Last of the summer light

This weekend saw the last of the afternoon games before the clocks go back, not a guarantee of good light, but we know from next week it will be dark towards the end of the game. Prescot Cables' game at home to Harrogate Railway Athletic saw a welcome, if chilly, clear day, which gave a strong light from the side across the pitch with some deep shadows.

Callum Hoctor shields his eyes from the sun

For about three quarters of our home games, we play towards the Safari Park End (i.e. away from the entrance to the ground) in the first half, as we almost always choose that direction, and about half the visiting teams choose to play towards the Hope Street end. This is better for me because of the way the sun moves round the ground during the game, particularly at this time of year when it is low in the sky.

The game started promisingly for Prescot, with a goal after 2 minutes from Jonathon Bathurst. This is the second week in a row Jon has scored a goal, and I have not got a picture. The most difficult type of goal to capture is when a player gets on the end of a cross and whips it in before the goalkeeper has chance to react. Professionals at the top level will often have an unattended camera on a tripod behind the goal, continuously shooting when anyone is near. I do not have the spare equipment for that, and placing it on the terraces would present a tripping hazard for fellow spectators, and indeed they would present a tripping hazard to the kit.

Jonathon Bathurst

I sometimes wonder whether the quality of the play on offer affects the quality of the pictures that result.

After the goal, the performance was described in the report by our Press Officer, Richard Quinn, as "error strewn", which applied to both teams, but probably more to us. I tend to be snapping away when players are making runs or competing for the ball in the opposition's half, so when the game is mainly in our half, and dominated by errors, I found myself with about a quarter less exposures than normal by the end of the game, although, as that is still in the hundreds, I was still able to produce a slide show of the normal size of about 60 pictures.

The players' profiles were updated in the programme for this game, to include those who had joined since the start of the season. I had not realised how young the team is, with most being between 19 and 22. Having a group of young players keen to see how far they are able to go in the game has given us a team that is the best I have seen for some time for playing to the final whistle.

This game was a case in point - Harrogate scored at 75 and 81 minutes, and it would have been easy to accept the points had been lost. Not so with this team, with an equaliser coming from Jack Webb in the last minute of injury time. I captured this one, thus ensuring Jack a second week on the back page of the Merseymart.

Jack Webb controls the ball ...

... and shoots for goal

I have never been a fan of Haloween, it had not reached the church going countryside when I was growing up, and I have never seen the point of it since, but some decided to join in the fun.

Actually, the skeletons appeared not long before our equaliser, so they may have had the effect of scaring play into the Harrogate half!

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