Finishing on a high

I was a bit concerned when I learnt that Prescot Cables' presentation evening was to be after our game away at Radcliffe Borough. It was announced after the game against Goole, so there was the possibility that if we needed a result in this game and did not get it, people might be reluctant to attend. As it was, we had a good run in, so stakes were considerably lower, with the possibilty of a result at a ground where we have not often done well, and surpassing last season's points total.

I am not a big fan of the tram to Radcliffe: it has had reliability issues in the past, and involves a 20 minute walk, all uphill, whereas the bus stops just outside the ground. However, as I thought I might need to make a swift return to Prescot for the awards, and the bus is a bit slow, I took an unusually punctual tram, sampling the new second city crossing, where the ride was smoother than I was expecting.

We welcomed back our two members of the Knowsley Under 19 side who were runners up in the Dallas Cup: James Doyle ...

... and captain Jordan Wynne.

I did not notice who won the toss, but it is said you should play with conditions in the first half rather than anticipating a benefit in the second. That is true with the weather, as a wind can change, but a slope will still be there after half time. Either way, the hosts were playing downhill in the first half.

Marcus Burgess gathers from Conor Ready, with the Dugout Irregulars ready to repel boarders

Chris Almond opened the scoring after 20 minutes.

Chris Almond scores our first goal

There was no indication at half time that this would be a particularly high scoring game, but conditions started to work for us. Jordan Wynne scored our second three minutes into the half.

Celebrating Jordan Wynne's goal

I am not sure why this is known as a bicycle kick, my knowledge of cycling is limited, but I know that adopting this posture in the saddle does not produce the desired result.

Lloyd Dean

Next to score was Josh Dolling, with a shot from the edge of the area rolling gently, with some assistance from gravity, into the far side of the net.

Josh Dolling

As the game was a couple of weeks ago (it was a busy end to the season), I checked the league website to remind me of the scorers, but records diverge from the actuality at this point. Fortunately Glyn had once again travelled to provide the video, so I could watch the goals again. Jordan Wynne is credited with the fourth goal, but Chris Almond put it past the reach of Radcliffe's Kris Leigh.

The hosts scored a consolation goal from a penalty, for which I was too far away to see the foul. The final goal came from James Doyle, but was credited on the league website to Joe Herbert, who was on the bench for the whole game - his reward for a season's reliable hard work was yet to come!

Joe Herbert

I feared that I would be in a race to get back in time for the awards, with doors opening at 7pm, but the event was structured to keep people using the bar, with local band The Contenders performing their first set at 8pm before the presentations. I have never tried photographing a band before, but they were happy with the results.

Awards on the field went to James McCulloch, Supporters' and Players' Player of the Year; James Edgar, Manager's Player of the Year; Lloyd Dean, Goal of the Season (I think against Glossop North End); and Jordan Wynne, Young Player of the Year.

Lloyd Dean, James McCulloch and James Edgar

Awards off the field (whilst all those recognised are worthy winners who have provided excellent service to the club over the year, I can never remember what the actual awards are formally for) went to Harry Molyneux, Ronnie Williams, Robbie Williams, and to Lynda Derbyshire and the bar team.

Lynda and Michelle receive the George Hayward Trophy on behalf of the bar team

I also had a pleasant surprise, in the shape of a bottle from the players for my pictures (especially those that have ended up as profile pictures). Coach Roy Grundy took a picture, but it did not make it into the collection, as it was a bit too soft focus!

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here; those from the presentation evening on the club website here, and on Google Photos here; and some extra pictures of The Contenders are available here.

Final score: Radcliffe Borough 1 Prescot Cables 5 (Almond 2, Wynne, Dolling, Doyle)

New clothes

Following our abortive attempt at team and squad photos the previous week, we were successful before Prescot Cables' game at home to Radcliffe Borough. The forecast had been for rain again in the afternoon, but this became more likely for the evening. The team assembled early, and lined up for their squad photos in the new training tops. It may seem an obvious precaution, but I only just remembered to put down a couple of cones so everyone stood in the same place. As my fill in flash was only working manually, I needed everyone the same distance away.

