It will be an emotional opening to the new Northern League season for Penrith tomorrow afternoon.
The club was rocked this week by the death of chairman Billy Williams, a man synonymous with Penrith football club for the best part of 60 years.
Penrith are staging a tribute to the popular club stalwart who has served as player, manager and chairman during his long association with football in the town.
Manager Jim Nichols is looking to win for Billy, but has absentees in defence for the opener against Easington Colliery.
Nichols, however, will be able to watch the game from inside the Frenchfield stadium after initially facing a ban for a misdemeanour as long ago as Boxing Day.
The ban has now been reduced to a touchline ban so he will be able to watch, and not from a nearby hill overlooking the pitch as he had planned.
Nichols believes Penrith have a tough start to the season with Blyth Town on Tuesday and a trip to Crook next Saturday to follow, and you can hear his thoughts talking to Cumbria Crack’s John Walsh below:
