Glorious mud

At Prescot Cables' game against Trafford in midweek, we could see what 3 weeks without rain had done to improve the pitch. It was not to last, and the underlying saturation of the ground meant any rain was going to have trouble soaking in. There was heavy rain on Friday leaving pools of standing water. Hard work by Doug Lace and his team ensured it was drained away, making the pitch playable for Saturday's game against Clitheroe, but there is not a lot you can do about the mud.

Any more heavy rain would have made the pitch unplayable, but instead, for most of the day, there was a light rain, making the surface slippery. Even a muddy pitch today is nowhere near what we saw, even in the Football League, back in the 1970s, with Derby County's Baseball Ground being particularly notable (baseball would probably have done less damage to the surface). Even our own pitch has been improved by several years of work by our ground team.

The rain was not hard enough to keep me in the stand, but I used the rain cover for the camera throughout. As I was having a spot of bother clipping it on to the viewfinder, the tempting suggestion was made that I should put the whole cover over my head, in the manner of a large format camera.

We started off with everyone looking quite clean.

Ged Murphy

The pitch was soon starting to suffer in the areas that always give us problems.

Jon Bathurst

The mud gradually transferred itself to the players...

Sean Myler

... and some were splattered like the rider of the second place in the 3.30 at Haydock.

Enzo Benn

AFC Liverpool's next 4 fixtures will take place before our next home game in 2 weeks' time, so we should hope for more dry weather. In an ideal world, it may be better not to play when the pitch is this wet, but we are at the stage of the season where we need to get fixtures completed if there is a chance of doing so. Whilst we have been fortunate in the way our fixtures have fallen to match the drier weather either side of the Pennines, AFC Liverpool, having all their games to the west, have not been so lucky, and will have their first week with three games (Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday) next week.

Flanders and Swann tell us that one of the glories of mud is that there is nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. I had no need of these properties, as the rain and wind were more than sufficient. Even with gloves and the rain cover, I was slowly losing the use of my fingers by the end of the game. Fortunately, catastrophe was averted: I did not drop my glass at the Prescot Cables Beer Festival.

I was also keeping an eye on the bench. I have not been looking much in that direction this season, the team have been playing well enough for my interest not to wander. However, our Coach, Warren Jones, wanted a picture for the website (or at least webmaster Geoff did). I might have another go this weekend to see if I can get one with the management not looking so cold, although with the weather forecast, that might not be possible.

Dave Powell and Warren Jones watch Dave Dempsey take a throw in

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