Almost kept a point

This week saw Prescot Cables playing at home to Salford City, a game postponed from February. Then there had been a couple of rumblings on Twitter that it was convenient that the game was off on the day of the Merseyside derby. The contrary was true, the derby match was in the evening, so we would have probably got a few extra spectators in the mood for a day's football, not to mention not having the expense of the floodlights. On the whole, the weather has been kind to us this season, with this being the first of only two midweek games at home this year, and the crowd was reasonably good for an evening game, at 187.

The spectators were joined by two of Salford's co-owners, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville (I think - I ought to take a "know your Nevilles" picture card to games against Salford), although the brief chant of "Neville Neville" to the tune of Rebel Rebel was incorrect, as I am fairly sure Phil and Gary's father was not present. They were, as they usually are, happy to chat to supporters, pose for pictures and sign autographs, and tweeted afterwards that they had enjoyed the game and the hospitality.

Their involvement also gives Salford access to funds we would all like to have at our disposal, and they have set a high priority on seeing results from their investment in the shape of promotion. Having suffered a heavy defeat when we visited Salford a few weeks ago, we were keen not to repeat the experience.

We have a young side, who have been capable of some excellent play, but, facing our second set of title challenging opponents in four days, we needed experience too, with Neil Prince joining James McCulloch and Joe Evans in midfield, and Liam Hollett in defence.

Neil Prince & James McCulloch

Liam Hollett

Joe Evans

We were active at both ends.

Jack Phillips

Since making his first start with the first team a few weeks ago, goalkeeper Ben Morrow has been mentioned a few times in these dispatches, and this game was no exception. He is making some good saves, and just as important, he projects a calm demeanour. He gained some good comments from the opposition supporters (many of whom are closer to the goal than anyone else), and won the Wallopers' Way man of the match poll.

Ben Morrow

Prescot had some chances, the best falling to Neil Prince, whose shot went over the bar, but had not been able to score. This was balanced by what looked as though it might be a clean sheet at the other end, until the last minute of normal time. James Edgar replaced Jack Phillips, who looked as though he had a bit of cramp, but more pertinently was a long way away from the bench. A substitution at this point is not without risk, and Salford were able to break through for the only goal, to wild celebrations from their bench.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Salford City 1.

Changeable weather

There was a relaxed air amongst our pharmacologists for Prescot Cables' game away to Salford City: theses had been submitted, vivas booked and new jobs started. James and Jon joined me for the train to Manchester, with Luke joining us there. There is a lack of pubs near the ground, so we could have gone anywhere in Manchester, but we honoured Salford's city status, by visiting the excellent New Oxford, next to the former Salford Town Hall. The company developing the Town Hall for flats describe it as an idyllic location, but I would not go that far.

Our party ready for the game - photo by Richie Brown

The pub is a few minutes' walk from the stop for buses to Moor Lane. The first to come was the 93, so it was handy to have Luke, who caught the 93 to college about 10 years ago, with us to reassure the driver of our local connection.

We arrived as the game was starting, with the team's transport having successfully avoided emus in the Warrington area (the last telling of the collision with the pheasant in October had escalated to a swan, so I thought I would up the ante further). I did not see any of Salford's owners, and assumed they had punditry commitments for Manchester United's game at Swansea, although I subsequently learned Paul Scholes and Phil Neville were watching the game from the Moor Lane side.

The sun was shining, and we were attacking the car park end, so I took up position in the corner where I would be looking across the sun rather than into it.

Danny Flood

It  was a first appearance for James Jenkins, on loan from Accrington Stanley.

James Jenkins

The weather changed a few minutes later, with a sleet shower. This was all very well for photographic effects...

... but I have been continuing my practice of not attaching a filter to the lens except to avoid getting water on the front. This is fine when I know it is going to rain, but, not expecting a shower, I found myself cleaning the lens somewhat gingerly to avoid scratching it.

There was a comment after the game that we treated the hosts with too much respect in the first half, a fair assessment, with the half time score standing at 4-0.

