Cup preliminaries

Everything was ready as I arrived for Prescot Cables' FA Cup Preliminary Round game against Trafford. The teams were arriving, the bar was stocked, and our Chairman's lucky FA Cup suit (which is only intermittently lucky) was pressed and ready. As the visiting coaching staff arrived, Andy Paxton lent them a couple of poles for their goalkeeping warm up to save their going back to the car to get theirs ... just as one, not observing this transaction, went back to the car to get theirs.

I was early as I had been commissioned to take the team photo. Last year's was a rushed affair, but I made a careful note of how we came to have a rather lopsided lineup, and had plans to avoid similar pitfalls. The only obstacle was rain, and that held off for a while longer than forecast, so there was no problem. Unfortunately, communication had gone wrong, Andy Paxton only found out in the morning, so had not been able to brief the players, so we postponed it for a week. All was not lost, as coach Roy Grundy knew he would be away next week, so posed for his individual picture.

Roy Grundy

Having arrived before the turnstile opened, I had not had to pay to get in. I therefore headed to the bar.

There were a couple of changes from the last two games, with Jack Phillips and Phil Bannister making their first starts of the season, and Neil Weaver making his first competitive start for the club.

Neil Weaver

The weather was changeable, as was my camera position. I went out into the open into a few spots of rain...

Nathan Quirk

... then put the cover on as the rain got heavier, retreated to the Gasworks side to avoid the wind blowing rain on to the front of the lens...

Lloyd Dean

... only to find the gusts were coming from more than one direction, once again retreated to the Safari Park End when the sun came out and I was looking into it...

Jacob Jones

... then went back under the stand when it started to rain again.

Trafford had a strong side, with reports suggesting they had recruited a number of those of last season's Warrington side who did not want to commit to the travelling in the higher division. They scored what would prove to be the only goal of the game just before half time.

For the second half, it looked as though it had stopped raining, so I went outside to cover the same side of the pitch as for most of the first half (and therefore the opposite side of our team).

Josh Nicholson

However, the rain drove me back under the cover.

The Management watch Jack Phillips. The visitors have recruited Mr Baxter from Grange Hill.

I was happy with the ViewNX software, minimising grain, but not noise reducing out the rain.

Phil Bannister

The Rogues & Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match award was won by Bram Johnstone. I am making progress on the quick processing for this, converting to jpeg on the camera (much better quality than on the phone), uploading with the Nikon WMU at full size, and then a quick crop with the phone's built in editor.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Trafford 1

Sunset over Droylsden

Droylsden is a convenient away game for midweek: to go straight there, I can leave Liverpool after 6pm. There are four reasonably fast trains to Manchester per hour (even if three leave within 10 minutes), going onwards in three different directions, reducing the chance of being affected by disruption on one line. This time, trains going on to Yorkshire were cancelled due to a whippet chewing through a track circuit in the Dewsbury area, but I caught the electric train (this really should not sound as exciting as it is - it's grim up north) going on to the Airport, and a tram at Piccadilly. The Butcher's Arms (or possibly Butchers' Arms, the club website is not specific on how many butchers) ground is a short walk from the tram - shorter than the time waiting to cross the road at the traffic lights outside the King's Head. I had a better journey than the players, officials and kit, who had mostly been stuck in traffic, and, with no coach, not even the reassurance everyone is delayed together.

I arrived to find a small crowd gathered round the team sheet, and thought clubs could assist in raising the number of people who can read it at once by putting a couple of pairs of reading glasses on a string, when a gentleman emerged from the office going one better and handing copies round.

I took up position for the teams lining up, looking into the sunset. This did not do much for my numbers, boots and haircuts pictures for identifying the opposition, but it looked striking.

Fortunately for me, we were attacking into the sun, and it did not cause too many problems for the players, as we opened the scoring with Lloyd Dean heading in a James Edgar corner.

Droylsden keeper James Coates organises his defence - seemingly unaware of the threat beside him

James Edgar takes the corner ...

... and Lloyd Dean heads it in

The reflection of the strong low sunlight on the clubhouse building was causing a few lighting problems, and I was glad I had taken this picture in raw so I could correct them myself.

The hosts picked up with two goals a few minutes before half time. We usually expect the best sunsets at the coast, but Droylsden was putting on a good show, one to delight the local shepherds who look after the lamb on the club badge.

