THE VICS COLUMN - By Pete Tonge

WELL, the weather and in particular Storm Dennis put paid to another weekend’s football with our match away at Whitchurch being called off due to a waterlogged pitch.

This is the 11th match of the season, so far, which has had to be postponed, mostly down to the weather.

Only a couple of these have been home matches thanks to the hard-working efforts of the excellent ground staff at Witton Albion along with our very own volunteers who go down and help them during the week.

These postponements, of course, cause all sorts of problems, not only for the playing and managerial staff but for the administrative people at the club.

Food has to be cancelled(if in time), the relevant officials have to be notified, and of course the match has to be rearranged.

In regards to the latter, we are fortunate to have probably the most respected and knowledgeable club secretary in the league, Dave Thomas.

He knows more about the intricacies of running a football club than most and performs his task with the minimum of fuss.

At the moment, we have only played 25 league matches while some clubs have played 29, so here’s hoping that the weather improves and allows everyone time to fit their rearranged matches in before the end of the season.

This will mean regular midweek matches as well as the usual Saturday ones, a schedule that would get the mollycoddled Premier League clubs in uproar, and moaning how their full-time professional players are worn out!

It is sobering to remember that the majority of players at our level have full-time jobs, and give up a lot of their spare time to train once or twice a week as well as play two or three times a week for not a lot of money.

With the forecast for improved weather over the week, we are now looking forward to a Mid-Cheshire derby against our friends at Winsford United on Saturday.

Derby matches are always special, as shown by last week’s Northwich derby which ended in a 3-3 draw and was a great advert for football in our town.

We are grateful that 557 spectators came down to watch this match, and hope that it gave them the appetite to keep coming and supporting not only Northwich Victoria but football in Northwich in general.

So why not take the chance this Saturday to come down to Wincham Park and enjoy what should be another great game, which for only £7 is an absolute bargain.

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