The sun was back before half time, so for the second half, when we were playing into the sun, the lighting conditions were perfect. Looking at the photos, you might think it was a summer day, although the wind demonstrated it definitely was not.

Oscar Durnin

Our play seemed better too: whilst we conceded two more goals, we seemed more coordinated, and took away the hosts' clean sheet with a penalty from Jack Phillips.

Jack Phillips takes a penalty

We saw the return of Liam Hollett (he had also played at Ossett Town in midweek) wearing number 6, with James McCulloch at 4, a combination we are used to seeing the other way round.

Liam Hollett

James McCulloch

After the game, we needed some more refreshment, and I needed to thaw my fingers, so we adjourned to the Northern Quarter (or It's Grim up North Manchester), where even door staff had hipster beards. It was handy for the station, to allow married or soon to be married members of the party to head home at an appropriate hour. After this, Luke recommended the Angel, with an excellent beer range, good (if a little pricey) food, and Farmer Jim's Dry Cider, which Luke declared to be delicious. The pump clip featured a drawing of the eponymous farmer with a pig that looked as though it would be equally delicious cooked in the product.

When we finally left for our train, Luke was sceptical about the estimate from Mr Google's Maps that Piccadilly Station was 20 minutes' walk away, airily indicating, "It's just down there on the left". He was right about the time, but the maps had the advantage on the direction, as we actually needed to turn right, going left would have led us to Oldham.

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

Final score: Salford City 6, Prescot Cables 1 (Phillips pen)

Putting a couple past the Class of 92

There are a number of ways to get to Salford City, where Prescot Cables were playing in the Preliminary Round of the FA Trophy. There are bus routes along the main road passing Moor Lane, and the 93, a local bus for local people, going to the other end. Last time I used it, the driver pretended not to have heard of Moor Lane, despite the bus travelling along it, and the stop being named in the timetable. This time I had a Plusbus ticket, which solved that problem, but the driver claimed not to know what it was, then asked for the "other bit", saying, "when I see these tickets (so he had heard of them), they are in two parts - you did not just pay £3.70 for this one". Having established he meant the railway ticket, I got my wallet out, at which point he decided he did not need it after all. It would have been easier to say, "There's nothing for you here".

The team bus had its own issues, with a bird flying in to the windscreen on the M62. Some mentioned a pigeon, with Neil Prince and Sam Corlett opting for a pheasant - an important question, as the cooking times are completely different. Applying half remembered physics to the "spider's web" on the windscreen, and the Daily Telegraph letters page (many of whose readers know a thing or two about pheasants) reporting birds suicidally diving onto the road, I am going with Neil and Sam.

This was our first visit to Salford since the club changed ownership. The first noticeable change was the programme, with last season's title of Tangerine Barmy replaced by Red Ammie, in recognition of the change of playing colours. There were also television cameras used by the University of Salford to produce highlights packages and footage for a possible BBC programme at the end of the season.

Sam Corlett gets on telly (possibly)

Liam Dodd's welcome return from injury allowed James McCulloch to move to midfield, which many feel is his best position. Of course, a player's best position is not necessarily where he will end up, if he is the best player available who can play somewhere else.

Liam Dodd

James McCulloch

I started on the Moor Lane side, but the sun came out after about 5 minutes, so moved round to my more usual position behind the goal. Salford took the lead after half an hour with a shot from the edge of the penalty area that left Ciaran Gibson no chance. We continued to press, and were rewarded just before half time, when a scramble to get on the end of a corner led to the ball falling to Antony Shinks, who forcefully put it in the net.

Antony Shinks scores - picture included on the "goal is a goal" principle

The second half provided easier conditions for me, with the sun behind me. As the half progressed, Neil Prince brought on fresh legs, replacing Antony Shinks with Mason Ryan, and Sam Corlett with himself, a combination that paid off in the 75th minute, when a pass from Neil Prince ...

 ... found an advancing Mason Ryan ...

... who neatly put it away.