Primary illumination for the second half came from the lights, with a pylon in each corner. The light is better closer to the goal line and touchlines than with the more common side arrangement.

Sam Staunton-Turner

Bram Johnstone

In the last few seasons we have not enjoyed a good record at Droylsden, former Cables Player Assistant Manager Ged Murphy having an annoyingly good record against us since he returned to his home town club.

Ged Murphy

It looked as though we might be in a similar position this evening, until Lloyd Dean scored a second with 15 minutes to go. Both sides worked equally hard after this to secure the win, with our efforts denied by a particularly good performance from James Coates in the home goal.

I packed up my equipment a few minutes before the end, ready for a quick getaway. My train was at 2207 from Piccadilly, with an hour until the next one. I timed the tram out at 17 minutes with no delays. Had there been a couple of goals between the teams, I would probably have slipped away early for an earlier tram. Not that I knew when they ran: they do not publish a timetable, Traveline gives timings based on 12 minute intervals since the start of service, there is no real time information online, and I had to obtain the journey time by observation, as they do not publish that either. I am not sure what it is with trams, Croydon has the same issues.

In any event, I knew by the time the tram arrived that my train was 10 minutes late due to the earlier problems in Yorkshire, so I could stroll to the platform rather than try to sprint past people who do not realise it is not called a moving walkway for nothing. Realtime Trains is your friend when out and about.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Droysden 2 Prescot Cables 2 (Dean 2).

New Cammels and new buses

Having been in Chester last Tuesday, I stopped on the way back to see what team former Prescot Cables manager Neil Prince had assembled at Cammell Laird 1907, playing AFC Darwen in the FA Cup. Although I had my camera equipment with me, I thought of an incognito visit, until I was greeted by a friend of these pages, former Cables goalkeeper Ben Morrow, who was on the bench for the hosts.

Ben Morrow (left)

There were a couple of players I recognised for the hosts, Liam Dodd, who played a large part of the 2014-15 season for Prescot Cables ...

Liam Dodd

... and Jamie Hayes, who featured in the early part of last season, before moving to the North West Counties playoff winners Barnton.

Jamie Hayes

Neil also played himself for the first half.

Neil Prince

I took up position behind the goal Cammell Laird were attacking, a good choice, as they put in a strong performance, being 3-0 ahead after half an hour.

The lights were turned on about five minutes from the end of the half, a welcome move, as the lighting just before they are needed often proves tricky - the images on the camera screen betraying this, with the automatic conversion process on the computer confirming.

For the second half, I moved to the fence by the bus garage, where, fortunately, they were not using the bus washer. However, of interest to some readers, there were four bright, shiny new Enviro 200 Euro 6s lined up by the fence, the first I have seen in the wild. These pages travel a lot by bus, and we generally know what we are travelling on.

The second half started slowly, until the visitors were awarded a penalty on the hour. They then pursued their chance to get back in the game more forcefully as the half went on. This coincided with the rain starting to fall quite heavily. You can tell when I am not following my own team - had I been doing so, I would have remained at my post and put on a cover, but in this case I headed round to the other side of the ground and into the seats.

A second goal from Darwen in the 86th minute made for a nervous few minutes for the hosts, who narrowly managed to avoid extra time.

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

Final score: Cammell Laird 3 AFC Darwen 2

300 up

I noticed last week that I have now accumulated 300 posts in these pages, which I did not have in mind when I thought of sharing photo tips in 2011. I spotted this preparing a post on my visit to Cammell Laird last week, but I decided to combine the anniversary post with the first game of Prescot Cables' regular season, so the Cammel Laird post will follow this.

Prescot were entertaining Ossett Town. In the corresponding fixture last season we faced a visiting team needing points, whereas we were safe, and superior motivation won. Having a good start to competitive action (technically last season's action), with a big win in the Liverpool Senior Cup semi final, and a good display against a strong Everton side in the well attended final, we were keen to continue.

Both sides were quick to get a grip on the game, and in some cases on each other.

We had the better of the first few minutes, but fell away after having a goal disallowed for offside. I moved from behind the goal to the Gasworks Side for a few minutes. From here, I was able to see the first goal, as we came back into the game, a penalty from Rob Doran after James Edgar had been brought down just inside the area.

