NORTHWICH Victoria's trip to Bury on Saturday could have a big say in the end-of-season reckoning at the top of the table.

Vics are fourth in the North West Counties League Premier Division and within two points of leaders Avro if they win their two games in hand.

But Bury, prior to their clash with third-placed Wythenshawe Town tonight, Wednesday, are four games and a point behind Vics.

It is therefore very tight for the one automatic promotion place and one play-offs spot, with Vics keeping themselves in the running thanks to a second win over Barnoldswick Town in four days.

After defeating them 2-0 at home on Saturday, Kuda Chingwaro headed home a Ryan Jackson cross in the 17th minute to seal a 1-0 success on the road on Tuesday.

"I don't think we played that well (on Tuesday) but we're getting to that stage of the season now where results are more important than performance," said Vics manager Steve Wilkes.

"We won't train on Thursday, we'll have a rest ahead of Bury on Saturday.

"They're all big games now but it'll be nice game for the players to show their skills in front of a big crowd and hopefully we can get the three points."

Meanwhile, Joe Duckworth's 77th-minute penalty earned Witton Albion a share of the spoils at home to a Bootle side managed by familiar faces.

Bootle, who have former Witton centre half Steve McNulty in charge and ex-Albion manager Carl Macauley as his assistant, led twice through goals from Jack McGowen (14mins) andSam Taylor (46) with Elliot Rokka (44) levelling the first time.

Albion hit the post late on and Bootle had Jack Flight sent off in the 88th minute.

Jon Macken's side are six points off the play-offs spots with 10 games remaining, starting with Ramsbottom United away on Saturday.

Assistant manager Steve Atkinson said: "We played some really good football at times but we've given away soft goals, silly goals, stuff that we can eradicate.

"It's a long season. We've played a lot of games back-to-back Saturday-Tuesday, and one or two lads look tired.

"That's going to happen, but we need to fight through that as a group, as a club and a fan base.

"We've accumulated a group of talented players at the start of the season and it does take a while to gel. If somebody had said to me that at this time in the season we'd be in touching distance of the play-offs, we would have gone for that.

"There's 10 games left, 30 points. We've just got to keep ticking over, prepare properly and make sure the lads are well tuned."

1874 host Macclesfield and Winsford United head to FC Isle of Man in an intriguing Saturday football calendar.