Putting the score in words

I often think of tangential material for these posts on the way to the game. This is sometimes overtaken by events, and heads to the back burner. So, my musings on my way to Prescot Cables' game at home to New Mills on the subject of sports jackets being used for sport, illustrated by a picture of a match official so attired, will have to wait until next time the weather is changeable with a hint of autumn, but not cold enough for a coat. So, that is next week's post sorted.

An early observation was that New Mills' number 5 bore a passing resemblance, in hair at least, to the Entertainments Secretary at Liverpool University in 1987.

Other considerations were soon overtaken by seven of what George Green, the football artist of the Liverpool Echo in the 1930s called "jolly little goals".

Looking at New Mills' form, we should not have been surprised at a high score: they lost 5-0 at Cammell Laird, but were also able to score, having won 5-4 at Kendal. It looked as though we might be on the receiving end of the visitors' scoring abilities when they went ahead after 9 minutes. Connor McCarthy levelled the scores after 26 minutes.

When the player takes a shot from the edge of the penalty area, and you are standing behind the goal, you never get the ideal combination of player, goal and ball, so if you were not there, you will have to take my word for it that he was shooting for goal.

Connor scored a second before half time: here I could have done with capturing the whole of New Mills' goalkeeper Peter Collinge rather than just and arm and a leg.

So, the second half began with an unexceptional score line, which was augmented within a minute by another goal from the edge of the area by Rob Doran. In this case I captured a bit more of the goalkeeper.

Seconds after the restart, Rob Doran again posed a threat, with Peter Collinge mistiming his attempt to deal with it...

... leaving the way open for Connor McCarthy to complete his hat trick.

With the ball heading to the open net, I had lowered the camera, so did not capture Connor's cheeky dive to help the ball in with his head. I am fairly traditional when it comes to goal celebrations, the time for them is when the ball is in the net, but the fact Connor was able to celebrate with impunity probably served to demoralise the New Mills defence still further.

I have to admit to missing goal number five, which is not something I get the chance to say very often, but I got another chance when Isaac Kusoloka came on for Carl Furlong, who had done an excellent job, and had been unlucky not to add to the score himself.

Carl Furlong

No sooner had Isaac joined the fray than he produced one of his aerial kicks in front of goal. At the time of writing, the time of Isaac's goal is listed on the league website as 90 minutes, suggesting it was the seventh goal, when it was the sixth, closer to 70 minutes.

Then there was a question I have never had to consider before. The scorer of a hat trick is traditionally awarded the match ball (probably in most cases a clean one that has not been kicked around) to commemorate the occasion. So, given that the game is played, nominally at least, with one ball, what does the scorer of a second hat trick get?

The question was broached by Rob Doran with a goal that looked remarkably similar to his first.

This result will have been a great boost to team morale: the New Mills defence did have a particularly bad day at the office, but our team was clinical enough to take advantage of it, and our defence kept a potentially high scoring New Mills team at bay.

Frank, one of our Train Crew members (or Air Crew, he works in aviation) came to the game suited and booted between the ceremony and reception of a friend's wedding. George Green's "jolly little goals" were from another high scoring game, a 10-0 win against Harrowby in the FA Cup in 1935. The person coming from a wedding on that occasion played a larger role in both events - the groom was Horace Whalley, Cables' goalkeeper.

Finally, I texted the score to my friend Roger: it seemed appropriate to follow the practice of the old teleprinter with a high score and give it as "Prescot Cables 7 (seven) New Mills 1". These days do not come round often, the last time we scored as many was in a 9-0 win against Flixton in 2002-3. Having enjoyed the day, the priority is in midweek away to Lancaster City who have made a good start to the season, and a testing FA Cup game at home to Buxton at the weekend.

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