A great deal of what I have read on this forum in recent weeks has concentrated on the most unsavoury incident I can remember at this football club. At times it feels as though what is so great about Witton Albion has somehow been lost or forgotten.
A non-league football club is never about it’s players. They come and go. Regardless of how talented they are, whether they are “good lads” or not, or how much they interact with you on social media…the truth is that this is their job, and when they get a better offer they will leave the Club as quickly as they left their last one (with some notable exceptions of course).
A non-league football club is about the people that are still here when the players move on. The volunteers; the supporters; the people who keep the club going year on year until they are no longer able to do so.
Never is this more true than at Witton Albion.
Which is why I am delighted that after discussions with his daughter Debbie, we will play our game against the Runcorn supporters on the 28th July in Tony Waterman’s memory.
Further to this, the trophy which we play for each year will also be renamed The Tony Waterman Memorial Trophy.
To give you some background on this fixture, we first played this game 5 years ago when Runcorn were ground sharing with us. Both sets of fans thought it important to maintain a relationship once the groundshare arrangement came to an end, as as Vics were no longer able to field a supporters team (after we beat them at what is now Thor Chemicals), Runcorn became our regular opponents.
As it stands, the fixture has been held 3 times at Wincham Park (all 3 games won by Witton), and twice at Runcorn (both games won by Linnets). This year we were due to meet once again in Runcorn, but unfortunately we were not able to use their stadium, and Mark Harris generously stepped in to allow us to play at Witton.
To continuously keep this fixture alive for the past 5 years has taken a lot of hard work and a great relationship between the two sets of fans. This is something which we are looking forward to celebrating.
Anybody who took part in last year’s sponsored walk will appreciate the hard work that Tony put in, and his fantastic support to all the walkers on the day.
Currently it does not look as though the walk to Runcorn will be held this year, as the senior clubs could not agree on a suitable date for their annual pre-season friendly.
We hope therefore that this game will provide suitable stop-gap whilst plans are made to organise an alternate walk later in the season.
We do plan on the day to have a bucket collection for the Joshua Tree, who were the recipients of last year’s sponsorship.
I am very proud to be involved in this game, and hopefully as many of you as possible and come down and cheer us on.
