Get knocked down, but get up again…

This Witton is made of stern stuff.

After two previous league defeats this season, at Carlton and Belper, they responded by winning the next game in convincing fashion.

And they did so again against Scott Dundas’ side, who have been seen off twice now this season without conceding a goal.

“It was tough to take losing how we did in midweek,” said Albion boss Carl Macauley, referring to Market Drayton’s late winner on Tuesday.

“There is pressure then to bounce back, but these boys have great character – they have such a strong will to win.

“As a manager, that makes me proud and they showed that again [against Newcastle].

Coincidentally, Witton followed a 3-2 reverse at Carlton in September by beating Newcastle three days later.

Fortress Wincham remains a stronghold

Albion are still unbeaten on home turf this term, winning seven of their nine Northern Premier League fixtures there.

Add seven cup ties to that sequence, and it stretches to 16 matches in all competitions.

Even Shaw Lane, knocked out of the FA Cup by Colwyn Bay in front of their own supporters in August, cannot boast of a record that good.

Newcastle rarely looked likely to put a blemish on their opponents’ copybook, creating precious little in a subdued attacking performance.

Witton do not act as hosts again now until next month, and start a sequence of three successive away games at Lincoln United on Tuesday.

Trips to Basford, next Saturday, and then improving Kidsgrove follow.

Bedworth United are due next in town on February 4.

Northwich Guardian:

Witton Albion are unbeaten in 16 matches at Wincham Park this season

In praise of Steven Tames

“He’s not 100 per cent fit yet, so imagine how good he’ll be then.”

That was Carl Macauley’s verdict on the striker, who will stay with Witton until the end of the current campaign after parent club Stalybridge Celtic agreed to extend a loan arrangement.

Had teammate Bradley Bauress not been quite so brilliant, then the 25-year-old would have been an easy pick for Albion’s star turn.

He played a part in each of the hosts’ goals, cushioning a perfectly-timed pass into Tom Owens’ path during the build-up to their opener.

The front man was then felled by Kyle Blake, after he had spun away from marker Luke Askey, to earn a spot kick from which Bauress doubled Witton’s lead.

His lobbed finish to make it 3-0 was worthy reward for a fine individual performance.

The return of Scott Dundas

The mood at Witton now is in stark contrast to when Dundas was relieved of his duties as manager following a 4-2 home defeat against Bamber Bridge in September 2015.

By that point, Albion had lost half of their league games under the former Norton boss as well as crashing out of the FA Cup.

A spell at Alsager, who he could not save from relegation to the North West Counties League’s second tier, followed for Dundas ahead of a switch to Newcastle last summer.

He has improved a team that finished only 14th in Division One South last term, and at Christmas they were closest to pace-setting Shaw Lane in the table.

Despite still sitting third, their form is poor; a 3-0 defeat on Saturday is a fifth in the past eight games.

None of his former Albion men – Niall Green, Chris Baker and Lee Cropper – made an impression.

Northwich Guardian:

Scott Dundas' return to Wincham Park on Saturday was an unhappy one

Wearing number 11

Following the departure of Danny Andrews, a pretty much annual pick by Albion supporters as their player of the year from the moment he joined the club from Cammell Laird, most players could be forgiven for feeling the weight of his number on their back.

Brad Bauress is showing himself to be no ordinary performer.

The former Blackburn Rovers academy player increased his goal tally to 15 with a double in Saturday’s 3-0 win against Newcastle, and without question has been Witton’s outstanding individual performer for the past two months.

To compare him with Andrews, who managed 90 goals in 250 appearances over five seasons, is unfair at this stage.

They are different players; Bauress doesn’t dribble like his predecessor, who was a more conventional winger, and instead drifts inside from a wide starting position.

Two moments of ingenuity were a delight on Saturday; first, the weight and angle of a slide-rule pass to send Rob Hopley clear.

The second, a clipped pass on the half-volley that served as an assist for Steven Tames’ goal.