Taken from today’s programme, available on the gate for £2.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today’s league fixture against our friends from 1874 Northwich. We hope that everyone connected with our visitors enjoys a warm welcome and we wish you well for what is left of the season.
Firstly, I’d like to congratulate Wayne and Paul for their excellent Vase run which saw them represent our league superbly by reaching the last 4. Whilst I’m sure they will have been disappointed not to reach the showpiece final at Wembley, their achievements should not be underestimated and we supported them from afar at each step of their journey.

Thanks largely to their achievements in reaching the FA vase semi-final, 1874 have hit national headlines with their fixture backlog over the past month or so. It is bordering on stupidity to expect non-league footballers at our level to play 4 and 5 games a week. I know the FA have a remit to get all fixtures played by a certain date to decide promotion and relegation but for me player welfare should be the number 1 priority. Extending the season by a week or two following the prolonged inclement weather we have suffered should have been the common-sense call.

It seems an extremely long time ago since we were leading 3-1 in the FA Cup against today’s visitors (at Winsford) going into injury time…today gives us an opportunity to gain slight revenge for what preceded in injury time and the replay back in August as we aim to beat 1874 for the first time in our history. We are under no illusion however that we will have to be at the top of our game to get the right result.

I write these notes following a very frustrating evening at AFC Liverpool. Robbed of 5 starters from the weekends win at Northwich Vics due to work commitments, we had to start with Matty Kay in goal as Aaron was stuck in traffic, with Brocks filling in on the left wing! In what was to play out as a microcosm of our season we dominated the first half and took a deserved lead when Ben set up Ash Woods only to make several individual mistakes to gift them an equaliser in their only attack of the half. Second half we get our noses back in front before a sending off and 2 individual mistakes cost us again in injury time.!

Saturdays game at Northwich Vics was a much more satisfying experience, closer to the levels we are capable of hitting. Against their direct style of play we scored 2 really well worked goals via Tom and Joe and we defended solidly to take a deserved 3 points home.

On the injury front Tinks will be out for the season after suffering knee ligament damage last Thursday, the swelling is still there, preventing the doctors from undertaking a scan but we’re hopeful the extent of the damage will be known this week. I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing Josh a speedy recovery. We will also be without young Stephen Affleck for the remainder of the season. His loan from FC United has ceased and he has rejoined them. Stephen did well in his short time with us and we wish him well for the future.

In other news the end of season awards will take place following the home game against Ashton Athletic on the 5th May. I’d like to extend a warm invitation to you all to share our review of the season and celebrate some individual achievements of our squad over a few Krombachers..

Hope you enjoy the game and as always thanks for the support
-Setts