The upset got us a nomination for Non League Review's Team of the Week, coming in second in the popular vote to Colne FC. You cannot mention everyone in a post like this, and it is always easy to concentrate on the goal scorers, but this was a superb team performance, in which everyone played their part.

Defending a free kick

After the game, I headed to the other end of Moor Lane, and caught the 98, which goes along the main road, and is therefore familiar with carrying strangers. My ticket was accepted without demur.

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

Final score: Salford City 1, Prescot Cables 2 (Shinks, Ryan)

Could have made that a bit easier

Speaking after the Prescot Cables club AGM a few weeks ago, Manager Dave Powell said it looked as though we would complete our season the hard way, due in large part to our away form. We can almost guarantee a weather induced layoff at some time, but can never tell when that will be. For some years, we have seemed to struggle more than most to recover form when play restarts. This season, all bar one of our games in January were postponed, and just after this we had away games against New Mills, Radcliffe Borough, Ossett Albion and Padiham, where we could not produce the wins that would have pulled us ahead of them, instead only drawing.

There is something to be said for a strong team spirit and familiarity with your own ground, which we have: the bottom two sides, Wakefield and Ossett Albion, had by far the poorest home records, for which they were unable to compensate away.

Safety had been achieved with time to spare, so we were free to enjoy the final day visit of Salford City. Our visitors have been in the news due to their new owners. Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt are a dying breed in football, playing for all or most of their careers for their local top flight club. It is too early to tell how it will work out at Salford, but they are football people, aware of the opportunities the game can provide for their area. Speculation was whether any would attend the game - Mr Giggs was engaged elsewhere, but would the others be at a loose end?

My first observation was that they may well not be playing in that colour away kit next season.

Mike Kennedy

It can only help the team when there is competition to be top scorer. Rob Doran's two goals at Warrington took him to 14 goals, ahead of Connor McCarthy's 13.

Rob Doran

Isaac Kusoloka has had a good run of form, converting the movement that has been keeping opposition defences on their toes into goals as well, so was only three goals behind. Isaac was first on the score sheet.

Isaac Kusoloka scores his first

His father was on hand to enjoy the celebrations.

Isaac added a second in the second half, taking his tally for the season to 13.

Having started in sunshine, the weather was more variable in the second half. As Jeremy Paxman once darkly muttered during the experiment with the weather forecast on Newsnight, "The outlook is showers. It's April, what do you expect?". Taking cover under the stand was no good, as the wind was blowing the rain straight in, so it was just a matter of moving around to keep the water off the front of the lens.

The final goal for Prescot came from Phil Bannister.

Phil Bannister scores our third goal

Isaac, Rob and Phil were deservedly rewarded for their efforts through the season with the Manager's, Supporters' and Players' Player of the year awards respectively.

A consolation goal for the visitors in almost the last minute of the season secured Stuart Rudd an eighteenth consecutive season where he has scored in professional football.

It has been a challenging season, but there was a strong team spirit through quite a lot of changes. When changes happen gradually, it takes an occasional visitor to notice the overall effect: Jon Bathurst on a recent visit (when Rhyl had played on the Friday) commented that he now only knew a few of the players. Looking at the first team sheet of the season bears this out: of today's team, only James McCulloch and Phil Bannister were in the starting lineup and Isaac Kusoloka on the bench.

James McCulloch

Others started in the next few games and have been with us all season.

James Cairns

I quoted this time last year Sir Sanley Rous' remark that "it is a team game and all have played their part". Notable contributions came from Connor McCarthy who has moved up the pyramid, Sean Myler and Enzo Benn who moved on for work, and Ged Murphy who went to take on the challenge at Droylsden.

Sean Myler, pursued by a Bear (against Congleton)

Enzo Benn

Our youth team has always been a good source of players, so it was good to see Danny Brooks' fine substitute appearance at Warrington being rewarded with a start.

