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

Bactrian to the future

I had not previously noticed that the badge of Cammell Laird 1907,who visited Prescot Cables last week, features a Bactrian camel: I had thought it featured a dromedary. However, the same animal appears on the logo of the company after which the club is named. It is a strange choice for a shipbuilding company: the Bactrian lives in the steppes of central Asia, some venturing into the Stans, all some distance from any ocean going vessels.

Our visitors had a successful first season as a new club, having been in a two horse race with Atherton Collieries in the North West Counties League First Division. This was not altogether surprising, the change of legal entity and mandatory two step drop through the pyramid was to resolve an ownership issue, so most of their resources remained in place.

We got off to an unfortunate start, with John Riley, who has played for Cammell Laird for some years, and previously played for Cables, sustaining a dislocated shoulder in the first few minutes. Fortunately, John later reported that reduction (putting the joint back in its correct position) was successful, so we wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.

John Riley

This was the visitors' last pre season game, as the North West Counties has started a week before the Northern Premier for some years. Their being a week further advanced in their preparations showed: despite some good runs forward ...

... and some good saves from Jack Cookson in goal ...

... they had taken a three goal lead by half time.

Having used my usual position behind the goal at the Hope Street end for the first half, I was a bit lazy for the second. I stopped to talk to Jack Phillips in front of the stand, by the tunnel, and stayed put. This is not the best place for light once the floodlights come on, as there is a bulb out on the pylon in that corner. Still, the results with the available light seemed reasonable enough.

Mike Kennedy

Our performance on the field was much better in the second half. Cammell Laird changed their goalkeeper, and we took full advantage, eventually securing a draw with two goals in the last five minutes. This is only a pre season game, but keeping up the pressure to the end makes the difference in so many games, and we need to be the side taking advantage. We lost some points in the last few minutes of games last season, but we gained some too: I would have liked to do a quick count to see to what extent that worked for or against us, but the league website has archived the results, so only final scores, not goal times, are available to view.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 Cammell Laird 3.

Not getting the bus to the bus garage

These pages remain scrupulously neutral between the red and blue sides of Merseyside. However, I found myself wearing an Everton scarf on New Year's Eve - along with a woolly hat and thick gloves, attempting to open and eat a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork. I do not usually do anything for New Year, but my friend Philip and his family invited me to join them for the evening. As an Everton supporting household, they supplied the obvious garment for the game. They also support Marine, but with everyone throwing dice to get their turn with the clothing and the chocolate, there was no time to quibble over football allegiances.

Having been in a family environment, I was, alone amongst the Train Crew gathered at lunchtime on New Year's Day, in a fit state to operate precision electronic equipment for Prescot Cables' game away to Cammell Laird. We took the train to Rock Ferry: although the bus garage is behind the ground, experience with the bank holiday service suggests it is better to let the train take the strain. At least our local game was a short journey, Crawley Down Gatwick, with their name suggesting to the fixture computer that they are near an airport, found themselves with an away fixture at Guernsey FC.

The weather seems to be alternating between light and dark, so this time it was the turn for low cloud that had blown in after a bright start to the day.

We have not always had the best of results visiting Cammell Laird, indeed I cannot remember winning there, but things were looking up early in the first half. Former Cables defender Liam Hollett seemed to have won a tussle with Isaac Kusoloka for the ball ...

... but Isaac was able to slip past and take the ball away from former Cables goalkeeper Michael Langley, who had come a bit too far off his line.

The gloomy weather meant the floodlights were required throughout, but the installation at Kirklands is only a couple of years old, so results were still good in the first half.

Robert Gilroy

Things got worse in the second half, both for pictures and play. It started to rain, with the wind blowing in the direction of the goal we were attacking, making it difficult to keep rain off the lens. On the field, Nick Culkin went off injured at half time, which seemed to unsettle the defence as a whole. They were further unsettled when a clearance deflected off former Cables player John Couch and into the net, and, whilst the team kept up their efforts to the end, it seemed inevitable that our poor form away to Lairds would continue.

This was Ged Murphy's last game with us, as a couple of days later he accepted the position of Assistant Manager at Droylsden, where he played for a number of years. With a new baby imminent, he felt it was time to move to a club nearer to his home and business. We have certainly seen in the time that Ged has been with us that he relishes a challenge, and he will have one at Droylsden. With two points from 29 games, relegation is surely inevitable, but there is still the opportunity to stop the slide, attract local players who are keen to impress, get them playing as a team, pick up a few points and build a team that can compete in the First Division North next season. If anyone can do it, Ged can.

