THE WITTON COLUMN - an update from media assistant, Paul Harper

WE’RE reaching the end of a busy schedule of matches. It feels like we’ve had two matches a week since the season kicked off in August.

With a small squad, it’s tough going to play Saturday-Tuesday for three months, but Albion have put themselves in a fairly strong position at the time of writing.

That squad was bolstered last week with FOUR new signings last Friday!

Secretary Mike Harper does a great job, on top of his day job, to make sure all the player registrations are completed and sent off in time, and to do four in one day is some going!

Having picked up another injury or two, it is always important to have some cover and the newly signed players will help us on that front.

Isaac Baldwin is probably the most noteworthy of the new boys. The left-back has joined us on a one-month loan from Farsley Celtic, having last season played a key role in their title-winning Northern Premier League campaign.

Another defender joining us is youngster Leo Roberts who has signed dual-registration forms from AFC Fylde. Leo has played alongside Jack Byrne, who is with us on a similar deal, and we’re looking forward to help with their very promising development.

The other two newcomers have come from the club’s junior sides. From the Under-21s, Will Gatward, and from the youth team, Cameron Brookfield. It’s great to see the pathway between those sides and the first team. It shows players involved in those teams that there is a tangible opportunity to make the step up at the club, so well done to the two lads in question for impressing and doing so.

It’s Buildbase FA Trophy action for us at the weekend. The draw could have been kinder to us, but we have an away trip to Lancaster City. It’s against a team in our division, and on the road, so it will be tough, but manager Carl Macauley and his assistant Gary Martindale will have the team well prepared for the challenge ahead.

We played Lancaster at home recently, and they beat us 3-1, so we know we’ll be in for a difficult game. Hopefully, we can get our own back on them and make some progress in the competition.

As I mentioned at the top of the piece, the schedule gets a bit less frenetic after next week, which will be nice. It will revert to just Saturdays for the next few weeks, apart from any cup competitions, so it’s a good chance for the team to prepare on the training pitch a bit more and allows additional recovery time for players with little knocks.