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)