Whitchurch Alport boss Luke Goddard is calling for a response after two straight defeats led to the Reds losing their 100 per cent away recorded and get dumped out of the FA Vase.

Alport’s unbeaten start to the North West Counties League Premier Division season ended in Liverpool last week when they lost away to Bootle and exited the first round of the junior FA competition at the first round proper when they lost 2-0 to Droitwich Spa.

But Goddard believes he has the players at Yockings Park who will stand up and be counted and wants them to use tonight’s (Wednesday) clash at Avro as a chance to erase recent blips in form.

“We have assembled a squad here that I would expect to challenge for promotion this season,” he said.

“We’ve brought some really talented players to this football club and we don’t want to finish in the top six and be happy with that. I will feel that if we don’t finish in the top three then that might well be me done, because I’d see that as failure.

“If we can get back on track at Avro then it will help erase some of the recent disappointments, but another defeat and some difficult decisions will have to be made.

“We have so many players – gifted ones at that – who are just going through the motions at the moment and yet here we are providing them with everything they could possibly want to help them progress and become better players.

“Everything we do here is professional and yet in the last two games we haven’t turned up.

“Fans of Bootle and Droitwich must have been scratching their heads as to how we were a side in the higher echelons of the Premier Division, because we were so far off our game in both matches that it was scary.”

Alport are without a weekend fixture but with back-to-back home games looming against Squires Gate and Irlam towards the end of the month, a positive result tonight is a must to keep the side in among the front runners.

“I think we’ve slipped down [the table] now after some of the results but of course we have some games in hand,” said Goddard.

“Perhaps we’ll have to go back to a more settled side but we wanted to give all of our squad a chance to stake a claim for a first-team jersey.

“I don’t think we’ve seen enough from some of the fringe players that will cause me sleepless nights. The pitch was a factor on Saturday but I’m not going to use that as an excuse.

“We didn’t do the basics right and they smelt blood and went for it so fair play to them.”

Much of the North West Counties League is in Macron Cup action over the weekend.

Alport are in fourth spot, a point behind Bootle in third but a win in their game-in-hand with a clear three-goal margin would take them back to top spot, level on 22 points with leaders 1874 Northwich.

The Reds also currently possess the meanest defence in the league, conceding just eight goals.