Despite having no game at the weekend, Whitchurch Alport held a charity event with a fans versus staff match.

It’s the fans that now hold the bragging rights after a 5-4 win in front of a healthy crowd.

The event raised around £300 for Don’t Mind Me, a charity organisation looking at promoting mental-health awareness and suicide prevention.

The Reds should have been playing Irlam but the Manchester club are still in the FA Vase, which takes preference over league games. Sadly, their tie was postponed due to a frozen pitch and will now take place this coming weekend, which was the rearranged date for the league match.

That means another frustrating free week for Alport unless an alternative fixture can be pencilled in at the last minute. Whitchurch should have travelled to 1874 Northwich in midweek but a waterlogged pitch put paid to their preparations for tonight’s (Wednesday) Ethelston Cup semi-final against Prees at Yockings.

Goddard emphasised the superb spirit that has been built involving the local community with the town’s football club. he said “It said everything about what this football club stands for.

“There must have been between 120 and 150 people inside the stadium which is phenomenal. Many clubs in our league would be delighted with that for a league game, but it was all about raising awareness for a fantastic charity and being able to make a sizeable donation after what was a fun afternoon for lots of families at the football club.

“It’s vitally important in terms of sustainability to involve the local community and we have done that several times as it’s just part of our mantra. There were people in the clubhouse until nearly six o’clock which is amazing for a one o’clock kick-off and there was a really good vibe around the place.”

The Reds boss was up at the ground on Sunday to assess the state of the pitch.

A heavy frost overnight had made the surface slippy and fixture planned for Saturday, the likelihood is that it would have been called off.

“We’ll do all we can to make sure that we can get the Prees game on but of course we are at the mercy of the weather gods so it’s 50-50 at the moment.

“We don’t know much about them – maybe one or two of their players – but they will come and give it a right good go so we don’t want to be on the wrong end of an upset.

“We brought last year’s trophy to the club after a long period without it and we could see how much it meant to our supporters, so we will have to go strong.”