Taken from the programme for the Non-League Day visit of Congleton Town, available on the gate for £2.

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Hallmark Security fixture against Congleton Town. I would like to welcome Brian, his staff and players to Brookburn Road and after today, wish them all the best for the rest of the season.

Brian and I are former colleagues during my brief spell at Witton Albion back in our playing days and I am only sorry I won’t be able to welcome him personally today as I am unfortunately away due to work commitments. I’m sure Brian will be delighted with their start to the season, including a 4-1 win against us, and although they’ve lost a couple of games recently they remain a top 4 side and we will have to work hard today to get anything from the game.

In my absence today, the team is in the capable hands of my newly appointed assistant Matty Kay, who of course needs no introduction due to his recent time as a player here. I am delighted to welcome Matty back to the club and I know he cannot wait to put his stamp on the team as we attempt to climb the table.

I thought we were a little unfortunate to exit the Manchester Premier Cup on Tuesday against a good Droylsden side. Due to yet more injuries we had to give debuts to 3 more young players in Finn Thompson, Kyle Pearson and Josh Pickering and I thought they all performed well, in particular 17 years old Finn at centre half stood up well to the challenge of dealing with NPL quality forwards.

We were well in the game all the way through, although our luck was summed up by their 3^rd goal, when less than 10 seconds after Ben had hit their post the ball was in our net.

I really don’t want to keep dwelling on our injury problems, as it now is almost getting too long to list, but mention must be made of our new physio Suzanne, who is working overtime treating our numerous injured and we really appreciate the work she is putting in.

On that front we are hopeful that Ashley Leather will be able to return within the next couple of weeks. Jack Langford returned to action on Tuesday along with Pottsy who is now back from holiday. I am also delighted we have finally obtained international clearance for Jack Sergeant and Jamie Coombes and they will now be available again following today’s Nations League game in Armenia.

Don’t forget we are in Cup action next Saturday at FC Oswestry Town and coach travel has been arranged. It would be great to see as many of you as possible down there as we try to progress in the Macron Cup. On that note it is great to see that we are taking more and more fans to away games and I and the players would like to thank you for your tremendous support.

Setts