The Witton Column - Paul Harper

LAST week, Witton Albion announced an interesting signing with the addition of MJ Monaghan to Carl Macauley’s squad.

A talented attacking player, formerly of Warrington Town, AFC Telford United and Marine, he arrives at Wincham Park having enjoyed a stint playing abroad in Australia for the Corio Soccer Club.

A native of the North West of England, Monaghan made the move down under at the beginning of this year and helped his Australian side to promotion during his time out there.

Contributing with a number of goals and assists, his season was somewhat blighted by injury, suffering a broken leg which kept him on the sidelines for some time.

MJ appears to be very well thought of by fans of the Aussie club, and it was great to see a number of them leave some positive comments and well wishes on our social media channels after the announcement of his signing.

I’m sure they will be following his progress here at Witton Albion, so a big ‘G’Day’ to all our new Australian followers! Should there be a vacancy for a Media Officer down there, I’m available for a very reasonable fee.

Monaghan made his debut last weekend against Stalybridge Celtic, so I’d like to welcome him to the club and wish him well for his time in a Witton Albion jersey.

October is going to be a very busy month for the first team with eight matches in total due to be played, seven in the league and one Cheshire Senior Cup tie, a derby against 1874 Northwich.

Having played Lancaster City earlier this week, there’s seven of those fixtures to play and it’s bound to be a testing period, with a Tuesday-Saturday schedule most weeks this month.

We don’t have the biggest squad of players at Wincham Park and, as I’ve mentioned previously in this column, Albion have had more than their share of bad luck on the injury front.

Captain Rob Hopley remains absent and is likely to miss the rest of the season, midfielder Will Booth is still out with the injury he sustained midway through last season.

And James Foley has suffered a bit of a setback after his recent comeback into the team.

We’re also missing young Tom Edwards who picked up an injury while playing with the youth team recently.

In an ideal world, you’d want all your players fit, particularly during such a busy period as this one.

Of course, there will be similar scenarios happening at other clubs, and we’re all in the same boat in terms of the number of matches clubs in this division have to play during this period.

Ask any player and they’ll tell you they’d rather be playing games than training. And it will be important to keep as many players fit and available as possible for this busy spell.

Finally, a big thank you to the fans for their support. We have plenty of home games coming up, so please keep cheering the lads on. Optima Tua Age.