Northwich Victoria arrive at Yockings Park this weekend (3pm) looking to extend Whitchurch Alport's poor start to the campaign after Saturday's extra time defeat in the FA Vase saw a third successive defeat,.

Reds boss Luke Goddard admitted he was disappointed to be out of the competition as it was one he wanted to make progress in.

But he is already looking to the future, including more goals from new addition Clayton McDonald, as Alport find their feet in the division.

“We’ve missed a good chance to make the next round of a competition we wanted to do well in,” said the Reds chief. “It’s a similar story week on week; we’re creating loads of chances but just not taking them.

"Additionally we’re working the ball into some good areas so whether it’s the quality in the final third or just a case of not being clinical enough I’m not sure. That’s my job to sort that out.

“We brought Clayton here to score goals and that’s what he did for us today. Clearly he needs to gain more fitness but he provides a different option for us.

We haven’t always gone with a big target man but he won plenty of headers and could be a threat for us. I thought when Kevin Street came on he was fantastic. It was like the young Streety out there and after he came on Sean Griffiths was outstanding in the centre of the park and he rightly picked up the sponsors man of the match award .”

Goddard is convinced that despite a run of poor results, his side are close to being one of the stand out sides in the North West Counties Premier Division:

He added: “I believe that we are close to being a stand out side in this division. The margins really are very fine indeed. If you look at our last two league games, the first was against the league leaders and we got beaten 45 seconds from the end, and then at City of Liverpool, we lost 1-0 but should have won comfortably.” Whitchurch travel to Congleton Town on Tuesday (7.45pm).