Unauthorised food

I was lucky not to be ejected from Prescot Cables' game away to Wakefield at the weekend, although as it was not their regulations I was breaching, I suspect they were not zealously enforcing them.

Wakefield will be known to many by their former name of Emley AFC, under which they reached the last 16 of the FA Amateur Cup, the FA Vase final and the 3rd round proper of the FA Cup. The club moved to Wakefield in 2000, becoming Wakefield & Emley, to meet ground grading requirements. They are not to be confused with AFC Emley, who were founded in 2005 to use the historic Welfare Ground in the former mining village of Emley, following the disbanding of Wakefield & Emley's reserve team, who had until then continued to play there. Wakefield are playing this season at Stade France, the home of Ossett Town.

So, what did I do to risk being ejected?

Take a look at this picture of Cables' Liam Pearson going for a header - looking particularly at the notice behind the players. "No food or drink to be brought into the ground when the food bar is open. Anyone doing so will be ejected." I was in possession of a half finished bottle of water.

The tea bar is an important source of revenue for a club: one reason clubs often struggle when they do not have their own ground is that they do not receive the bar and refreshment revenue that goes to the landlords. However, I am not sure ejecting anyone with unauthorised food is the best way to protect revenue - anyone so removed is not likely to darken the turnstiles again. With crowds in the hundreds, or even the tens, the food offering is necessarily limited, mainly confined to burgers and pies, that will sell to the maximum number, and can be easily bought in bulk and frozen. Clubs do not have enough customers to offer something for all dietary requirements, and enforcing this regulation makes the game less attractive for those who cannot or do not want to eat what the club is able to offer. I would not like to be the press officer handling the aggrieved vegetarian ejected for bringing a cheese sandwich, or the diabetic left to eat his emergency Mars bar on the pavement outside the ground.

It was the last game in British Summer Time this year, although the light was failing towards the end, with the referee requesting the floodlights be turned on. I had not been paying attention to the shutter speeds the camera was offering before the lights came on. As the sports mode on the D5000 does not go above ISO 1600 but starts reducing the speed instead, I had to abandon most of the frames from the previous 5 minutes as the action was too blurred, although a couple still made it despite the low speed.

The game was not one for the purist, with a draw being a fair result, with Prescot's goal coming from Michael Grogan (on the right in this picture).

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.