THE VICS COLUMN - By Pete Tonge

ANOTHER week, another cup game.

After the excitement, drama and ultimate disappointment of the previous week’s loss on penalties against Charnock Richard in the FA Cup, we moved onto the FA Vase at the weekend.

This involved a trip over to Huddersfield and in particular the town of Golcar situated in the hills to the north of the town.

After a nice lunch at a local pub, the barmy army negotiated the steep winding roads down into the town and made our way to the ground and joined up with the other 50 or so Vics’ fans there.

Maybe it wasn’t the best or most exciting match I’ve seen, but a firm, solid defensive display by the Trickies limited Golcar to few chances and Vics ran out comfortable 2-0 winners over a team that will do well in Division One North this season.

Vics had made a couple of changes to the starting line-up with Saul Henderson and Dave Sherlock making their first starts of the season but it was striker Chad Whyte who stole their headlines with his first two competitive goals for the Vics.

Ok, they weren’t the most spectacular but they all count!

The first was a penalty after their keeper had decided that the best way of getting to the ball from a long throw in was to barge through the back of Brandon Barski for some reason, while the second was a simple tap in after yet another mistake by their keeper as he kicked the ball into Chad and he had the simplest of tasks to tap the ball home.

Let’s hope these are the first of many for our new number nine.

All in all, a good efficient display by the Vics, showing that the squad is stronger than last season with players of the calibre of Ash Woods, Ryan Winder and youngster Matty Birchall coming on during the match while others are chomping at the bit to get a taste of the action and show what they can do.

Hopefully it is this depth of squad that will make the difference this season and get us up there competing at the top of the league.

All we have to do now is hope that the league season does get under way on October 3 though with our first two matches being against teams which are situated in areas where Covid-19 restrictions have recently been tightened, and spectators being advised to stay away, I’m doubtful.

Anyway, let s hope for the best and we can at least look forward to a friendly against Stone Old Alleynians on Saturday.