Goals scored, achieved and in progress

The weather for Prescot Cables' home game against Droylsden was nothing to write home about, being mainly cloudy. Fortunately it had not rained for a few days, allowing a full league programme. The dull grey light of an overcast day can confuse the white balance on the camera, and pictures alternate between a natural colour and a red hue, leaving people looking a bit puce. Tweaking the hue and saturation helps, and at some point I might try using a preset value. Raw files give more options to adjust white balance, but I am reluctant to use them for an afternoon game, as the disadvantages of buffering and processing time outweigh the advantages with my current equipment.

The visitors scored first after a number of our chances were saved, hit the woodwork, or went just wide. This seemed to be what we needed to press home our attack, with Lloyd Dean scoring the equaliser less than a minute later.

Lloyd Dean

The scores remained level at half time.

Not be outdone, Rob Doran scored 10 minutes into the second half. I did not get a picture, and the "sets off for goal" picture did not have the quality to make one of my press photos.

Rob Doran

Droylsden replicated our performance in the first half, scoring the equaliser almost immediately afterwards. Lloyd Dean made the crucial difference ten minutes later with his second goal.

The match report on the website was illustrated by the picture above of Antony Shinks. I cropped it as a crowd shot, although, as a number of people observed, many people take the opportunity of a throw into check their mobile devices, speak to their neighbours, or see what Jazz is doing on the Gasworks Side.

Jazz McCulloch

I was illustrating that crowds have increased by about 25% from last season. This more or less occurred as soon as Andy Paxton took over as Manager, and we have only had one or two league crowds below 200 since. The additional people (and those who have been around for a while) are seeing things on the field heading upwards. Lloyd Dean's first goal meant we have scored more goals than last season with eight weeks to go, more points after Burscough a couple of weeks ago, and more wins after the visit to Scarborough in January. Obviously we have to wait to see where we finish in the league, but it is a relief not needing to look sideways at the likes of Fleet Town to see who is better placed for reprieves from relegation. Researching this post, I see Fleet are having a better season too, so someone in Hampshire is probably relieved not to be looking at us.

Andy Paxton, Steve Pilling, Roy Grundy, Garry Williams

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 (Dean 2, Doran) Droylsden 2.

The green(ish) grass of home

This Tuesday saw Prescot Cables play their first home game of the pre season programme, against Droylsden. Our visitors' badge, like our own, is adapted from the arms of their town, with a change of colour.

The pitch looked looked well covered with grass, following the improvements achieved with funds raised by the Supporters on the Pitch scheme, with new growth in places that were looking bare at the end of last season. Unfortunately, it has not rained for 3 weeks, which has been very good for my friend from Chile on a tour to England and Ireland with his daughter, but as they have headed home, there is no reason not to have some showers to get the grass growing again.

I am not just concerned about the health of the greensward, it is playing havoc with my exposures.

James McCulloch

With a background that under normal conditions would be a more verdant hue, the players' kits seem more vivid than you might expect, although it was cloudy, which may have contributed to that. I should probably adjust the white balance, rather than rely on the camera's auto setting, but I am a bit lazy about this: firstly, I could spend all game adjusting it rather than capturing the action, and secondly, I tend to forget to change it back, so it would probably affect the next set of pictures.

Although we have done well retaining the bulk of last season's squad, there are always new faces at this time of year. Some go as quickly as they came, but some make a claim for a place at the start of the season.

Rob Doran watches his shot head towards goal

There are those who would wish to move non League football to a summer season. I tend towards not making a change, but one advantage would be summer evening games. The first half was played in natural light, and the Gasworks Side is more hospitable in July than on a wet Tuesday night in November, a pleasant breeze rather than a howling gale.

The floodlights were turned on for the second half, serving to augment rather than replace the declining natural light as in this shot of Isaac Kusaloka.

I think I now have the correct spelling of Isaac's name - it is an advantage of social media, once we have seen the player's accounts he has created himself, we can assume the spelling is correct. A similar exercise for Antony Shinks tells me I have been giving him an extra "h" for the last half season, and indeed for posterity in the 2009-10 season montage.

The close season is a time for maintenance, and the pitch perimeter fence at the Safari Park End has had a coat of paint. The new colours could help us with the light at night games, with white along most of the length ...

Dave Dempsey

... and yellow behind the goal.

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