Steam pipe trunk distribution venue

The day before Prescot Cables' game at Witton Albion, the hosts, with commendable accuracy, explained that the pitch was playable, but heavy rain was forecast overnight, so an inspection was scheduled for the morning. Lighter than expected rain meant this was not required.

The club's name comes from Witton cum Twanbrooks, one of Northwich's constituent villages, after which the parish church, St Helen Witton, is also named. I decided the most comfortable travel option was by train via Chester. It was raining heavily when I changed trains, and I anticipated a late postponement, although the rain was lighter in Northwich. The walk to the ground was along a new road built on a former railway alignment. Running alongside were some large bore pipes with warnings about high pressure steam, and visual evidence leaking from one. I am not sure whether they only carry steam, as I thought a factory that needed it would generate it on site.

I was concerned I might have made a wasted journey, as a number of players who would normally be starting but for injury emerged from the bar just as I arrived. However, the pristine playing surface drained well, and a few ground volunteers were energetically forking to make sure. There is a stand along one side and some covered standing on the other three. It was clear the floodlights, in a corner arrangement, would be needed from an early stage. I took up position opposite the stand.

Rob Doran opened the scoring after 30 minutes. I was not in the best position to capture the goal ...

... but I captured his celebrating with his normal unflappable match day demeanour.

The lead did not last long, with Jamie Menagh, formerly of this parish, scoring four minutes later.

Jamie Menagh chases Connor Grainger

The rain continued to fall throughout the half. I attempted to get an impression of the rain in the pictures, but I think I removed quite a bit with over enthusiastic noise reduction, which removes grain, but can also remove anything that resembles it. The pitch was draining well, aided by a comprehensive replacement of divots at half time.

For the start of the second half, I went behind the goal we were attacking, and was rewarded by capturing a first goal for the club from Joe Nicholson.

Joe Nicholson shoots for goal ...

... and watches it go in

Shortly afterwards, I moved back to the side. At this time of year, there is a point when the floodlights go from assisting with natural daylight to taking over the primary illumination. I had not given this much thought before managing my own white balance - I was only concerned with illuminance. Colour balance is expressed in temperature units: high temperatures for blue light, and low for red. This feels counter intuitive: as the afternoon gets darker and colder, the light gets bluer, so its "temperature" goes up. Once the floodlights take over, the temperature falls to the red end of the spectrum, in a clear discontinuity, one frame needs balancing for shade, then a few frames later it is for fluorescent light. There is not, however, much difference in the processed output.

George Mannion in cloudy light

Marcus Burgess with the floodlights dominant

We held on for a good win, our form at home starting to show on the road. Witton have struggled more than we expected at the beginning of the season, but this was a demonstration that we can perform when missing some first choice players. Our latest recruits from the Youth Team, Andy Scarisbrick and Connor Grainger, continue to impress, with the latter adjudged by a poster on the Witton forum to have caused their defence problems all afternoon.

Andy Scarisbrick

Having visited Witton's new ground, I bought a sandwich on my way to the train at (as I did not realise until later) their old one, Sainsbury's on the site of the Central Ground being a successful example of a club working with the retail sector to develop new facilities.

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

Final score: Witton Albion 1 Prescot Cables 2 (Doran, Joe Nicholson).