Turned out fine in the end

This weekend saw Prescot Cables' last game of the season at home to Curzon Ashton. A couple of weeks ago, we were a bit concerned about this game, possibly needing points to avoid relegation, against a Curzon side needing a win to clinch automatic promotion.

That was then: a win at Ossett Town and a point against their tenants Wakefield in midweek pulled us free from the bottom two places; relegation positions were likely to be allocated off the field; and Curzon were assured of second place, so were resting some players for the play off semi final a couple of days later. The last was a sensible precaution, as they needed extra time and penalties to overcome Garforth Town and secure their place in the final.

The result was a win for Prescot, meaning an average tally of exactly one point per game and a 16th place finish, which came as a surprise, not least to me, as I was confident that we could not finish higher than 17th. It was a good finish, with all the changes in the team management over the year, and the first time for at least 5 years that the club has finished in a higher league position than the previous season.

After the game came the end of season presentation, with Joe Gibiliru Jnr winning a clean sweep of Supporters', Players' and Injury Assessor's Player of the Year awards. The last of those is more traditionally the Manager's award, but with one manager having left the country with his day job, and another taking Warrington Town to the Football League, the choice was made by the Injury Assessor, Tony Carroll, who has been a stabilising influence on the bench.

Joe Gibiliru Jnr

All the players deserve credit for the season's performance, those who have been with us all the way through, and those who have played a small number of games. When we are not able to compensate players for money lost through taking time off work, or when other pressures call for them to be elsewhere, we will necessarily have to field a lot of players in a season. As an illustration, here are our most regular player of the season, John Couch, with 35 starts and 5 substitute appearances, and our newest player, Luke Edwards, making his first appearance on the pitch away to Skelmersdale a couple of weeks ago.

John Couch

Luke Edwards

I think the handling of the move to amateur status helped to retain players, and still make the club attractive for new players. There was no saga of unpaid wages for weeks on end: amounts due were paid on time, and players who wanted to move on were able to do so without fuss. Indeed, only a couple of players with longer travelling distances chose to do so.

Of course, the game would not be complete without the supporters. Stalwart Cables supporter Harry Thomas is often telling me he should appear in more pictures, so here he is chatting to substitute goalkeeper Brian Pilkington.

From the look on Brian's face, and the careful look in the direction of the goal, I think Harry may have just told him of the time he was keeping goal, under the rather less well constructed posts of yesteryear, and the crossbar fell on his head.

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