Daylight saving

When I posted a collection of pictures from a Prescot Cables Reserves game in February, I got some appreciative comments from the players, who must often feel their work goes unobserved, so when I had the opportunity to catch their last game of the season, against West Kirby Reserves I was happy to get along. This was technically our home game, but played at West Kirby, having previously been postponed due to pitch availability issues at our normal home base.

Lee Owens keeps the ball under pressure

One of my most memorable afternoons watching Prescot was at a Reserve game, in about 1993. 5 or 6 of us who had watched the club at University got together, with a view to watching the First Team away to Skelmersdale. This was before the days of websites and text messages, so it was more than a little inconvenient when I met the rest of the party at the bus stop to tell them the Echo was reporting the First Team game was at Bradford Park Avenue instead - my first attempt to attend an away game at Skelmersdale thwarted, the mission finally being accomplished some eighteen years later. We therefore went to Prescot, and were in luck, as the Reserves were hosting Castleton Gabriels. Our small but noisy crowd took up position behind the goal, much to the consternation of Castleton's manager, who complained to the referee that we were putting their rather youthful goalkeeper off.

There was no such crowd on this occasion, with the club being represented off the field by our Chairman, Tony Zeveron, also fulfilling the duties of Match Secretary. Despite looking at the teamsheet, I omitted to take a picture of it, or to wrtite down the names, so my knowledge of the players' names was limited to those who had made first team appearances, from those who have been called upon regularly by the First Team, such as Chris McGann and Francis Foy ...

Chris McGann scores his first goal of three

Francis Foy

 ... to those called up more recently, like Liam Davies and Adam Castley.

Liam Davies

Adam Castley

The game kicked off at a surprisingly late time of 6.45, but this proved to be sufficient to complete the game in daylight, with the bright light often found near the coast, and sunset due at 8.42. A friend was off to a game in London the same evening, which had to start at 6.15, as sunset there is about 20 minutes earlier. It's grim up north - but not at this time of year!

Even the First Team can sometimes find less than the full 5 substitutes on the bench, with players absent due to injuries or work commitments. This can be even more so with the Reserves, with only two substitutes named on this occasion - both of whom were used towards the end of the game. One was the manager, Joe Gibiliru Snr, who had registered himself as a player for such an emergency, 21 years since I first saw him play a game for Prescot. He had, I believe, also played a full 90 minutes for the Reserves on the previous Saturday.

Joe Gibiliru Snr comes on as a substitute

The Reserves have inevitably been affected by the First Team taking Amateur status, with Joe having stepped into the breach when the previous Reserve manager resigned fearing that he would be left with no team if they were called upon to replace departung First Team players. He has done an excellent job maintaining a stable team, and finishing in a respectable 4th place, just behind New Brighton, which will have some resonance for those with memories of the Lancashire Combination days of the 1950s.

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