Rob Doran takes the penalty ...

... and Robbie the coach driver watches it go in.

Dr Tony and his father Ronnie brought their flag to indicate to our Yorkshire visitors where they were (observing historic county boundaries), and indicating that real ale was available, although their home county is not too shabby in that department. The flag also promotes the Augustus John, a pub on the University Precinct (a designation that went the way of the Convocation life membership I paid for when I graduated), a recruiting ground for Cables support for 25 years.

Dominic Marie

James Edgar scored our second goal. Dr Phil, who looks after the Facebook page, wondered if I get many pictures of goal celebrations. I had to admit I do not, as I am often looking to see if I got the goal. However, I was able to oblige on this occasion.

Amongst our new sponsors is Rogues & Rascals Barbershop, sponsoring a Man of the Match award. The first winner was Joe Herbert.

Joe Herbert

I have been working on getting the image from the presentation out before I get home, so the sponsors can use it straight away, although perhaps not within Getty Images' 180 seconds. I invested in a decent (or at least bigger, and a LOT cheaper than a proper Nikon), flash unit, and am experimenting with the tools available to crop the image. As I looked at the image that had gone from website to Facebook page, annihilating pixels as it went, I decided there is some way to go on the latter. Here is how it looks when I have had chance to process it on the computer.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Doran pen, Edgar) Ossett Town 0

Bullet points

With Prescot Cables having no further games before the start of the league season - having had two cup games, I can see the point of not going back to friendlies - I looked to the Hallmark Security League or the Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round for action. I never understood why the FA Cup starts a week earlier this year, but it meant many teams started their season in this competition. As somewhere I had not been, with easy train connections, I chose Alsager Town at home to Barton Town Old Boys.

The hosts started playing in 1968, making them the same age as me, although they had a year or two when they were disbanded before being reformed in 1988-9. I was a student then, so you could say I followed a similar trajectory. They are known as the Bullets after the ammunition factory that has been located near the town since the Second World War. The visitors, meanwhile, could easily have been called Barton Town and Old Boys, as they were formed when two clubs merged to make the best of limited volunteer resources a few years ago.

The ground entrance was a little hard to find, off a residential street. The close suggested by Mr Google's maps backed on to the ground, as I could see the floodlights, but did not provide access. As I tried the next close, I noted the visitors' coach driver had chosen not to watch the game, but to remain in his vehicle and read the paper, so I could ask if he saw which way his passengers had gone. As it was, I had found the way in.

Once inside, the pitch was down some steps, and offered a range of cover on the two sides. I found the ideal spot for the weather conditions: in the shade, with the sun behind me, a nice pillar to lean on and a cooling breeze.

Watching televised games in the 1970s, northern grounds all seemed to have an advert for Mornflake Oats. They still produce oat based comestibles, and their advertising is more colourful than I remember.

Speaking of food, clubs that appear later in the competition have been accused of being a home to the prawn sandwich brigade. We do not hold with such things in these pages, being more particular in our choice of fish.

The strong sunlight proved a challenge, with which View NX2's automatic settings generally coped well. I tried processing some raw files with my choice of settings to see if I could produce a better result, rapidly finding I could not.

I was alongside the half the hosts were attacking, a good place to be as they took a firm grip on the game, scoring after three minutes, and keeping up the pressure to add a second a couple of minutes before half time.

Alsager score their second goal

At half time, the visitors went to the dressing room in the conventional manner, whilst Alsager elected to gather on the pitch in front of me, where the manager's team talk drew a small but attentive audience. I stayed put for the second half: as an occasional visitor with no horse in the race, I saw no need to change my comfortable position.

After Alsager scored early in the second half, the supporters behind me were still apprehensive, losing a three goal lead apparently not being unknown in these parts. They relaxed, however, with a further goal, as no-one could remember throwing away four, even with a consolation goal for the visitors.

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

Final score: Alsager Town 4 Barton Town Old Boys 1

Cup final

Following Prescot Cables' win in their Liverpool Senior Cup semi-final against Litherland REMYCA last weekend, the County FA were keen to complete the competition before it got in the way of the new season. For the final against Everton (the Under 23 side, a description applying to a fair number of our team too), they chose the next available date, five days later. Marketing got under way, with posters in the town and on social media, which worked, attracting a crowd of 865. People even returned to Prescot from abroad (well, Scotland anyway).

