Auto focus with a limited attention span

This weekend saw what has become in recent years Prescot Cables' traditional last pre season game against Marine. There has been competition (not to mention regular movement of players) between the clubs for many years, although for most of the Pyramid era, they have been a division or two above us.

Prescot's pre season programme seems to have been very much about exploring options, discovering combinations of players that work well. The squad is therefore still quite large, and I suspect likely to remain so to have cover for all positions. Very few players have played in all of the pre season games, so I am still not sure who will start the season. A couple of players have been in most of the games - top scorer in pre season, James Thomas (who features more in a moment), and James McCulloch.

James McCulloch

There was still the opportunity to bring in new faces.

Joe Fielding

I think most would agree that auto focus is a wonderful thing, especially for fast moving sports like football and rugby, as it works much more quickly and accurately than anything the photographer can do manually. However, it sometimes seems to have the attention span of a gnat. Take this free kick for Prescot's goal.

The ball is in nice sharp focus as James "Smiler" Thomas takes a free kick ...

... keeping a close eye as it goes over the wall ...

 ... still sharp as Marine goalkeeper Ryan McMahon makes a move ...

 ... but he cannot get to it and ... ooh, there's Dave from Football Editorial - wonder what camera he is using ... what do you mean "goal"?

Still, as the principle remains on this blog, a goal is a goal, and this is just the sort of goal for which we keep Smiler on the books, getting us back from a goal down, which would be a valuable point in a league game.

For Dave Smithson's view of the game and some comments from Cables Manager Dave Powell, click here.

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