The squad photos will have two crops, one square for the website, and a sort of cigarette card format with the player's name. I shall also see if I can persuade the Liverpool Echo to use this year's picture of Andy Paxton: despite sending one in last year, they continued to use one from when he was coaching at Skelmersdale United and was attired accordingly.

After this, it was time for the team photo. Andy Paxton had a clear idea what he wanted, always a good thing, as it is easier to give someone what they want if they know what that is. Also the players might not be keen to shift and change shirts about for balance if I ask, but when the manager tells them, they do not have a choice. Previous team photos have been taken in front of the stand, but we decided to go for the club sign on the Gasworks Side.

Michael Simpson

We hoped to get the club badges in, but there were too many people, but we got the ground sponsors in, getting them the exposure they have paid for. Captioning was easier this year, as there was only one player whose identity I had to check, unlike last year, when, but for remembering a Twitter follower at the last minute, one player nearly appeared under a made up name. This is the final draft, with a couple of tweaks still to come.

Once I had the photos backed up on my phone (I did not want to make this a weekly occurrence), there was time for coffee from a local outlet, something stronger than instant.

The visitors had a new yellow away kit, in place of the black and red of previous seasons. Their shirt back sponsor appears to have changed the spelling of their name.

Before

After, with Lloyd Dean

We started play early: I spotted Dr James coming in at two minutes past the hour, as we kicked off after Joe Nicholson's fourth minute goal.

Joe Nicholson scores our goal

At half time, stalwart supporter Harry Thomas pointed out that my counterpart for the visitors had a high vis waistcoat with "Official Photographer" on the back, and speculated that they must have some money. I pointed out that it would have not cost much, and he was probably supplying the rest of the kit himself.

Lenses are trained on Sam Staunton Turner

The league like anyone inside the pitch perimeter who is not playing to be appropriately identified, and sent all the teams bibs for the players to wear warming up - in a fetching shade of orange, which is not much use to either side when we are at home.

If you are wearing black at this level you need to add a decent amount of another colour - it is all very well channelling your inner Lev Yashin, but the goalkeeper is supposed to be distinguished from the referee.

As for the game, a goal for Radcliffe on the hour ensured the points were shared, maintaining our unbeaten record for the first proper look at the table after the traditional three games.

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 1 (Joe Nicholson) Radcliffe Borough 1.

Dropped points

Last Tuesday saw Prescot Cables at home to Radcliffe Borough. Realistically, the visitors are one of the six or seven clubs with whom we are competing to avoid relegation. They had made a similarly slow start to the season, having yet to gain a point, so the game was an opportunity for our new management to pull ahead of our rivals.

The spectators were joined by two of our players who have moved onwards and upwards, Jack Phillips of Accrington Stanley, and Connor McCarthy, now at Southport. It is always good to see players like Jack and Connor when their clubs do not have a game, as they remind able and ambitious players that a good way to be spotted is to play well at our level.

This was the first opportunity to see how the new kit came out under the floodlights. Sunset was at around kick off time, so for the first few minutes, the lights were supplementing the remaining natural light. I took up position for a short time behind the goal...

Joe Nicholson

... before moving to my usual evening vantage point on the gasworks side.

Joe Herbert

The visitors were in red and black stripes, which did not look as though it would reflect much light. A dark back can have the disadvantage that player accidentally direct passes to the referee: Radcliffe avoid this by having a large white number, stripes on the lower back, and red shorts.

Marcus Burgess makes his second headed clearance in as many games

As I have agreed to contribute photographs to TheNonLeague magazine (not many from evening games unless the editor spots something of interest in the public collection, most of my night photos are a bit too grainy for print), I need to pay attention to opposition players' names. All Radcliffe's players are called Stewart Fell.

As in the Scarborough game, an early goal left us with an uphill task particularly without the injured Rob Doran.

There were more new faces, with Tom Ince starting ...

Tom Ince

... and Sam Staunton-Turner coming on from the bench to replace the injured Joe Herbert.

Sam Staunton-Turner

Unfortunately, Joe was injured near the half way line and slightly closer to the touchline on the gasworks side, so had a long walk round half the pitch to the changing rooms, even though it was plain when he got up after treatment that he would be playing no further part in proceedings.

