We welcome our visitors from Market Drayton to the HWRS for the second time, the first being the opening fixture of the 2018/19 season - the only season we have played each other.

Never mind the mint cake, could this Tuesday evenings jolly to the lovely market town of Kendal prove to be just the treat?

Well, we scored some goals but that first competitive win of the season remains illusive although there was much to be encouraged by in the mayhem that was the 5-4 defeat in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Diego Donafee sounded serious in his pre-match interview on the Ramsbottom365 site - this wasn't just a cup fixture anymore, it was a game that we simply had to win.

After two opening winless league games, attention turns to the 'Road to Wembley' as Lee Donafee's side travel to in-form Barnoldswick Town in the Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round.

The first league game back on home soil after two seasons of COVID cancellations was always going to be an eagerly anticipated occasion. Even more so when the fixtures were eventually announced - we would be competing against last year's Merseyside FA Cup heroes.

At long last, the gates of the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium will swing open for a competitive fixture for the first time since 31 October 2020.

It was 31 October 2020 – Halloween, a day that some describe as the ‘day of the dead’. What Ramsbottom United supporters and the rest of the non-league footballing community didn’t realise at the time was that it would also be deemed to be the day that the 2020/21 league season died too.