The green(ish) grass of home

This Tuesday saw Prescot Cables play their first home game of the pre season programme, against Droylsden. Our visitors' badge, like our own, is adapted from the arms of their town, with a change of colour.

The pitch looked looked well covered with grass, following the improvements achieved with funds raised by the Supporters on the Pitch scheme, with new growth in places that were looking bare at the end of last season. Unfortunately, it has not rained for 3 weeks, which has been very good for my friend from Chile on a tour to England and Ireland with his daughter, but as they have headed home, there is no reason not to have some showers to get the grass growing again.

I am not just concerned about the health of the greensward, it is playing havoc with my exposures.

James McCulloch

With a background that under normal conditions would be a more verdant hue, the players' kits seem more vivid than you might expect, although it was cloudy, which may have contributed to that. I should probably adjust the white balance, rather than rely on the camera's auto setting, but I am a bit lazy about this: firstly, I could spend all game adjusting it rather than capturing the action, and secondly, I tend to forget to change it back, so it would probably affect the next set of pictures.

Although we have done well retaining the bulk of last season's squad, there are always new faces at this time of year. Some go as quickly as they came, but some make a claim for a place at the start of the season.

Rob Doran watches his shot head towards goal

There are those who would wish to move non League football to a summer season. I tend towards not making a change, but one advantage would be summer evening games. The first half was played in natural light, and the Gasworks Side is more hospitable in July than on a wet Tuesday night in November, a pleasant breeze rather than a howling gale.

The floodlights were turned on for the second half, serving to augment rather than replace the declining natural light as in this shot of Isaac Kusaloka.

I think I now have the correct spelling of Isaac's name - it is an advantage of social media, once we have seen the player's accounts he has created himself, we can assume the spelling is correct. A similar exercise for Antony Shinks tells me I have been giving him an extra "h" for the last half season, and indeed for posterity in the 2009-10 season montage.

The close season is a time for maintenance, and the pitch perimeter fence at the Safari Park End has had a coat of paint. The new colours could help us with the light at night games, with white along most of the length ...

Dave Dempsey

... and yellow behind the goal.

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