Goooooal!

It is not often that scoring a goal merits a title of a post, even one like that scored by Prescot Cables Jonathon Bathurst in the opening minutes of their game at home to Radcliffe Borough. However, this was our first goal on the opening day of the season since a win away at North Ferriby United in 2007, which, coincidentally, was the first game for which I published photos on the web.

This was the photo I sent in to the Liverpool Echo for their Merseymart supplement (more of that later).

Jonathon Bathurst beats the keeper

This is what happened next.

Keep calm and carry on

Our programme editor has gone for a cover design with text to one side and a photo next to it, so there was a portrait format picture for his consideration too.

Tap in to the net

It was a bright sunny day, the sort we expect, but this year did not look likely to get, for the start of the season. This brings its own lighting challenges, and I thought a few of the photos were looking a bit contrasty (is that a real word?), and may have benefited from conversion to black and white. A decent image in black and white depends on a contrast in the teams' kits, e.g. one in white and the other in a colour, or one in plain and the other in stripes. Looking from the front, this was possible at this game, with Radcliffe in blue and black stripes.

However, when the Radcliffe player has his back to the camera, we encounter the plain back - a plain panel for the number is useful, but I see no need for it to take up most of the back.

The end result is two plain colours, which never works as well in black and white.

With new faces to identify at this time of year, I would welcome an innovation trickling down from international level - numbers on the front of the shirt. Some clubs have numbers on shorts, but this is not universal, and it makes the job of the kit man harder, as shorts need to be matched with shirts when they come back from the laundry. Often they are more to the side of the shorts, so not always easy to see when the player is facing the camera.

I mentioned at the beginning that I had sent a picture in for the Merseymart. We are in competition for column inches with our tenants, AFC Liverpool of the North West Counties League. We have come out well in the half season since the Echo relaunched the Merseymart, and I like to think the photos help, along with excellent match reports from our Press Officer, Richard Quinn.

However, there are times AFC Liverpool do something newsworthy that gets them the space, which was the case this weekend, when they lost 8-1 at Winsford United. I am happy to trade the back page of the paper for a point on the opening day against one of the teams tipped for a play off place.

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