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