The weather comes all at once

I was fortunate that Prescot Cables were at home again for our Boxing Day fixture against Warrington Town. It is one of the busiest days in the sporting and retail calendar, as long as you have your own transport, or live in a city where there might be a skeleton bus service. The 10A was full of people who had been to the sales: I was only able to get on because someone got off at my stop. I do not know whether Shaun Reid went shopping on the way, but his trademark V-neck wooly sweater, in a grey as dark as the sky, was covered by a coat, a garment I had not known until this occasion that he possessed.

Warrington of course have had a successful run in the FA Cup. This can have an adverse impact on league form, and it is by no means a foregone conclusion they will be successful in the games in hand they build up. Nonetheless, we were expecting this game to be a challenge, especially after a heavy defeat at the weekend.

Oscar Durnin

Through the season I deal with all sorts of weather conditions. Usually these come one by one, temperature dropping, cloud cover, rain and wind, so that, by this time of year, I have recent experience of keeping warm, watching the apertures, and using the rain cover. This year has been unusually mild, so my skills are rusty, so I had a spot of bother keeping the rain cover in place, not helped by the realisation that fitting it is another on the growing list of tasks I need to take my glasses off to be able to see.

It was possibly the worst natural light I have seen at an afternoon game, with the floodlights needed from the beginning. All bar the first few pictures of the collection look as though they were taken at an evening game.

Liam Dodd

Conditions like this make pictures a bit of a lottery, I do my best to get all the players in, but this is not always possible in low light. The wind was swirling the rain about, so it took a few minutes to get an idea which side of the ground would have the rain on my back rather than on the front of the lens. I was therefore in the wrong place to catch Sam Corlett's first goal. I was not too concerned, Sam is a gift for the photographer in position and playing style, so I would have one for the paper later, or so I thought.

Those who braved the weather were treated to an excellent performance, the defence looking stronger than for some time, and changes allowing James McCulloch to move to his stronger position in midfield.

James McCulloch

Warrington did not look to be coping well, with two players sent off in the second half for dangerous tackles.

Sam provided a second goal in the last 10 minutes, again on the wrong side of the pitch for me to capture it, even if I had not been dealing with my equipment, including losing the eyepiece when the rain cover detached it (a replacement was cheap and easy to obtain on eBay, once I ploughed through the sellers in China with 3 - 6 week postage times to find one in England who could send it by normal post).

The second goal proved its value in almost the last kick of the game, when Steven Tames, a product of the Cables youth team, broke through for a consolation goal for the visitors.

Steven Tames

Because of the conditions, the final collection was smaller than usual, even more than for the Clitheroe game. I was similarly constrained with what met the criteria for the Merseymart, not being able to send anything of our goal scorer, or not so you would recognise him anyway.

Sam Corlett passes to Jack Phillips

A win against our local rivals who have been on the telly was just what the doctor ordered after the weekend, and it will help many of us to quietly forget the previous result.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Corlett 2), Warrington Town 1