THE Northern Premier League have confirmed they will restart fixtures on Saturday.

Following the government’s announcement that a small number of fans could attend matches in Tier 3 areas, the league say they received “a high number of requests” from teams to play league games on December 19.

It is understood Warrington Town are not one of those teams – they were due to host Ashton United on Saturday.

Instead, their return to league action will be a trip to neighbours Witton Albion on Boxing Day, when a full fixture list will resume.

In a statement released yesterday, the Trident Leagues – the NPL, Isthmian and Southern Leagues – had agreed to wait until after the government’s first review of the tier system on Wednesday before making any decisions.

However, the NPL board has decided to permit teams to play fixtures this coming Saturday with a 3pm kick off.

Yellows have not played a league game since November 3, when they were beaten 3-1 at FC United of Manchester.

They returned briefly last week but that too resulted in defeat, with their FA Trophy campaign ending via a 3-1 reverse at Marske United.

Fixtures were paused during November's national lockdown but while non-elite football could resume from December 2, clubs voted to continue the stoppage after the majority of NPL clubs were placed under Tier 3 restrictions, meaning games had to be played behind closed doors.

Once the government gave ground on that issue, however, it paved the way for fixtures to return