After a lacklustre first half, we performed better in the second, but were unable to convert this into goals. In the short term, the result hands an advantage to Radcliffe as they pushed us back into the bottom two, but it is early in the season, and the week reminded us we will probably drop points we might have hoped to gain, and pick up others where we were not expecting them.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Radcliffe Borough 1

An evening at home

This season we have had a distinct lack of evening games in the League - this week saw just our second at home, we have had two away, with only a couple of postponements. Oddly, the league have planned a full programme for the Sunday between Christmas and New Year on the grounds that so many clubs have progressed to the First Round of the FA Cup. Whilst this is true, I am sure it could be resolved, and, as our league usually schedules for Boxing Day, Saturday and New Year's Day, whereas the Ryman and EvoStik Southern play two out of three, I am not convinced exceptional circumstances were entirely unwelcome.

However, the immediate business this week was a game against Radcliffe Borough, who have had a mixed start to the season since they beat us in our first away game in August, so a win was necessary to improve our place in the table relative to a team in a similar position to us. With so few evening games, I had become a bit unused to our own ground and floodlights at night. Our visitors were in red, not the most reflective of colours. That made sense of the decision to use our away kit against Goole, it avoided a rush to launder the home kit.

Former Cables player Danny Lambert defends against Sam Corlett

Our best light is to be found along the touchlines, and I position myself on the quieter gasworks side. There is an element of luck in what I am able to capture at an evening game, so I did not get anything usable of any of our goals

For the first, Rob Doran was brought down for a penalty, which he converted, and the defender was adjudged to have denied a goal scoring opportunity, taking Radcliffe down to 10 men.

Rob Doran

A wide view of the goal tends to be quite well lit.

There is also a video of Ciaran Gibson saving this free kick, taken from behind the goal.

The result was made secure in the second half, with a first goal for the club from James Gardner, and a late one to add to the goal difference from Matty West.

James Gardner

Matty West

It has been a mild autumn, and there was just dew forming on the grass, rather than the frost we often see by this time of year. As the heating was off in the bar, I did not linger after the game, although my house was similarly cool, I have also been taking advantage of the weather to keep the gas bill down.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (Doran (pen), J Gardner, West), Radcliffe Borough 0

The foothills of Mount Radcliffe

I may displease the Radcliffe Tourist Board if I suggest rains a lot when I visit their town. This time, however, it was a sunny evening, affording an excellent view from the 98 bus to the hills above Bury. On arrival at Radcliffe Borough, the sun was shining directly down the pitch, making my interests and the team's diverge, with mine served by our playing uphill with the sun in our faces. The position of the home team's photographer suggested they prefer to play downhill in the first half, as he was facing the sun at the bottom of the hill. If the home side always play one way if they win the toss, you will be probably in the right place three quarters of the time. As it was, we played downhill, and the sun disappears behind a tree after 10 minutes, leaving it a bit cold for August. There is a large area of white paint around the perimeter, which makes shots very backlit, but we can easily deal with that.

Mark McLaughlin takes a corner

Radcliffe have abandoned a traditional programme in favour of a monthly magazine, although I did not see anyone selling it. I did not need a team sheet for our own players, as I recognised all of them. This is rare enough in the middle of the season, the squad is always being augmented. As for the second game of the season...

Player Assistant Manager Neil Black

For the home side, there was a familiar face - Danny Lambert, late of this parish, at left back, a position I do not recall his playing for us.

Danny Lambert

The light was still good for most of the first half, although we could have done with the lights a few minutes before half time, and sunset, when they were turned on. We did not take advantage of the slope, going in 2-0 down.

Although I remember the floodlights have three pylons per side, with three heads per pylon, two heads on each pylon point uphill. This gives good light in my position just uphill from the dugouts.

Danny Graham

You might think this would leave one end less lit than the other, but this seemed not to be the case, as we get good lighting in our goal.

Ciaran Gibson

Prescot's goal came with a Russian linesman moment, with a shot from Sam Corlett hitting the crossbar and bouncing downwards, the referee initially allowing play to continue for a few seconds before consulting his assistant.