This was the club's first cup final since the North West Counties League Cup in 2002, so the first I would photograph. I watched the former from the blazers' enclosure at Bury FC, having wandered past a steward helpfully holding a gate open without checking who was going through it.

This time it would fall to me to provide the club's photographic output. In a big game, this leaves you feeling like Jonah (in Nineveh, not in the fish), plugging away at a collection whilst those who only need one or two frames are tweeting their results. I read an interview in the paper with a photographer for Getty Images at the Olympics - they can get an image from camera to editor's laptop to market in 180 seconds. Try that on a wet Tuesday night in November against Ossett Albion.

James Edgar

I try to capture all the players , but if I miss one in a  league game, it will even itself out over two or three weeks. For a game like this, everyone wants to be able to show they were there, playing against a Premiership club, in front of a large crowd, That means ideally pictures including an Everton player, and the crowd in the background. Missing someone out was not going to go down well. I made sure I was there early and got a few pictures of warming up.

Andy Paxton briefs the team

The next challenge came with the mascots, from the Junior section / All Star Coaching, 22 of them, one with each of the players. I snapped them lining up and shaking hands, an activity at which people were not hanging about, with the first players moving down the line before the last had taken their place. I produced a set of pictures with a heading so the boys and their parents can have a souvenir. Identifying that everyone is in is just the same for the adults - check for boots and haircuts.

Once we were under way, I snapped away furiously, making a mental note of who I had not seen for a bit. The new pitch perimeter that volunteers had worked on over the summer was looking tidy, and, most importantly, giving full support to the new advertising boards.

Nathan Quirk

Over the last few games, I have cropped many more pictures to the ratio the camera uses, rather than those like 10 x 8, unless there is a distraction I want to crop out. This is partly technical, the original ratio has more pixels, and partly changing taste on my part. It was handy for a few shots on this occasion.

Josh Nicholson

At the Safari Park End, evidence remained of Stuart Pearce's having been in the ground earlier, filming an advert.

Jonah O'Reilly

For the second half I took up position on the Gasworks Side, where I had more company than usual. With most of the advertising facing the same way as me, I concentrated on getting players in front of the crowd.

Rob Doran

The visitors were taking the competition seriously (not always the case with professional sides in county cups), and took a firm grip on the game with two goals in the first half and one in the second. Even with the game out of reach, our players were still looking for the consolation goal, but it was not to come.

I usually limit a collection to about 60 pictures, about the maximum number most people want to scroll through, but I allowed slightly for this game. The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Everton 3.

The colour purple

There are some things you see when you get to the ground that just make your evening.

Jack Phillips

When Jack Phillips went to Accrington Stanley last year, I did not expect to see him again, but he has joined us to watch his local club on a number of occasions. He spent the second half of last season recovering from an operation to remove a bone spur, and is about to take up a sports science internship at Everton, so is available to play. Having started the competitive season (more accurately completed the last competitive season) for Skelmersdale in the Liverpool Senior Cup, he has now rejoined us.

Prescot Cables' game against City of Liverpool FC, newly admitted to the Hallmark Security League, took on an unusual air, sandwiched between the Liverpool Senior Cup semi-final against Litherland REMYCA and the final against Everton. The list of those not playing gave an indication of who was likely to start in the cup final - with some of this game's starters being cup-tied.

Dominic Marie

The visitors play in purple, the City's corporate colour, and neutral between Liverpool and Everton. In many types of light, this is difficult to reproduce accurately with digital photography. This is not just true of football kits, even a flower in the garden can present a similar problem.

Lloyd Dean and former Cables player Daley Woods

The material can make a difference - the reproduction of the training top worn by City of Liverpool Assistant Manager and former Cables player Tom Spearitt is a lot closer to what you see with the naked eye.

Tom Spearitt

We were joined by local photographer Charles Green, who I first met when he was a student doing a sports module a couple of years ago. He is now working professionally, so check him out for your event photography requirements.

The match officials were wired for sound, which I have not seen at this level before.

I am not sure what the guidelines on radio communication are. When I have seen officials so equipped in rugby, the touch judge seems to speak in limited circumstances, drawing attention to a foul, or answering a question from the referee. The assistant on the gasworks side seemed to be keeping up a running commentary on anything outside the referee's field of vision, and a few things in it.