Ged Murphy gets everyone in position for a free kick

We also said farewell in December to Enzo Benn, who has been solid in defence for the last year or so, as well as scoring a couple of good goals, and is moving to London. I think we were hoping he would be able to play over the New Year but it was not to be.

Enzo Benn

This blog wishes both Ged and Enzo best wishes for the future.

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

Final score: Cammell Laird 2 Prescot Cables 1 (Kusoloka)

One hump or two?

After Prescot Cables' game against Cammell Laird on August Bank Holiday the question many of us were asking was how the game avoided degenerating into a fight. It had the hallmarks at 10 minutes, when our captain, James McCulloch, was pushed to the ground about three feet in front of the referee, who had stopped play to speak to another player. I do not normally comment on the match officials, apart from when they look a bit glum, but even if the referee was writing in his book, you might expect him to notice out of the corner of his eye and consult his assistants. His failure to do so suggested he had lost control of the game.

Between ourselves and Cammell Laird traffic in players feels (not entirely accurately) like it has been largely in one direction over the last couple of years. Absent from the Cammell Laird lineup were Joe Gibiliru Jnr, Liam Hollett (at the ground but injured and suspended respectively), and Michael Grogan (work commitments). John Couch, who has been saying that he is playing his last season for a couple of years now, was playing for Lairds, as was Jack Webb.

Rob Doran keeps John Couch at bay

I was chatting at half time to Mr Webb, Jack's father, who joked that there would be no pictures of Jack this time. Jack is a good player, and very mobile, so made it into a few pictures, but his father understood my purpose for the afternoon, concentrating on our players so they can look good for their family and friends.

Jack Webb chases James McCulloch

Referring to Mr Webb as such reminds me that I am from the last generation that, as children, did not know, and certainly did not use, their friends' parents' first names, and even in our forties refer to them in formal terms. When the players were of my generation, logic suggested the courtesy be extended to their fathers, but I should remember I am of the fathers' generation now.

It is quite common at our level of the game not to include a substitute goalkeeper on the team sheet. Most clubs do not have the funds to pay a player likely to be a spectator, and take the chance with an outfield player if the goalkeeper is injured or sent off. However, in the games I have attended this season, most clubs have been naming a goalkeeper amongst the substitutes. Cammell Laird followed suit, so, when goalkeeper Kevin Atherton went off injured, there was no chance to test a non specialist, as he was replaced by Andrew Mills, on loan from Macclesfield Town.

Andrew Mills saves at the feet of Connor McCarthy

With our going a goal down before half time, the game could have gone either way in the highly competitive, but better behaved, second half.

Ged Murphy rallies the troops, with Ryan Eiselt and Rob Doran

However, we were still less than clinical in our finishing, for which we paid when we fell to what we have recently been successful in avoiding, a couple of late goals. The Cammell Laird bench seemed to enjoy them, particularly the second: the goal difference may be useful at the end of the season, but you would hardly have thought they had only taken a two goal lead in the fourth game of the season.

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

Counting the cars on the Rock Ferry bypass

About 20 years ago, when I went to visit a friend who was working in the United States, I took the overnight coach from Liverpool to London to catch my flight. It took a rather circuitous route, including via Chester. A few minutes in, an ear worm planted itself, substituting the Rock Ferry bypass for the New Jersey Turnpike in Simon & Garfunkel's America, and has remained there ever since.

On May Bank Holiday this year, I went to the EvoStik League Division 1 North Playoff Semi Final at Cammell Laird (as I found out when I visited for an evening game, if you cross the Rock Ferry bypass, you have missed the turning for the ground). Mossley were the visitors, and on the basis of both sides' performances when Prescot Cables played them earlier in the season, I was not surprised to see either in the playoffs.

Cammell Laird's Steve Ferrigan challenges Mossley's Adam Mathers

Mossley were unhappy with the extension of the League season, as they felt it gave a disadvantage to clubs (like themselves) who had been able to keep their pitches playable through the winter. That may have missed the point of the extension, that unforeseen snow wiped out of almost a full week's programme at the end of March, leaving little room to rearrange fixtures without pushing clubs into three or more games per week. It delivered one advantage to the clubs, as the game was on a sunny bank holiday, rather than a Tuesday night, with a crowd of 336, considerably more than Cammell Laird's average home gate for the season of 56.

