THE WITTON ALBION COLUMN - By Paul Harper

WITH no football currently being played, like many clubs’ social media accounts, I’ve been delving into the history of the club and looking back on some matches gone by.

Our club website has a great wealth of information about the club’s past, kept up-to-date by club historian Phil Chadwick who knows all you need to know about Witton Albion!

Currently, I am running a daily post about each game we have played in 2019-20. The results may well be expunged from the record books if the FA confirm that the season will be null and void, but I think it’s important to recognise the hard work that has gone into the campaign.

We’ve had some cracking games and achieved some really excellent results, and it would be a shame if those weren’t acknowledged. Of course, mixed into that are games we’d rather forget, but that’s football, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

We’ve also been doing an on this day feature on the social channels looking at some historic results and matches from down the years.

I discovered that on April 5, Witton Albion have never lost a match! If the league could give us a fixture on that date in future, please!

If you have time on your hands, and I’m sure some of us do during this unfortunate period, the history section of the Witton website is well worth a read with information going all the way back to the 1900s, players, attendances, league tables and much more. Phil dedicates a hell of a lot of time to it and it’s a huge credit to him.

At the present time, it feels tricky to look forward as everything appears quite uncertain.

At the time of writing, a large number of clubs have appealed the FA’s initial decision to null and void leagues from ours downwards, so we still don’t know what is going to happen from that. And with the pandemic still ongoing, it remains unsure when next season will begin.

Of course, football is only a secondary thought in this period which the health and safety of everyone in the uppermost parts of our minds.

The NHS have been fantastic in helping keep us safe throughout this, continuing to do a fantastic job.

As a small token of our gratitude to them for this tremendous work, we will be offering 20 free season tickets to the NHS for the 2020-21 campaign.

It is the very least we can do for all the amazing work they are doing for all of us at a very difficult time. Details of this initiative will be announced in due course.

Stay safe, everyone. Take care.