has both played for and managed Southport previously.

His first managerial role came at Northwich Victoria, who he kept in the Conference North in the 2007/08 campaign.

Following his spell in charge of the Vics he honed his managerial skills as a faithful number two to Graham Westley, spending seven years under him at both Stevenage and Preston North End.

If Maamria, Southport's seventh manager in two-and-a-half years, had begun his tenure at the start of the season, his side would be sitting third in the table with his haul of 23 points from 11 games.

He has tasted defeat just twice – 1-0 defeats to high-flying Eastleigh and Forest Green Rovers, who stole the points last Tuesday at Haig Avenue with a 91st minute winner.

The former striker clinched five wins from five in December, rightly earning him the Manager of the Month accolade for the National League.

Southport are yet another ex-Football League Club Wood will be keen to test themselves against. The Sandgrounders enjoyed league status from 1921 until 1978 when they became the last team to be relegated under the old re-election process.

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

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.

Leading scorer Louis Almond is their biggest threat. The 24-year-old signed from Hyde United on the final day of the 2015 winter window and has found the net in the league on ten occasions to date.

Amond began his career with Blackpool while spending time on loan at Cheltenham Town, Barrow (on three occasions), Lincoln City and Hyde United (twice).

He left Bloomfield Road for good on February 2 last year and hasn't looked back after settling into life with Southport.