It is the final pre-season game of the season and it is always nice to welcome old friends and local rivals Radcliffe.

Two more pre-season games are left and the next one is the re-arranged trip over to West Yorkshire to play the newly joined Northern Premier League East side, Liversedge.

Its time for the Rams to go international as a trip into deepest mid-North Wales awaits Lee Donafee's side on Saturday - and it will be one of the tougher pre-season encounters that we will play.

This will be the first ever meeting between Ramsbottom United and Bury AFC - the new club being formed following the sad demise of the 135-year-old Bury FC.

One down, three to go this week as the Rams' pre-season programme heads to North West Counties side Irlam for match number four

It is the start of a busy week for the Rams with four pre-season friendlies in eight days, commencing with Saturday's visit to old friends Daisy Hill.

How good was it to have football back on Saturday? But time doesn't stop, time to move on from the Euro2020 disappointment on Sunday night and back on the touchlines for our second pre-season game of the season.

It has been 253 long, long days since the Rams' last fully competitive fixture but the joy to have football back, even in the form of a pre-season friendly, marks a significant moment in these 'post-Covid' times.