Longridge Town made the trip down to Cheshire to face Northwich Victoria on Saturday 17th October in what turned out to be the club's opening NWCFL fixture following Emirates FA Cup commitments and a turn in the weather over the last few weeks.

Manager Lee Ashcroft made just one change to the side that bowed out of the Emirates FA Cup at the hands of Skelmersdale United on Tuesday with new signing Hyuga Tanner making his debut. He was brought into the side for club captain Tom Ince whilst Ryan Schofield took over the captaincy.

Town started the game brightest making their presence known going forward, particularly via Hyuga Tanner who instantly posed a threat to the Vics back line.

With the ball spending the majority of the opening ten minutes in the air, the highlight was a Vics clearance which took out the in-match meal of one unlucky spectator!

Despite a relatively uneventful first twenty minutes, it was Longridge who came closest to scoring first.

Hyuga Tanner cleverly worked his way into the box and squared the ball for an on-rushing Scott Harries but not without it taking a huge deflection off a Vics centre halve who very nearly turned the ball into his own net had it not been for their keeper. Whilst he didn't know a lot about it, he was in the right place at the right time to save the defenders blushes.

Following that wake up call, Northwich began to grow into the game, primarily through route one football which proved to be a handful for the Town defence.

Lee Dovey was tested on a handful occasions but to no avail for the hosts as the shot-stopper stood firm.

Just after the half hour mark however, almost out of nothing, David Sherlock gave Northwich the lead with a powerful shot from the edge of the area which flew into the top corner.

Shortly after going in front, Northwich took the aggressive approach to prevent Town getting back into the game as Jack Anderton and Owen Watkinson were both hacked down dangerously before the break.

Half-Time and Longridge found themselves somewhat undeservedly a goal down at the break.

Joe Meling and Paul Turner took the places of Ben Fletcher and Brandon Lee before the restart respectively.

Determined to make an instant impact, Hyuga Tanner was the standout player after the interval, linking up well with Scott Harries and Owen Watkinson.

It wasn't long though however before Northwich doubled their lead with their first attack of the second, a cross which came in from the right towards an unmarked Ashley Dunn at the back post who calmly headed home to make it 2-0 on 52 minutes.

Lee Dovey then did well to prevent Northwich from getting a third as he tipped over a glancing header from a corner at the back post.

Whilst Northwich had a comfortable lead, Longridge continued to push to get themselves back into the game. Ashey swapped Jack Anderton who'd picked up a knock in the first half and had just been crunched again, for Conor Linighan midway through the half.

A flurry of free-kick's were lofted in by Brad Wicks and headed away by Vics in the latter stages of the game with Longridge struggling to find a way through.

Northwich then took it upon themselves to play for time in the dying minutes, there was little Town could do at this stage as the clock ran down and eventually put Ridge out of their misery, but not before four additional minutes.

Not the start to the new campaign that Town would've hoped for, though they have a chance to make amends on Saturday at home to Warrington Rylands with Wednesday's game against Litherland Remyca now postponed due to the current lockdown restrictions.

Northwich Victoria XI: Hale, Camozzi, Roberts, Kenny, Barski, Dunn, Potts, Clarke, Sherlock, Birchall, Mason

Longridge Town XI: Dovey, Gray, Schofield, Wilkinson, Lee (Melling 45), Wicks, Fletcher (Turner 45), Harries, Tanner, Anderton (Linighan 65), Watkinson