Observing the playoffs when your team is not in them can lead to conflicting feelings: a wish to see a team you like doing well, against the desire to be rid of a disliked away trip. In this case, I have been happy with both trips, and I have no particular feelings for either club, so I went with the local interest, the team that finished second and therefore would have gone up in the old days, and the side containing a few former Prescot Cables players, and started photographing at the end Cammell Laird were attacking.

We have looked before in these pages about how to convey the impression of players rising up to take a header. I commented on that occasion that few photos of a header without anyone round them make it in to the collection, possibly as there is no reference point, in the shape of other players' feet on the ground, to show how far the players involved have jumped. That post was written on a cloudy day: on a sunny day, we can use the players' shadow as a reference to indicate the ground.

Cammell Laird's Craig Cairns and Mossley's Jason Gorton challenge for the ball in the air

For the second half, I was unsure whether to stay in the same position to see the Mossley attack, or to change ends and stay with Cammell Laird. As the sun was shining across the pitch, and the weather people tell us the sun at this time of year is as strong as in August, I decided to change ends, and toast the other side. This gave a better view of some of Cammell Laird's ex-Prescot players.

John Couch

Michael Grogan

With both sides seemingly unable to find the net, extra time was beckoning, when Joe Holt scored for Cammell Laird in the 3rd minute of injury time.

Joe Holt scores the only goal of the game

Mossley seemed very unhappy with the referee. I thought at the time this was because of the amount of time added on, although there had been a lengthy stoppage near the beginning of the half for treatment for 2 players after an accidental collision. However, reading the report on the Mossley website later, their dissatisfaction arose from a throw in awarded to Cammell Laird, which led to the goal, and which they thought should have been a free kick to Mossley.

Mossley then rather strangely made a substitution, which I would have thought was more likely from Cammell Laird, to run the clock down, unless they thought they could gain some seconds by completing it more quickly than the 30 seconds normally added by the referee.

I had not expected there to be a presentation of medals to the Cammell Laird players after the game, this was after all a semi final, although they may have been for finishing as runners up in the regular season. I missed the presentation, as I went to catch my bus. Not that I need have rushed, the bank holiday struck again. Having contended with no Arriva timetables having been uploaded to the Traveline database on the way out; a member of staff from the Stagecoach garage reported there were delays on their route to Liverpool, with one driver having returned 2 hours late due to traffic in the vicinity of Chester Zoo, so I let the train take the strain.

My initial supposition about the likely attendance at an evening game may have been incorrect, 622 people attended the Final on Friday evening. This was won by Trafford on penalties, so the Cables Train Crew will have our opportunity to visit Gallagher's Pub and Barbers again next season. I had thought the reason for holding the Final on a Friday evening was to avoid a clash with the FA Cup, but it may have been that the League were (rightly) expecting a large attendance at the Premier Division Final on Saturday, where a Hednesford Town side including former Prescot Cables striker Aaron Rey beat FC United of Manchester in front of 4412 spectators.

Aaron Rey plays for Prescot Cables in the 2009-10 season

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

If the rain doesn't get you, the bus washer will

The Boxing Day fixture is a long standing part of the football programme. For those of a non sporting persuasion, the Boxing Day sales take a similar part in the calendar. That is, at least, for those with their own transport. Public transport remains patchy, with no trains, and buses depending on your location. London has a full service, other cities vary, and anywhere else has none. Liverpool had a Sunday service on most routes, between about 10am and 7pm. The information from Merseytravel was not as helpful as it might have been, with the booklet only giving times at the start and end of the routes, and only some routes uploaded to the Traveline database, leaving times at intermediate stopping points something of a lottery.

This year, Prescot Cables were playing away to Cammell Laird, on a bus route that was running, next to the Crosville (now First, soon to be Stagecoach) garage in Rock Ferry.

St Peter's Church, opposite the ground

A small but select group of independently travelling supporters made our way to the game, via Gallaghers Pub and Barbers in Birkenhead, something of a favourite for us when we visit the Wirral. Unfortunately, the barber's side was closed, as I could have done with a trim, but the range available from the pub side provided more than adequate compensation.

Cammell Laird seem to illustrate that a club with a profitable social club and small attendances will often do better than one with larger attendances and a lack of social facilities. We arrived at the well appointed Lairds Social Club expecting the game to be off, as it had been raining heavily for a couple of hours, not to mention for a few days beforehand. Looking out of the window, the bowling green looked in pristine condition, which had me wondering whether it is possible to play bowls in the rain. It might be better not to do so if the former World Champion David Bryant CBE is playing, as the rain would extinguish his trademark pipe.

