Royal blues

For a small competition (less than 20 entries), the Liverpool Senior Cup often falls victim to scheduling problems. Our first round game at Bootle was twice delayed by the weather before we were able to complete it at home. For the next round, we were drawn against Everton, which should be easy to organise, as they have over 100 full time players, and we are not fussy which of them they send. They also have a full time administrative staff, which might have been the problem, as we had trouble finding the right department to deal with the fixture. Having cleared that hurdle, the first attempt fell foul of the weather, with a temperature of -5ºC when the game was due to be played (even the Premier League only requires Everton to be able to play their first team games in temperatures down to -3º).

Having established contact, we were quickly able to arrange a new date.

I arrived early, as I was expecting a decent crowd, although not the four figures predicted by some. We have had crowds in the 900s on pleasant evenings in August and April: 636 was respectable for a night that, whilst not as cold as previous weeks, was still not particularly clement.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the limits of technical skill in sports photography, the 1/10s that you cannot teach, and the difference between getting the goalkeeper's fingers to the ball and a foot away. Gareth's programme cover neatly addressed this.

I took up position by the side of the pitch. I was hardly there before Josh Klein-Davies opened the scoring.

Photographing for a team that plays in yellow, I usually wear an orange high vis to avoid any confusion, but on this occasion I clashed with the visiting goalkeeper.

I was not concerned when I was by the side of the pitch, but I took care behind the goal to take a position well to the side and make sure I changed sides when play was at the other end.

Lloyd Dean was next to score.

Josh Klein Davies added his second just before half time.

In Senior Cup fixtures against Everton, the quality and age of the team can make a big difference. An under 23 team with their eyes on silverware has to be firm favourites, whereas the under 18s getting match practice against an open age side makes for a more even contest, and I think they had sent the latter.

We proved to have seen most of the action in the first half, with a consolation goal for the visitors in the second, but with neither side really looking like they would add to the tally.

Everton's dieticians and sports scientists will doubtless advise that a pie at 10pm is not the way to peak fitness, so they left straight after the game, and we had quite a bit left over from the players' refreshments. Being off red meat for Lent, I eschewed a pie, but was fortified in processing the Man of the Match photo by Linda's excellent chicken curry.

Commercial manager Gary Finney presents the Man of the Match award to James McCulloch

We now progress to a semi final against Litherland Remyca, the other half of the draw having had better luck with the weather, the winners will play Marine in the final.

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 3 (Klein-Davies 2, Dean).

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.

Premier turf

In the years I have been watching football, which I started at around beginning of the Premiership, I have stuck with the grassroots side of the game, and have never watched a game at a Premiership ground. The nearest I have come was watching Cambridge United when they were still in the Football League at Bloomfield Road, before Blackpool started to rise through the League.

This changed last week when I watched a game at Goodison Park, the home of Everton FC (not to be confused with Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar, Chile, the home of Everton FC). Local Sunday team Paddock FC had booked the pitch for their Hayward Transport Cup, and invited Prescot Cables to be their opponents.

Joe Gibiliru Jnr

If you mention Sunday football, many will think of 22 players at less than peak fitness, and this does indeed take place, but top Sunday sides are of a similar standard to the EvoStik League, not least as many non contract players also play for a Sunday side. Contract players are generally prohibited from doing so by their contracts, although that does not always stop them.

Our Chairman was able to include me in the touchline party to take some photos. I mentioned in a previous post that if it were possible to dig a pit from which to watch football, the quality of the pictures would repay the effort. In larger grounds, the front row of seats is set so the eye level of people sitting in them is at about the level of the players knees.

I was happy with the results, looking up to the play gives a greater sense of action than looking down or on the same level as is the case at most non League grounds.

Steven Tames

Fraser Ablett

The vantage point has one odd effect. I do not think the pitch sloped away to the sides, but when looking action on the other side of the pitch, it gave the impression that it did. The gentleman walking in front of the seats is at the same level as me, so my eye level is about 3' above the pitch, but we only see half of the ball above the level of the pitch.

Francis Foy

The match kicked off at 7.15, with the spectators and dugouts on the Goodison Road side, with the setting sun behind our backs, the stand blocking the sun at pitch level.

This presented an interesting lighting challenge, in the shape of seats - 10,478 of the shiny little things in the opposite stand, all reflecting light on to the pitch. It is not an issue at the grounds I normally visit, and not an issue when Everton are playing, as people will be sitting on most of them. In a pitch let like this, only a small part of the ground is in use, as opening any more will dramatically increase the required stewarding, and therefore the cost. Overall, they helped with the lighting, and provided a good contrasting background for some shots.

James McCulloch

However, they also meant some shots were strongly backlit, sometimes in just part of the frame, even after the usual lighting adjustments.

Stuart McMullan

I even stepped briefly on to the turf, as the people from Paddock asked me to take pictures of a couple of their players receiving awards for 10 years' service to the club.

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