Sam Corlett

The goal elicited a reaction from the somewhat pessimistic home supporters behind me, "I told you we would need a third to make it safe". Unfortunately, that is what they did, sealing our first (and at the time of writing only) defeat of the season so far.

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

Final score: Radcliffe Borough 3, Prescot Cables 1 (Corlett)

At least I got one of the goals

The sports jacket weather I have been reporting continued for Prescot Cables' game at home to Radcliffe Borough. Our visitors had made a poor start to the season, having only gained one point. So, there were all the hallmarks of an easy win on paper, and a trap for the unwary on grass.

In the programme, the referee's assistants are listed with the colour of their flag, usually red and yellow. However, this does not always mean much when you look at the flags, as they are often just a bit more than half of one colour and a bit less than half of the other. So, feel free to work out which is the red and yellow below.

Classic Lancashire name: Mr P Shacklady (yellow flag), with the other officials and captains

There was a trend in the 1990s for goalkeepers to wear bright patterned shirts, with Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos being a particular exponent, and England's David Seaman sporting a lurid outfit. I think the idea was that forwards would be so distracted they would aim shots safely at the keeper. Either that, or they were following road safety advice to be seen in the dark. With a bit of high vis, Radcliffe's Chris Cheetham can be seen in all lighting conditions.

Also playing for Radcliffe was Danny Lambert, who scored some useful goals for us last season before moving on to play closer to his home in Manchester.

Phil Bannister keeps Danny Lambert at bay

Prescot took the lead on 26 minutes, with a goal, to nobody's surprise, from Connor McCarthy. I, however, failed to capture it, with my sequence going straight from Enzo Benn crossing in ...

... to Connor being congratulated by his team mates.

That was the only score of the first half, and Radcliffe made a recovery in the second, scoring on 57 minutes. This was met by an almost immediate response, with Mike Smith restoring the lead. I got something of this, with Mike, the ball and the goal in the same frame, but no suggestion of any interaction between the three, so I decided it was not worth editing even for illustration.

Mike Smith

A miss by Nick Culkin from a not entirely prudent backpass gave Radcliffe the opportunity to level again. No sooner had I got the picture of Prescot kicking off (like goal celebrations, they are a handy marker to indicate where a goal was scored), but I was ready to take another, with Radcliffe having immediately taken possession from the kick off and taken the lead.

There was a time when such an event would have finished the game off, with the visitors adding to their points tally, and probably further augmenting their goal difference. However, this is not then, and, whilst there are good and bad days at the office, the team keeps going to the end. I got our equaliser, or at least close enough to the shot being dispatched to claim it as a photo of the goal.

Rob Doran rounds Chris Cheetham to level the score

It looked as though we would have to be content with a point, until, for the second week in a row, Enzo Benn snatched a late goal, that I came nowhere near capturing, and ensured there was no improvement in Radcliffe's start to the season.

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

It went downhill when we played uphill

I have never been keen on travelling to Radcliffe Borough. I am quite happy once I get there, they are a cheerful bunch, but any journey crossing central Manchester is a bind. I worked at Salford Quays for 9 years - I enjoyed the job, and would still be there if they had not moved it somewhere cheaper, but the worst part of the day was passing through Manchester city centre and getting the tram, as there seemed to be a problem every day.

Add to this, a lot of students were going home this weekend. Railway companies look to maximize revenue, so I am surprised they do not have armies of staff at this time of year enforcing the National Rail Conditions of Carriage regarding luggage, and turning two or three excess bags per person into Red Star parcels. When I was a student, I did not even own that much stuff.

I got to the game 5 minutes late, having missed the bus, or more to the point the bus having missed me. In the best tradition of Manchester public transport, in Shudehill Bus Station, which is supposed to be one of their main interchanges, the bus that was not due for another 5 minutes came along and blocked the stand, so the 98 just drove past, leaving intending passengers to wait for the next one.

Ian Bennett

When I got in, Prescot were playing downhill. Radcliffe generally make the most of the slope when they win the toss by getting the visitors to play downhill in the first half. We were playing well, but, as has been the case in a few games, unable to convert this into goals. A fully fit goal scorer is at a premium, so if we find one, we would not have him for long, as a club with a larger budget would be able to make an offer, but at our end of the table it would make a big difference over a few games.

