Name change? Are you mad? How about 1887 Northwich? BARKING
Other than that some good ideas
UTA!
Not happy to suggest a name change but having the town name in our title might help get some much needed revenue.
Now as for a fixture congestion problem. In the 1990/91 season the Albs had to play 9 games away from home from Saturday 24th November until Tuesady 21st January. Only one home game was played in that period. It would have been 10 away but we got a home game replay in the FA Trophy!
As for playing too many games, the Albs played 40 league games and 34 cup ties that season with goalkeeper Mason playing in them all and 8 players appearing in more than sixty!
Despite all these problems we won the league by sixteen points, finished Runners Up in the Cheshire Senior Cup, won the President’ s Cup, the Challenge Shield , reached the semi final of the FA Trophy and the First Round Proper of the FA Cup and were named “Northwest Region FA Top Team”. Have faith lads, success breeds success!!
WHS.
Odd first post to make on a football forum I know, but I was lurking on some of the older threads and saw this one and thought I’d jump in to give a bit of an outsiders opinion.
I moved to Northwich about 4 years ago after spending all my life in the Midlands. I’m a lifelong Season Ticket holder at Nottingham Forest, but have regularly followed non-league football at Leamington FC, Eastwood Town and Ilkeston and when I moved here I was looking forward to finding another new team to go down and see. I’ll be honest, I was expecting that team to be Northwich Victoria - as a ‘big name’ in non-league football (and a team I once was sacked from on Football Manager) I thought that would be an obvious choice. At this point I didn’t realise the extent of the Vics decline, didn’t know they were playing in Flixton, had no idea what 1874 was and thought Witton Albion was a Birmingham club (Witton being the station that serves Aston Villa, if that seems like a weird assumption!).
As the year I moved here was 1874’s innargural season, I thought it appropriate to follow them, and spent much of that season in Winsford seeing how they got on. After a while, and I’m sure I’m not the only one to find this (even if I’m one of the few to admit it) I grew quite tired of the ‘holier-than-thou’ Ned Flanders attitude of the fans, their obsession with other teams finances, lack of real desire to intent of moving into Northwich and their apparent fear of sucess at the cost of them seeming hypocritical. I’ve had a year or so off from local football because it all seems very complicated, a town the size of Northwich having 4 football clubs who all take it very seriously seems unnecessary to me! That being said, this season I have warmed to Witton - you seem to get on with it professionally, don’t have the baggage the other teams do, have a superb facility and a growing fan base.
And this is where my rather convaluted but still somehow relevent point comes in - Rightly or wrongly, I initially dismissed Witton Albion as a team to follow because A) I had no idea who or where they were and B) I wanted to follow a team which carried the name of my town. Whilst it’s clear a name change is never likely to happen, WHS makes a very valid point about the apparent anonymity of the club within the town being a major hurdle to growing the club. It will, like it or not, restrict the number of new fans joining the cause and will push people towards a club in another town who do carry a recognisable name.
The Northwich Guardian seems to favour Witton, which helps, but that aside I never see or hear anything about Witton about the town. WHS’s suggestion is obviously unpopular but very valid, but in lieu of a name change more marketing and publicity for the club is a must. Vics and '74 are on the ropes a bit at the moment, its time to pounce on the ‘floating fans’, of which I’m sure there’s many at this level.
Lawsio, a word of warning, agreeing with me on most things will get you shot!
WHS.
Interesting to get your view Lawsio, We see what people mean about the town name but we have been Witton Albion for a hell of a long time and We are proud of our team and the club. Personally I could stomach Witton Albion of Northwich but rather not and would prefer us to keep growing organically and maybe we should look at ways to improve our image and links to the town -Witton was of course a major parish of the local area hence the name and main town church is mainly known as Witton church and of course next season if Vics dont survive We will be the only semi pro side in the town and I would say for a few years to come. UTA
I agree with what you say C.J. Maybe the new book on the club will enhance our name, I will ensure our local Library gets a copy and it will be reported in the “Our Town” magazine when the book comes out, hopefully in the Guardian too. We must explore any methods of raising our profile and funds and I expect our Board are doing just that.
WHS.