There was a real buzz around Ramsbottom United Football Club when Lee Donafee was announced as the new first XI manager on Friday, following the exit of Chris Willcock just 24 hours previously.

Ramsbottom United have moved quickly following to replace Chris Willcock by announcing that his assistant, Lee Donafee, will be taking the first XI reigns for the forthcoming season.

Ramsbottom United have been rocked by the news that manager Chris Willcock has resigned, just three weeks ahead of the 2021/22 season.

It has been a long wait but, at last, the fixtures for the 2021/22 season are out for the Northern Premier League West Division.

Saturday's return to action was the end of a 286-day long, hard, difficult and challenging period recovering from an injury sustained just prior to half-time in the FA Trophy victory over Ossett United at the back end of September 2020.

The draws for the three FA competitions has been made today and the Rams will have to travel in all of them in the opening rounds.

As was reported on the Padiham FC Twitter feed, fans favourite Luke Thompson left the Rams and signed for the North West Counties League outfit today.

As the team looks to finally achieve it’s promotion ambitions on the pitch, much needs doing off it. Help is needed and appreciated whether it’s a case of having a spare hour or a spare day.