When I am cropping a picture, I usually include at least the featured player's head and feet, even at the expense of more space or background clutter. I supplied this picture of Chris Rimmer heading the ball to the Merseymart.

They chose to crop it a bit more like this (as usual, this is not their actual crop they used, this is my rough representation).

At this time of year, I usually take pictures in the second half from the side of the pitch, aiming for the opposite wing to the one I took in the first. On this occasion I did not have the chance to change sides: although Radcliffe's floodlights looked to be amongst the better ones in the division, there were a couple of bulbs out on the clubhouse side, leaving an unusual pattern of bright spots.

James McCulloch

I took up a position between the two dugouts. Radcliffe's choice of ends had the desired effect (for them), as we were unable to recapture the form from the first half, a reverse of something of a pattern for the season.

This position gives a good view of our own goalkeeper. I get a surprising number of shots of our goalkeeper in mid air, rather less include the ball.

Gary Spotswood

In my position, I was able to see the main incident of the second half, Joe Evans being sent off for what the referee described as inappropriate use of the elbow. I did not get a picture, but I am sure Joe's elbow was not raised, and certainly nowhere near their player's face, which he was clutching in a manner that may have been over the top for Gloucester having his eyes put out in King Lear. As  the players involved had their backs to the referee, the position of Joe's arm would have been obscured by the Radcliffe player. It surprised me that the referee did not consult her assistant, who was facing the incident, and did not look willing to offer an opinion, unless he was expecting it to be apparent from the lack of a flag.

Joe Evans

After a game at a ground with a sloping pitch, it was time for post match refreshment in a pub with a sloping floor. I am not imagining these slopes, I did not join the independently travelling supporters for a lunchtime drink: I did not want to travel until I knew the game was on, as my second choice would have been to watch Waterloo. The Marble Arch in Manchester has a slope, dropping 3 or 4 feet from the main door to the bar, and a more conventional couple of steps down to the dining room.

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

Goooooal!

It is not often that scoring a goal merits a title of a post, even one like that scored by Prescot Cables Jonathon Bathurst in the opening minutes of their game at home to Radcliffe Borough. However, this was our first goal on the opening day of the season since a win away at North Ferriby United in 2007, which, coincidentally, was the first game for which I published photos on the web.

This was the photo I sent in to the Liverpool Echo for their Merseymart supplement (more of that later).

Jonathon Bathurst beats the keeper

This is what happened next.

Keep calm and carry on

Our programme editor has gone for a cover design with text to one side and a photo next to it, so there was a portrait format picture for his consideration too.

Tap in to the net

It was a bright sunny day, the sort we expect, but this year did not look likely to get, for the start of the season. This brings its own lighting challenges, and I thought a few of the photos were looking a bit contrasty (is that a real word?), and may have benefited from conversion to black and white. A decent image in black and white depends on a contrast in the teams' kits, e.g. one in white and the other in a colour, or one in plain and the other in stripes. Looking from the front, this was possible at this game, with Radcliffe in blue and black stripes.

However, when the Radcliffe player has his back to the camera, we encounter the plain back - a plain panel for the number is useful, but I see no need for it to take up most of the back.

The end result is two plain colours, which never works as well in black and white.

With new faces to identify at this time of year, I would welcome an innovation trickling down from international level - numbers on the front of the shirt. Some clubs have numbers on shorts, but this is not universal, and it makes the job of the kit man harder, as shorts need to be matched with shirts when they come back from the laundry. Often they are more to the side of the shorts, so not always easy to see when the player is facing the camera.

I mentioned at the beginning that I had sent a picture in for the Merseymart. We are in competition for column inches with our tenants, AFC Liverpool of the North West Counties League. We have come out well in the half season since the Echo relaunched the Merseymart, and I like to think the photos help, along with excellent match reports from our Press Officer, Richard Quinn.

However, there are times AFC Liverpool do something newsworthy that gets them the space, which was the case this weekend, when they lost 8-1 at Winsford United. I am happy to trade the back page of the paper for a point on the opening day against one of the teams tipped for a play off place.

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