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.