Battle of industry

Prescot Cables derives its name from our town's departed industrial heritage, so I enjoy visiting clubs with a similar background. Atherton Collieries can claim more historical points: our name came from sponsorship in the 1920s, theirs is from the club's being founded by miners in the First World War.

For evening games, small variations in transport timetables make a big difference. Last season I was thinking of attending a game as a neutral: the risk of missing the 9.46 train to Wigan meant I decided not to go. This time, the train was at 10pm, and Mr Google's maps showed me that what I thought was the quickest route to the station was nothing of the sort, so I shaved three or four minutes off the walk.

We were due to play this game on the Saturday after Easter, but it fell to a lunchtime downpour when we were on the way. I spent that afternoon in Wigan Central, a railway themed real ale and cider bar in the arches beneath North Western station, and, confusingly to those with an eye to railway history, nowhere near the old Wigan Central station. It was as well the game was off: although I was compos mentis enough to identify alternative entertainment at Wigan St Patrick's rugby league, when the time came I was disinclined to move to actually attend.

The ground has a distinct slope, which features in my memory of our North West Counties winning season of 2002-3. In the last game of the season, in which we needed a point, the hosts had a penalty in the first half, and sent it at an angle that would have gone in on level ground, but went over: we had a penalty in the second half and did not make the same mistake.

We were playing downhill in the first half.

Reece McNally

I often mention wearing high vis working pitchside. This is at least encouraged, if not mandated by the league, so players and officials can see clearly you are not part of the game. I was glad of it after a few minutes, when Atherton goalkeeper Greg Hartley was sliding towards me, downhill, on slippery ground, feet first. I do not know if he would have seen me without high vis, but he did with it, and was able to aim his feet at the pitch perimeter.

Greg Hartley

The hosts opened the scoring after 15 minutes, with a penalty converted by Ben Hardcastle, who has been a dominant feature of Collieries' recent successful seasons.

My position was giving good lighting throughout the half.

Josh Klein-Davies

For the second half, I took up position behind the uphill goal, which may not have been ideal, but as the bulk of the crowd was along the side, it meant I could get a position with no-one (more to the point, no-one with spillable drinks) immediately behind me. The sky was coming out as a nice shade of deep blue.

James Edgar and Harry Cain line up a free kick

About 15 minutes in, a tackle saw an Atherton player on the ground, an appeal for a free kick, more in hope than expectation, ignored by the referee, and everyone played on. This hardly merits a mention, except a spectator helped things along with a shout of "Get up you faggot". You do not hear this at our level as often as the full time game: people are more civilised when they know they will see the players in the bar later. I could only place it within 20 yards, and I was probably in the best place in the ground to hear it. There was a mix of supporters in the vicinity, but as the hosts would have had the advantage of a free kick, it was hardly going to be one of them. In the absence of anyone identifiable to report, I shall make my observation here. If you call an opposition player or match official a queer, faggot or similar term, it is because (a) you know they are like me, (b) you think they are like me, or (c) you think they believe it to be somehow undesirable to be like me. It is shouting abuse at me as much as at them: the second I hear it, I am on their side, not yours.

Once again, we came closer to scoring as the game went on. Our team are noticeably fit for the full 90 minutes, which, when we face a team flagging in the last ten, gets goals and points. Unfortunately the hosts appear to work on the same principle. A good save from Ben Barnes a couple of minutes from time stopped Atherton extending their lead, and Harry Cain hit the post with a minute or two to go, but we could not stop the hosts adding to their excellent record in the second half of the season.

Ben Barnes

I had hoped to give Gibbo from the Collieries committee a quick call on my way out: I saw him at a distance whilst I was on the pitch, but he had moved by the time I had packed up and was ready to go, and I had not appreciated how much time the quickest route to the station saves, so I thought I would not have time to go and find him.

On the way home, I had a wait at Wigan North Western that was too long to be convenient, but not quite long enough for a pint downstairs. Then again, you can find quite a bit to divert you on Realtime Trains and the live signalling maps on Open Train Times: I know a lot more about Anglo-Scottish freight flows than I did before.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Atherton Collieries 1 Prescot Cables 0.

Last exit to Brighouse

It seemed appropriate for what we thought might be our last trip to Yorkshire for a while that I should pay my fare to Brighouse Town by ee-ticket*, using the Trainline app (still saving a couple of quid splitting tickets myself). These pages like shiny new railway infrastructure, so, when I noticed my train to Halifax started from Manchester Oxford Road, I joined it there to travel on the new Ordsall Chord. It is not actually shiny, being constructed of weathering steel, a clever engineering thing that should not work but does, using a layer of rust to provide up to 120 years' protection against ... er ... rust.

I completed the trip by bus from Halifax, with the First ticket app. I was not so convinced by this, it generates a QR code, which is very small on a 5" screen, and I had trouble getting the machine on the bus to read it.

I remembered I would need a yellow high vis rather than my usual orange.

James Edgar

Brighouse's video operator had a dedicated platform, with a flaw in the access arrangements - having taken his pie up, he had to come back down for his pint.

For still photography, such structures are of limited use, we want to be low on the ground. The higher you can get the player in relation to the background the better.

Lloyd Dean

Joe Herbert opened the scoring.

This was probably the high point, the team were not having the best of days, especially after MJ Monaghan had to go off after an accidental clash of heads. We were able to go in at half time still in the lead.

By then, I was having a spot of bother. I grew up in the countryside, and was fairly immune to pollen and dust. The longer I have been away, the immunity has faded. For about 15 years, passing through my childhood home in Surrey has been rewarded with an hour or two of itching eyes. In the last couple of years this has extended to all countryside. As the ground has farms on two sides and a wood on one, for the first ten or fifteen minutes of the second half I was operating with one eye closed (fortunately the left) and the other half open. So, that will be eye drops in the bag next season.

Some dressed to blend in in a farming area.

I thought I would be looking directly into the sun, but it clouded over a bit, making my task easier.

Valter Fernandes

It did not make the team's task easier, with the hosts scoring twice in the first fifteen minutes. Although our response was energetic, and came close a couple of times, we could not co-ordinate a response. A defeat should have dented our chance of keeping fourth place, except Bamber Bridge, the only team who realistically could deprive us of it, had an even worse day, losing 4-0 to an Ossett Albion side determined to bring down the curtain at Dimple Wells with a flourish.

In Halifax after the game, I visited the Grayston Unity, an excellent micropub and intimate music venue (capacity 18). It was a bit full, so I used their tables and chairs outside the Town Hall to drink my pint and read my paper. I am not sure what they do for space in the winter, although hardy Yorkshire folk probably just use a beer mat to keep the snow out of their drinks.

The Blogger dashboard tells me this is my 400th post, having started in 2011 with a few photo hints and tips (I still manage some now and again). I do not really cover issues, but I have been flying a flag for a few months.

I am far from archetypally gay, just ask my church friends, but on inclusion in sport, I am fully on board. Using the lowest population estimate (2% identifying as LGBT in the last census), we could expect to find about 90 gay players across Steps 1-4. We know of one. A fortuitously timed and worded tweet at new year (thanks Owen) nudged me to decide it was time to do my bit, and time for you to know. As someone fairly well established, if that helps a potential player, coach, match official or volunteer to feel the game is for them too and stay around, it will serve its purpose.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Brighouse Town 2 Prescot Cables 1 (Herbert)

* Technically they were m-tickets, but I am not letting facts get in the way of a Yorkshire joke.