Kevin Lee was a fan favourite during his time at Southport.
He won both the Conference North and the Liverpool Seniors Cup.
He became a staple of Liam Watson’s 2009/10 title winning side.
Speaking on that season, Lee said: “The league that we won was unbelievable it was definitely the highlight of my career.
“Not just at Southport but growing up playing football it was the accumulation of everything coming together.
“That season looking from the outside people say Southport won the league but there was a lot more behind that in terms of politics such as how we won the league.”
Lee spoke about the two key reasons why he believed the Sandgrounders came out victorious in the fight with Fleetwood.
“People know the story behind it but how we won that league was number one Liam (Watson) who put the squad together and number two the set of lads that we had.
“People said it before and they say it again it is a fact that Fleetwood were probably a far better team on paper.
“They had a lot more money, we just had a bunch of lads that would go on the pitch and leave everything on there, time and time again Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday.
“Liam would fire it into us that we were a group of players.
“We loved each other on the pitch and off of it and I think that’s the main reason why we won the league.”
During his time at Southport, Lee also won the Liverpool Seniors Cup in 2010/11 and he believes manager Watson installed a winning mentality in the squad.
“Liam always drilled into us just get into the way of winning and we always took it seriously no matter what cup competition that we were in.
“‘Go and win the cup’ winning breeds success.
“We just wanted to get into the habit of winning and that all comes from Liam. But as I said the group of lads we had was second to none.”
For his 500th game in charge of Southport, Watson broke down his all time Southport eleven.
Lee would feature in the team with Watson calling him “one of my all time favourite players”.
Lee thought his former manager was taking the mick when he heard how Watson had described him!
He revealed how he’d been put on the transfer list and how it motivated him to playing the best football of his career.
“I thought he was taking the mick at first, when Liam came in we did not see eye to eye to start with.
“I was on the transfer list and he wanted to get rid of me but I turned it into a positive.
“I just looked at it as if I have got something to prove to him and more than anything I thought ‘right I’m going to go but I’m going to prove to him that I’m good enough to go wherever I want to go’.
“I kept myself fit probably one of the fittest and come pre-season I played a few games.
“And then Liam turned round to me and said he wanted me to stay and that was it.
“Under Liam I played the best football I ever played in my career and I know for a fact it was my most successful time and I loved every minute of it.”
Photo courtesy of Southport FC and Julia Urwin