Joining us in the bar was former Cables manager Dave Ridler, on holiday from his job with the Liverpool International Football Academy in Cairo. I assume he joined the 38 people who fitted themselves into the ground, the lowest attendance in the Division so far this season. At least there was plenty of room when the rain meant that everyone, apart from our intrepid musical section (Rod and Richard) made use of the available cover.

Fortunately, the covered standing is by the side of the pitch, at the end Prescot were attacking, so I had a good view of our attacks on goal.

Marlin Piana is denied by the goalkeeper

Our first goal was scored by Carl Furlong, in his first appearance for the club.

Carl Furlong

I did not capture the goal, the closest I came to it was Anthony Shinks crossing in, but the angle meant we would not recognise him without a team sheet. I captured him later, in a shot that sums up conditions in the first half.

Anthony Shinks

Despite the rain, I was happy with the light: sunset a few minutes later makes all the difference. The earliest sunset of the year was for the Radcliffe game a couple of weeks ago. In these latitudes, sunset starts to get later 7-10 days before the shortest day, and sunrise only starts getting earlier 7-10 days after it, although the latter point does not concern us for football.

Dave Owens, also making his Cables debut

The rain eased off for the second half, so I took up a position away from the cover. With 3 floodlight pylons on each side, the best position is about a quarter of the way along the pitch. This is level with the bus washer in the garage, so one usually gets a good spraying as buses return to the garage. Fortunately, on the Bank Holiday, they must have decided the buses had not accumulated enough mileage to need washing, or First decided to sell them dirt and all, so I stayed dry.

I did not capture Prescot's second goal either, a minute into the half, on the "pies before pictures" principle, and as it was a cold wet day, not just a pie, but the last of the soup as well. Marlin Piana, who showed promise on his debut at Radcliffe a couple of weeks ago, fulfilled it with his first goal for Cables. At least I was in the ground to see it, a fair proportion of the crowd were still on their way back from drying off in the social club across the road. With the score at 2-1, it looked like a promising afternoon, and still did even when Cammell Laird equalised again. However, when they went ahead, as Dave Powell explained after the game, we seemed to throw caution to the winds to get a goal back, allowing them to put the game out of reach.

I am not sure if Cammell Laird have improved their floodlights since my last visit. I always thought theirs to be one of the darker grounds, but I was happy with the results to the end of the game. The pylons and heads looked the same, but it is quite possible they have had new bulbs.

Joe Fielding, pictured towards the end of the game

After the game it was back to Gallaghers to squeeze in a pint, about all there was time for before the end of the bus service. As for the haircut, I had that at a Turkish barbers in Liverpool: they even flambée your ears for you!

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

Under the weather

The August Bank Holiday is a traditional time for clubs to play some of their more local games. This year, the bank holiday came after the the FA Cup Preliminary round, so there was the risk these fixtures would fall to Cup replays or postponements. The EvoStik League First Division North seemed to be particularly affected, partly due to waterlogged pitches on Saturday, with only three league games surviving.

Prescot Cables were at home to Cammell Laird after the exertions of the FA Cup game against AFC Liverpool at the weekend. The game survived a midday pitch inspection after heavy rain in the morning. Even so, conditions were still soft and slippery.

James McCulloch

Prescot were playing in the in normal amber home kit, as we did on Saturday against AFC Liverpool, so a mention is on order for Nick Arnold, who has taken over as kit man this season for having it all washed, dried and ready for use over a bank holiday weekend.

As with all local games, there was the usual collection of players who have played for us in the past.  Among them was John Riley, who I thought did not get the games his talents deserved when he was on our books, so it has been good to see him becoming established at Cammell Laird. Between him and Prescot's Davidson Banda, a player of similar pace and tenacity made for some good pictures.

Davidson Banda and John Riley

The conditions started dull and overcast, and went downhill from there, with the second half being completed in heavy rain.

When you have somewhere to shelter it makes for a good picture, but I do not envy the players being out in it.

Jack Webb

Cammell Laird made the best of the conditions with a couple of quick goals early in the second half, to which, despite a couple of shots on target, Prescot were unable to reply.

It was a disappointing result, against a team with whom, realistically, we are competing to ensure league survival, but it is still early in the season - the next test comes at the weekend with the first game against some industrial sized Yorkshirepersons at Ossett Town.

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