Danny Brooks

The Train Crew have had a lot of fun travelling: James McCulloch curtailing the goal celebrations to try and get a winner at Bamber Bridge; our cheery wave to the traffic on the way to Kendal, and the train failing bit by bit that James and I took on the way back; the away draw in front of 1300 at Darlington; the minibus to Mossley with our German guests; and the "all human life was there" pubs on the way to Bamber Bridge and Padiham (and all canine life in the latter). Even on the days when it has just not come together, I have always felt the team have given 100%, which is worth travelling for.

After the game, there was a leaving do for Dr Phil the Pharmacologist, who has got a lot of his friends along to games, and is deciding whether to take up a foreign post. He has actually taken up the post, but it is in Edinburgh, so he gets a say in whether it will be foreign. Still, he will be able to make use of frequent electric trains to join us at some of the more northerly away games, as long as the border is open.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (Kusoloka 2, Bannister), Salford City 1.

An apple, a tangerine and a bag of nuts

I do not have children of my own, but if I did, I suspect they may not like my ideas about a traditional Christmas present. Not for me the delights of Xboxes and Play Stations, whatever they are, I would be dispensing the fruit and healthy comestibles of the title. Tangerine is also probably the most popular description of the colour orange when applied to a football kit.

Prescot Cables' visit to Salford City was our last pre Christmas trip of the year. I was expecting the trains to be packed with shoppers, there were warnings two weeks previously of queues to get in to the station, but there were fewer people around, and therefore a more pleasant journey, than I anticipated. There are no decent pubs (or, as far as we can tell, any pubs) near the ground, so Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, guided us to the New Oxford in central Salford, which has an excellent range of real ales and Belgian beers. Sometimes I think it might be fun to order one of the latter with the correct pronunciation, complete with short wave radio effects on the gs, but the landlady seemed so knowledgeable I think she would have been correcting me.

We were in our red away kit, and Salford were in their usual tangerine.

Connor McCarthy

On first sight, we were a bit concerned that the colours were a bit close together. On the whole, I think they were sufficiently distinguished, although there might have been a problem if there had been thick cloud - in which case they would probably have been a bit close if we had been wearing amber too.

Being a week after our earliest sunset, it was two minutes later this week, with the difference in longitude between Prescot and Salford taking a minute off. That minute made all the difference - well, not quite all, the absence of thick cloud may have more to do with it. The ground is in a natural dip, but there there was still some sunlight for the start of the game.

Paul Cliff makes his first start

The sun soon dropped below the surrounding houses, leaving an even light, supplemented by the floodlights.

Dave Dempsey explains how to get happier and healthier. A goal usually does the trick for me.

Salford have a larger than usual gap between the pitch perimeter fence and the touchline. A few years ago, some clubs with this arrangement would change the width of the marked out pitch from game to game to play to the weaknesses of the opposition, cramping a team with good wide players, or giving a team with fitness issues more ground to cover. Such shenanigans are not allowed these days at our level, with leagues imposing tighter restrictions on the permitted size of the pitch, and requiring clubs to stick to the dimensions they have registered.

It was nearly two years since I was last at Salford, with last season's fixture having been in midweek and inconvenient for travel due to engineering works. Looking back, I made the observation on that occasion that the pitch was in one corner of the available surface, but it seemed more centrally placed this season. One effect of this is that the dark patch that usually occurs at the base of the floodlight pylons in the side arrangement is not on the touchline.

Robert Gilroy progresses near the touchline

The gap also avoids one of the pitfalls of taking pictures from the side with a 70-300mm lens, namely that a player running along the touchline can come too close to be able to capture from head to toe in a landscape frame. I have not developed the manual dexterity to flip the camera to get the frame in portrait orientation with sufficient speed to continue to capture the action.

The best illuminated spots remained on the edge of the penalty area.

We can get an idea of the illumination at the touchline from the player taking the throw in - usually in this sort of situation, he would be shrouded in gloom.

Despite the good photographic opportunities, the game was not one of our best performances - the rest of the pictures from the afternoon can be seen here.

Final score: Salford City 2 Prescot Cables 0.

