It's Thursday, it must be the Cup

Prescot Cables' game against Litherland Remyca in the Liverpool Senior Cup came sooner than expected. We anticipated playing away the following week, but the County FA insisted on bringing it forward, and, as Litherland Sports Park was not available, we were hosting. Both sides had our leagues to think about: we were guaranteed a playoff place, but wanted to aim for home advantage, and Remyca were looking at automatic promotion in the North West Counties. Not that either side took the evening anything less than seriously, a realistic chance of silverware is a realistic chance of silverware.

We started with a minute's applause for Andy Maund, in whose memory we dedicated the match. Andy lived next to the ground, was a regular supporter home and away, and sadly died suddenly the previous weekend at the age of 46.

We gave two of our Youth team players some first team experience. Matthew Kewn and Dominic Murphy both played against Bootle in the First Round. Getting everyone in the picture at an evening game can be a bit hit and miss, and I was happy with the number of pictures I got of Matthew.

Matthew Kewn

I was a bit less happy with how much I was able to see of Dominic, but it would turn out he would earn an individual picture later.

It was fine evening, with a relaxed crowd, and overcoats left at home.

An occupational hazard of being a goalkeeper is that we only need one, so if you are injured you can find your replacement does so well he commands the place. Such a fate befell Marcus Burgess in the autumn, with Ben Barnes taking a regular place and Marcus on loan at Padiham. With seven games in fifteen days, we need all hands on deck, so we welcomed Marcus back.

Marcus Burgess

We opened the scoring with a penalty after about half an hour. I got the impression we might not have discussed beforehand who would take them. Harry Cain yielded to Dan Burns, who converted with ease.

Dan Burns

In the second half, it seemed as though the game was flagging a bit. I was sitting in front of the main body of our supporters for the first few minutes, and it was a bit like a crowded beer garden, with the dominant sound being of conversation.

Harry Cain brought the crowd back to life with a goal at 70 minutes.

Harry Cain shoots for goal ...

... and celebrates

A second goal from Harry ten minutes later made the result secure.

Dominic Murphy rounded off the scoring just before full time to complete a performance that won the Man of the Match award, presented by Andy Maund's father, Billy. The first attempt at a picture was unsuccessful, when we spotted he was in his Youth team training top - nothing says you have arrived quite like retaking your presentation photo in a First team top.

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 4 (Burns pen, Cain 2, Murphy) Litherland Remyca 0.