IAN Street has said he wanted Scott McGowan to stay at 1874 Northwich for the remainder of the season, but the striker insisted on leaving.

He returned to former club Congleton before last weekend after scoring 17 goals this term.

“Scott wanted to play more often, to start games,” said Street.

“He’s not done that as often as he would have liked recently, and has gotten frustrated.

“I didn’t want to lose him; he’s a great lad with a good attitude who started the year well for us.”

McGowan scored more than half of his goals for Northwich during the first two months of the campaign.

He leaves without hitting the net in 2017, and his only strikes since the start of November were two crucial ones in a 3-2 win against Runcorn Town.

And since the arrival of Jason Carey from AFC Liverpool at the turn of the year, he has ceased to be Street’s first choice to play alongside Tom Bailey in attack.

For now at least, the 1874 boss has ruled out recruiting a replacement.

He said: “I’ll see how things go in the next week or so.

“We’ll always keep an eye open in case an opportunity arises, and we may take a look at a forward this week in training, but I think we have enough strength in depth.”

A home date with Padiham on Saturday will go ahead only if the playing surface at St Luke’s Barton Stadium passes a morning inspection following heavy rain in mid Cheshire.

Indeed, the scheduled visit of Maine Road in midweek was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.

1874 haven’t played since a 1-0 defeat at promotion-rivals Atherton Collieries a fortnight ago.

Before that, they had won nine of their previous 11 North West Counties League games.

Padiham have collected maximum points from only one of their past six Premier Division matches, and were held to a goalless draw by winless back-markers Cammell Laird last time out.

They sit seventh at kick off in tomorrow’s game.