NON-league football is on the rise.

Punters are getting turned off slowly but surely by the professional game, especially the Premier League, and many of the disillusioned are turning to their local non-league teams for their footy fix.

The non-league clubs have reacted to this and become more media savvy, using the internet and social media to interact with the fans in conjunction with the traditional form of the printed word.

These new outlets are invariably run by young guns that have no fear of the computer!

Non-league aficionados are also producing podcasts to get their views across and there is a market out there for this product.

The North West Counties Football League has two such unofficial weekly podcasts.

Well, one and a half really.

The first one is run by Non-League Review's Stewart James, helped by Colls' very own Gibbo.

During the course of the season, the show morphed into something about North West non-league football in general, rather than just the NWCFL, as it was initially intended.

The newest arrival is the Counties Podcast, which, as the title indicates, is just about the NWCFL.

This is Rob McKay and Martin Fallon’s brainchild and they are joined by Colls' very own Zach Pierce.

Stew, Gibbo, Rob and Martin once shared the same podcast, but creative differences forced a messy divorce.

Both shows have growing audiences and this is evidence the town is big enough for both.

Local radio gets in on the act with Bolton FM and Tower doing regular interviews with managers and players, while score updates are given out at regular intervals on Saturday afternoons.

BBC Radio Manchester has a great little non-league show on Friday nights between 7-8pm and clubs from round our parts are getting a lot more coverage this year.

The excellent Ian Burke hosts this show and his enthusiasm for the game is palpable.

Then there is the big daddy of them all.

The BBC Radio 5 live non-league show, which goes out at 6am on Sunday morning.

It is a graveyard slot, granted, but the show can be downloaded with ease.

Caroline Baker is at the helm and her passion and skill dispels the myth that football is not for girls.

You will probably not remember, but I was on the show for a four or five-week period last year before being quietly dropped.

In the past, the show had a Southern bias but it is now recorded in Salford and Colls manager Michael Clegg got the gig last weekend.

He is a natural-born talker and gave a great account of himself, publicising the club at every opportunity.

At one stage, Ramsbottom co-manager Anthony Johnson was being interviewed and it became a bit of a love-in between Michael and Anthony.

Get a room I thought to myself.

Caroline and the other regular pundits might as well not have been there.

It was a great little advertisement really, as Colls play Ramsbottom next Monday night in the Lancs Cup quarter-finals at Alder House.

It’s the first time the teams have met since the last game of the 2006/07 season.

Colls won that 5-1 at the same venue and were good value for it.

Since then, Jonno and Bernard Morley have led Rammy up the ladder in fairytale fashion and Colls have had their best start for a generation, at least, so it should be a cracker.

On the same night, Daisy Hill entertain Holker Old Boys in the same competition.

Two matches to choose from, take your pick.

If you don’t make one, take a minute to check out the scores on Twitter, read the match report on the clubs' websites or listen to analysis of the games on the podcasts.

There is some good stuff out there.