Rush goalie

When I was at junior school, we would often agree, or the teacher would tell us, that the goalkeeper in a game of football was to be "rush", allowed to roam outfield to play, or "stick", remaining in a settled position between the posts or jumpers. Such a distinction is unknown in the Laws of Association Football, any goalkeeper may have a Jimmy Glass moment. Most remain firmly in place, and their clothing has reflected this by being warmer than that of the other players, from the woollen jerseys and flat caps of an earlier era to today's modern fabrics.

I suspect that when Garforth Town's goalkeeper Chris Senior had an age in single figures, he had a preference for rush, which he seems to have sustained into adult life, as he took a number of forays some distance outside his area. He was cutting it fine releasing the ball at the edge of the area as well, with some encouragement from the crowd to the assistant referee to keep an eye in case he overstepped.

Garforth's Chris Senior gets involved in the outfield with Ryan Grattan and Marlin Piana

Having had games postponed due to the weather, having missed a game due to what I thought the weather would be, and games mainly under overcast skies, it was welcome to have some sunshine. Low winter sun makes it almost impossible to take pictures behind the goal at the Safari Park End. The hood takes care of surplus light falling on the lens, but even wearing a cap, the glare means I cannot see much that is going on through the viewfinder. So, I beat a retreat to the sidelines.

Ryan Grattan approaches Chris Senior in a more conventional position

Even the photo on the back page of the Merseymart looked brighter than for a few weeks - they used this one of Cables' goal scorer, Luke Edwards, although the text went over the Garforth player on the right (numbers on the front of shirts, you know it makes sense).

Luke Edwards

Not many clubs have ball boys at this level, so we do not have the contretemps seen at Swansea a couple of weeks ago, although I was watching Dulwich Hamlet in a cup game at the then Lymington & New Milton a few years ago when the home goalkeeper came flying across the pitch perimeter fence and pushed one of our supporters to the ground in his rush to retrieve the ball for a goal kick. Sometimes people can be a bit too helpful returning the ball to the pitch without noticing play has restarted with another one.

Ged Murphy deals with the unwanted ball whilst Dave Dempsey plays the proper one

The clear sky and sunset about 5 minutes after the end of the game meant that, to my surprise, we completed the game in natural light, 2 weeks earlier than the first game to do so last season. Some referees would have asked for the lights to be switched on for the last few minutes, but by the time they warmed up to full intensity, the game would have finished. Also, the light was better than an evening game under lights, I was getting good results at 1/250s right to the end, which is not usually the case in the evening.

Jon Bathurst returns from injury

With a much needed 3 points from the game, the only disappointment was the crowd. At 97, this was the first crowd below 100 we have had at home both this season and last.

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

The possum is flying solo

Last season, a group of Prescot Cables supporters enjoyed a day out at Garforth Town. A trip on the train, cans of nasty lager for those preferring quantity to quality, and Yorkshire real ales for the more discerning of us.

Unfortunately, the tourist attractions of Garforth are limited, to the degree that many people will be tempted to visit just once, and so it proved on this occasion. Alternative destinations for last year's party included New York and Macclesfield (for Marine's unsuccessful attempt to reach the First Round Proper of the FA Cup), leaving just me travelling by train. Not that I spent much time in Garforth, taking a detour on the way to Kirkstall Abbey, where they had a party in mediaeval costumes wandering round posing for wedding pictures - I did not ascertain whether they had married in the costumes, or indeed in the Abbey ruins.

Given my comments on Samson in my last post, I was a little alarmed when I arrived at the ground, and spotted Liam Hollett sporting a rather severe haircut.

Liam Hollett assesses the options for a free kick

I need not have worried, as this was to be one of our more successful afternoons. Garforth appear to be in somewhat reduced circumstances since our last visit, having gained only two points from the first 11 games of the season. After a few barren games, it is good to have the chance to be talking about the best way to take pictures of goals. The first of the afternoon was from Glyn Barker.

Here is how I thought the photo of Glyn shooting for goal should look when I was cropping pictures for the slide show, showing pressure from Garforth's Craig Maynard approaching from the side.

