THE VICS COLUMN - By Peter Tonge

WELL, playing wise it’s been a mixed week on the field for The Trickies.

First of all there was a fine win in the fog against Barnoldswick Town on Wednesday night.

This was followed by a defeat against Rylands at the weekend.

The Barnoldswick match was probably one of Vics’ best performances of the season, with the highlight being big Saul Henderson’s display.

A player who has had his critics at Vics despite having scored 12 goals in 22 appearances with eight of those coming on as substitute.

The critics mainly mention that despite being well over 6ft tall, he doesn’t win as many headers as he should!

But Saul is winning over those doubters now with his footwork and finishing ability.

A superb little dink over the keeper for Vics’ first on Wednesday being evidence of this ability to find the net.

As well as this, Saul is one of the best crossers of the ball at the club, as was shown by his part in Vics’ second goal against Barnoldswick which was finished off by newcomer Dylan Glass.

Coming back to Saturday’s match now, and it brought about the return of old failures, namely giving away cheap goals.

Despite Vics generally controlling that game, they continually allowed Rylands to break quickly from defence into attack and create one-on-one chances.

And we had to rely on another fine performance from keeper Mike Hale.

Mike was also at the centre of the most controversial moment of the day when he was adjudged to have brought down Rylands’ Scarisbrick as he surged through on yet another one-on-one situation.

A doubtful decision, but a booking for Hale and a penalty followed.

The penalty was duly scored and the controversy followed as Hale protested again and was shown another yellow card for dissent.

Now was he sent off or was he sin-binned?

Nobody seemed to know, as the referee sent him off the field, the liner (assistant referee) told him to go to the dressing room as he had been sent off!

However, he had to be retrieved from there a few minutes later when it transpired that he had only in fact been sin-binned for 10 minutes.

No complaints about the decision, but surely there has to be better way to communicate what was happening, not only to the management but also the crowd.

Finally, there is news of an exciting new link up with a local company for the Vics as they announce a sponsorship deal with the historic Witton Chimes Pub in town.

The Chimes has recently been refurbished and will become Vics’ fans pub of choice for pre and post match drinks, and be a centre for supporters to get together.

Thanks go to Commercial Manager Paul Bazley, and Adam and Tracey from The Witton Chimes for managing to put this deal together.