THE WITTON COLUMN - By Paul Harper

WELL, it’s been quite a week at the Albion! There has been plenty of interest in and around the club after we announced the signing of Steve McNulty.

It’s a big news story as he’s an extremely popular character at almost every club he has played for and has become a bit of a cult figure. More than that, though, he’s a very good footballer and will undoubtedly strengthen our team and squad.

The announcement of his signing last Thursday evening produced a great response on social media and there’s a real positive vibe around the club at the moment, which is fantastic to be a part of.

The video reveal we did to announce the signing has (at time of writing) had more than 55,000 impressions on Twitter, with hundreds and hundreds of likes and retweets.

For me running the social media and website side of the club, that’s fantastic. And the increased exposure that this has brought will hopefully help us with other things we have in the pipeline.

I must say a huge thank you to our social media graphic partner Starting XI Designs for their help with the reveal video. They have been and continue to be fantastic to work with and help us with a lot of content we put out on our channels.

McNulty was not the only addition to the squad made in the past week or so. We have also brought striker James Hooper back to the club after he had a brief loan stint with us before the league shut down prematurely earlier this year.

He is another excellent acquisition and gives us some fantastic attacking options, with the likes of Scott Bakkor, Steven Tames and Will Jones providing great depth in that area of the pitch.

The other positive news of the week has been the allowance of fans to return to stadiums and details from the Northern Premier League about when the season is due to start for 2020-21.

In terms of fans back in the stadium, we most of all want to ensure that it is a safe environment to come back into, which is why we are not rushing things.

There is a lot of work going in behind the scenes to ensure that when Wittoners are allowed back into Wincham Park, it will be safe to do so.

The plan is for supporters, up to a maximum of 300 as permitted by the new regulations, to be allowed into the ground for our Bank Holiday Monday game against Prescot Cables. Please keep an eye out for more details via the club website and our social media channels.

There is just over three weeks to go before the NPL season is due to get underway on 19 September. The squad is coming together nicely and hopefully everything will be in place to enable us to have a safe and successful campaign.