Elvis has entered the building

Due partly to the early start to the FA Trophy, and partly to some odd gaps in our League fixtures, this week saw Prescot Cables' first evening game for nearly a month. So, not this year the slow acclimatisation to darker and colder nights, just a transition from the mild, if wet, beginning of September, to the colder climes of October. So, it is out with the thicker coat, precautions against condensation on the camera equipment, and the home made soup from the tea bar - a meal in itself.

Luke Edwards and Salford's Rees Welsh

Prescot were entertaining the players, officials and supporters of Salford City, who play at home in orange, but travel away in a camera friendly light blue.

The game saw a welcome return to first team action (a return as far as I am concerned, I missed the game on Saturday, and the programme had to go to press before the Saturday game) for club captain Liam Hollett, who has been recovering from knee surgery.

Liam Hollett gets ahead of Salford's Osebi Abadaki

There were a few changes from the team I saw playing Skelmersdale, including a return to Prescot for Anthony Shinks, who made a couple of appearances in our centenary season. After that season, at Dennis Bellairs' suggestion, I made a poster with an action shot of most of those who played. I have always been a bit concerned I may have got the names and pictures of some of the players who had made a small number of appearances mixed up. Fortunately, should Anthony spot the poster in the clubhouse, he will find himself correctly identified.

Anthony Shinks then ...

... and now

The game also saw the first appearance (again, the first I saw) of Elvis Banyihwabe, a former international for Burundi.

Elvis Banyihwabe

We do see international players at this level - mostly those on the way up, or those who played internationally earlier in their careers. Burundi is 135th (of 207) in the FIFA rankings - current internationals likely to be playing at this level are from countries at the bottom of the rankings, probably from about 180 and below. From what I could gather from the web, Elvis played for Burundi whilst playing for BV Veendam (now SC Veendam) of the Eerste Divisie (the second tier in the Netherlands).

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

A Tale of Two Cities

My main clubs have the good fortune to have a unique name: there is only one Cables, and one Hamlet. It is different in Finland, IFK is a network of clubs in Sweden and southern Finland, although I am not aware of the name being particularly associated with one club outside its own location. I have some sympathy for clubs with a name ending in United or City, as the media take the view that these names refer to one club, based in Manchester. This must be especially annoying when your club is in the neighbouring City of Salford, which, in the middle ages, gave its name to the Hundred covering the whole of south east Lancashire.

At the time of Prescot's fixture against Salford City a couple of seasons ago, I was working at Salford Quays. One of my colleagues, Liam, was a Manchester City supporter (an allegiance inherited from his father and grandfather, so we can let him off). Chatting about the weekend, he mentioned he was watching City. I did not have the quick thinking to come back with the riposte that, on the contrary, as we were in Salford, it was I who would be watching City.

On my way to the same fixture, a tourist got on the bus and asked the driver if he went by City's ground. It was tempting to assist, but that would have been mean. There were no such challenges on the way to this game, although First added to the Bank Holiday fun by choosing that day to change the fares, so passengers took twice as long to board, as they rummaged for change. They were mostly loaded with shopping, so I am not sure how they did not find out about the new fares on the way in to town.

I therefore arrived at the game a few minutes late, as Salford's goalkeeper was about to leave the field with a rib injury. Steven Tames took advantage of the stand-in finding his feet (a necessary precaution even for a draw, as we have not kept a clean sheet this season). He has missed a couple of times recently when it seemed easier to score, so hopefully a good goal like this will increase his confidence.

 For the photographer, the first half was in the low angled light of a bright day at this time of year.

For the second half, the lights cast a good light in the middle of the pitch, and in the goalmouth, which is often surprisingly dark. All grounds have their quirks, and Salford has a large perimeter, with the pitch in one corner, so the perimeter fence is close to one touchline and one goal line, but 6 or 7 yards away on the other two sides. It is not as large a gap as a running track, but it can make a difference to the available range if, as I do, you restrict the use of the focal length of the lens under lights to obtain a better aperture. The quality of the light made up for the distance, and I was able to catch action in both goals.

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