STEVE Wilkes has said Northwich Victoria set a standard to aspire to each week when they dispatched Runcorn Town from the Macron Cup last weekend.

The teams meet again at Wincham Park this afternoon in a North West Counties League fixture and the Vics boss will ask to see more of the same following a 3-1 victory.

“It was probably the most complete performance we’ve put in,” he said.

“But we need to hit those heights on a regular basis now.”

After playing matches in both the FA Vase, in which they eliminated Prestwich Heys after a replay, and the Cheshire FA Senior Cup in the past fortnight, Vics have slipped out of the Premier Division’s top 10.

However they have games in hand on rivals ahead of them and are motivated as well to put behind them a disappointing defeat on home turf against Congleton Town three weeks ago.

Runcorn, currently third, have also lost ground after losing their past two league games – both of them at home – against Burscough and Bootle.

Wilkes added: “We know Saturday’s game will be completely different [to last weekend].

“But we were very happy; we had a game-plan and stuck to it, causing them problems all over the park.”

Vics bowed out of the Cheshire FA Senior Cup in midweek following a 2-1 defeat against a strong Tranmere Rovers side.

Harvey Whyte scored their goal either side of efforts from Franklin Akammadu and Bailey Thompson for their opponents.