We had a strong first half, scoring two goals, as well as sending a couple of shots into the shrubbery at the Safari Park End that were probably only coming out with the assistance of gardening tools. We made a couple of changes for the second half, with the determined visitors pulling two back.

The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 City of Liverpool 2

Splat

I could picture my late mother's reaction, "It's your own fault for not picking your feet up", as I removed my face from the pavement on which it had come to rest on the way to Prescot Cables' Liverpool Senior Cup Semi Final against Litherland REMYCA. I do not normally shuffle, but there must be something about Sefton Council's pavements, I caught my foot on a paving slab twice more, staying upright this time, before I achieved the level ground of Litherland Sports Park. I arrived gently dripping blood from my face, but no-one seemed to bat an eyelid. We have an unusual number of Doctors supporting us, but with most being PhDs in Pharmacology, recently joined by Dr Tony, PhD in Politics, none are any good with minor injuries. Fortunately, Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, turned out to be our leader in First Aid too, as he procured some antiseptic wipes and plasters.

Dr Phil and Dr Tony - a rare sight seeing the latter with something not cask conditioned, but needs must!

The game was the semi-final of the 2015-6 Liverpool Senior Cup, the amount of water that fell on our pitch playing a part in ensuring the competition remained unfinished last season. Everton beat Skelmersdale United in the other semi-final, so we would face their Under 23 side if we won. That game had been an opportunity for a friend of these pages, Anthony Phillips, to watch his brother Jack in action for Skelmersdale. There would be nothing unusual in that, but Anthony had been discharged earlier that day after four months in hospital recovering from life threatening pneumonia, so this blog wishes him well in his ongoing recovery, and looks forward to seeing him at Cables soon.

I have visited the hosts on a number of occasions since they joined the North West Counties League, their Wednesday match night attracting a number of additional spectators, and their sandy soil meaning a game is likely to be on when others are off. This would be my first time taking pictures. I could probably have obtained permission to don high vis and go on to their running track, but I was not sure who to ask. I therefore took up position level with the corner flag on the back straight, only six lanes from the pitch, unlike the home straight which would be eight lanes and a long jump pit.

Some were following the game from afar. Phil Bannister was on holiday somewhere hot, and Lloyd Dean was at a wedding. We can picture the latter, "I now pronounce you husband and Gooooooaaaaaaalllllll!"

Prescot enjoyed a two division advantage over the hosts, but this is not necessarily any guide, as REMYCA had put out Southport in a previous round. The likelihood of a contest was considerably diminished when the home goalkeeper was dismissed inside 5 minutes for a foul just outside the penalty area denying a goal scoring opportunity. Rob Doran converted the resulting free kick.

Rob Doran, supported by Joe Herbert and Michael Simpson. For those addicted to business jargon, THIS is "going forward"

We have been able to keep most of last season's team, and there have been a few additions over the summer. Nathan Quirk has looked promising, and confirmed this with a hat tick in his first competitive game.

Nathan Quirk

When Andy Paxton became our manager eleven months ago, he mainly started work with the players we had. However, he brought with him the Nicholson brothers, products of their father's Skelmersdale United Youth setup, who have proved useful and reliable. Both scored in the second half, Josh with two and Joe with one.

Josh Nicholson

Joe Nicholson

For the second half, I again chose a position level with the goal line. Unfortunately, I did not notice the breeze, making the corner flag partially obscure the first goal from Andy Scarisbrick, who has half a season's experience in the First team, but still is only 17 for another month.

Andy Scarisbrick

For Andy's second goal, whilst there are Cables supporters who, at this point, would be muttering, "We can still throw this away you know", I was already packing up, and anticipating our first cup final since the North West Counties League Cup in 2002. Unlike that competition, for which the League usually used a Football League ground, we will be able to host Everton at home.

Our canine chums are part of the non League game, and this one was definitely posing for the camera. He (if it is a he) looked straight into the lens, showed his teeth in what I can only describe as a grin, and then struck this Bismarckian pose.

The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Litherland REMYCA 0 Prescot Cables 9 (Doran, Quirk 3, Josh Nicholson 2, Joe Nicholson, Scarisbrick 2)