THE WITTON COLUMN - By Paul Harper

WHILE football has ended for Albion for this season, and no other football in this country taking place, the Bundesliga has taken centre stage in the last few days with the resumption of the game over in Germany.

It’s football but not as we know it.

First of all, it’s behind closed doors which has an eerie feel to things.

You can hear every shout of the players, referee, coaches, and goals are greeted with silence.

If ever you question the importance of fans in football, just watch this and you’ll realise how valuable they are to our game.

The game is all about goals. The excitement, the joy, the celebrations.

There’s next to zero in these conditions, as the players celebrate a goal with an elbow bump before traipsing back to the halfway line.

These games mean so much in the scheme of the season, with the championship up for grabs for three or four sides, while the battle against relegation is as hot as ever, but each game just feels like a training game.

I’m sure on the pitch, the players are doing all they can, but the lack of atmosphere gives that perception, and I’m not a huge fan of it.

It’s filling a gap in our lives, as we’ve all been missing football, but it’s not quite the same as what we have all come to know and love.

While the lockdown rules and regulations have eased a little in this country, we are still no closer to knowing when football, and for our sakes non-league football in particular, will get back underway.

This makes it so difficult to try and prepare, but things are going on to do just that at Wincham Park.

We have our management team in place for another two years, as you will have read in the past couple of weeks, and they’ll be doing all they can to prepare for next season, whenever that may get started.

We all hope that we can get back out on the pitch during the summer ahead of an August kick-off as usual, but this will be dictated by the Government and football authorities.

Whenever we do get the green light to restart, rest assured that we will be as ready as we can be.

I’d like to finish this week’s column with another thank you to our fantastic supporters.

Generous donations continue to come in to the club and they are a big help.

We’ll have a few things going on in the coming days and weeks to help with the fundraising, while trying to give something back to the fans, too, so watch this space.

How to get involved, if you wish to and can afford to, can be found on the club website and your support is incredibly appreciated by everyone at the club.

Stay safe everyone, all the best.

n More of the Guardian’s football and rugby columns plus other sport can be viewed at northwichguardian.co.uk