THE VICS COLUMN - By Pete Tonge

SATURDAY saw the last of our away pre-season friendlies, with a trip to Wesham to take on AFC Blackpool.

This ended up 1-1 with Vics’ new exciting young winger Matty Waller getting our goal with a great curling effort from the corner of the box.

The match was also notable for the appearance of possibly Vics’ youngest ever player as centre-back Jamie Wood came on in the 32nd minute for the injured Leo Roberts.

Jamie is a product of the Vics’ junior teams and at 16 years and 237 days is almost certainly the youngest to appear for Vics.

It was a nervous first five minutes unsurprisingly for Jamie, but a superb goal-saving fully committed tackle soon proved he could handle the challenge and he certainly didn’t look out of place for the rest of the match.

It must have helped having the experience of Vics’ current longest serving player, Brandon Barski beside him.

Another product of the Vics’ U18s also made his first appearance in the match, with Luca Kouris coming on for the second half.

Luca is a cultured midfielder with an eye for a pass, and has impressed in training and is fully deserving of his chance.

The appearance of these two players, along with Jack Ball in an earlier pre-season friendly, highlights the importance of grassroots junior football, and is a credit to the Northwich Victoria Juniors.

They are an FA Charter Standard Community Club and have a number of teams ranging from Under 7s to U18s. They also have a number of girls’ youth and ladies teams under the name of Northwich Vickies and Vixens.

They are always looking for players so if you think your child could benefit from their coaching and guidance, have a look at their website www.northwichvicsjfc.co.uk.

Vics play a match for the Vijay Anthwal Trophy on Saturday against our landlords Witton Albion. Pre-season then finishes on Tuesday when we take on City of Liverpool FC of the Northern Premier League-West. Full details, as always will be on our website a couple of days before each fixture.