Glyn Barker scores goal no 1

A couple of hours later, when I cropped the pictures to send in to the Echo for the Merseymart (for which I start from scratch with the original photo from the camera), I had clearly decided that this was a better crop, concentrating on Glyn alone.

An alternative view of goal no 1

The cropping for the second goal, from Jack Webb, was more clear cut, with Jack beating Craig Maynard again.

Jack Webb shoots for goal no 2

I did not get a decent shot of the third goal, also from Glyn Barker, or the fourth, from Jonathon Bathurst, although in both cases I captured the cross from Max Fargin that led to the goal, here avoiding the attentions of the rather busy Craig Maynard.

Max Fargin crosses for Jonathon Bathurst to score goal no 4

As Jonathon was a late substitution, at about 75 minutes, although I got a couple of action shots for the slide show, I was not particularly happy with them, and as a goal scorer deserves a picture, here is one from the half time warm up.

Jonathon Bathurst

This was a good win, which will have boosted confidence - realistically Garforth  are one of the clubs with whom we are competing to avoid relegation, so it was good to see them confidently dispatched, 4-1, which, coincidentally, is the average number of goals against and for Garforth so far this season.

After that, I took the bus to Leeds, as the route goes past the Fox & Newt, close enough to the centre to be convenient, but far enough out to avoid a hectic city centre Saturday evening. However, I did not examine the timetable closely enough, and caught one that only ran as far as the centre, so I tried the Grove, to the south of Leeds station, tucked away behind Yorkshire's tallest building. Their concert room at the back has bands most nights, but earlier in the evening, before the band arrives, provides the ideal oasis for a quiet post match pint.

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

The possum is flying

The motto of Garforth Town, who Prescot Cables were visiting at the weekend is "Possum si volo". I tapped this in to Google Translate, which assumed the phrase was Italian, and came up with our airborne marsupial. Trying Latin, it offered me "'Appen I can if I want to", which seemed more likely. Indeed, "'appen" was not actually offered, but this is Yorkshire.

This is not a trip to make in the rain - the ground is a little over a mile from the station, on a route that bypasses the town centre, with no pubs en route, and the only shops being a sandwich shop that had just closed, and a chip shop that was not yet open. The main feature of the ground is the main stand, of impressive height, although I doubt the effectiveness of the cover on a windy day, the design seems to offer the opportunity to get wet from front and behind. This is the only cover, and the fence was the regulation minimum 6', so little shelter there. Fortunately, the forecast showers only arrived after the game, so this was not put to the test.

The main stand

A trip to Yorkshire is not complete without sampling the local beer, so a group of us went by train to Leeds, and adjourned to the excellent Hop (which could nonetheless have done with a couple more staff), owned by the Ossett Brewery, just yards from the southern entrance of Leeds Station. Unfortunately the southern entrance to Leeds Station is not due to be built until 2014, necessitating a longer walk.

The Transpennine posse - photo by Garforth's gate steward

It was a scrappy game, and a poor Prescot performance, which is never easy to photograph. The purpose of the photos is to showcase our players, which is not so easy when the opposition are winning the ball in most of the challenges.

In the first half, Prescot had a shot inches wide and another that hit  the crossbar, but it was a day of defensive errors, opening up opportunities for the smallest player on the pitch, Garforth's David Brown, who featured in these pages causing us problems visiting Hope Street with Harrogate Railway Athletic.

Garforth's David Brown and Prescot's Gerard Kinsella, watched by Harry Boydell, David Williams and Dennis Bellairs

Here Cables' Gerard Kinsella is holding David Brown at bay, although the main figure of interest is the gentleman with the white hair watching play. Harry Boydell is, as far as we know, Prescot's oldest former player, having appeared for the team in the 1940s and 1950s. Harry celebrated his 83rd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and continues to serve the club in the role of Boardroom Host. With him are Matchday Announcer David Williams, who recalls watching Harry when he first came to Hope Street as a boy, and Board Member Dennis Bellairs, who also takes photos for the club, and when capturing the action has a rather better eye for goal than I possess.

The mood of the travelling support was depressed further when Liam Hollett was carried off injured towards the end of the game.

Manager Shaun Reid watches Liam Hollett take a free kick

The rest of the pictures from the game are available here.