Foreign parts

Prescot Cables' Boxing Day fixture against Skelmersdale United had all the elements for a surprise result.
- Boxing Day - tick;
- high flying local rivals, managed by our former manager Tommy Lawson - tick;
- visiting supporters expecting us to roll over - tick;
- last game in charge for our manager, Dave Ridler, with the lads wanting to give him a good send off - tick.

Dave is taking up an appointment overseas with the expanding Liverpool International Football Academy network. He started his playing career with Prescot, before going on to a League career with Wrexham and Macclesfield. He returned to Prescot as Assistant Manager in 2009, and took up the reins when Joe Gibiliru stepped down in 2010. Whilst results have not been as good as we would have hoped, and reflect the financial resources available, performances have improved, and Dave has uncovered some good local players.

The biggest improvement has been in discipline on the field. This has been a problem for some time, with frequent bookings, particularly for dissent, with the club near the bottom of last season's disciplinary table for senior football in England. An improvement was noticeable towards the end of last season, and has really taken hold this season. There have been hardly any bookings for dissent, and those picked up in play have dropped too, with teamwork and individual performances improving as a result. Discipline alone will not get results, but we will not get them without it, so I hope this is something a new manager can continue.

Dave's departure will take an interest in Prescot to pastures new. This blog is unintentionally doing its bit, once you put something out on the internet, it can be read anywhere. I get 4 or 5 hits a week from Russia, so I am not sure if someone is looking for tips on managing condensation on the lens whilst watching bandy (basically hockey played outside on ice). I will not have been much help dealing with extreme cold, it is a few seasons since we last visited the East Coast.

A mention of a player can start traffic. Fraser Ablett attracted a number of searches for images from Australia.

That made sense, as he shares a name with a well known Australian Rules player. I am, however, unable to explain the 4 image searches from Norway, prompted by last week's mention of the return of Colin Flood.

The game lived up to the tradition, with a long range goal from Cables' John Couch

cancelling out Skelmersdale's goal (the picture is not of the goal by the way). The Skelmersdale match report suggested the game was "not for the purist". Granted, the scramble for Prescot's winning goal from James McCulloch was not pretty,

... but a goal is a goal, and their goalkeeper looked a bit surprised when it went in.

Prescot had chances to make the lead secure that were not taken, but held on with a sound display in defence.

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