Young Tigers

Prior to Prescot Cables' home game against Ossett Albion at the weekend, the club held a Young Tigers' Day, a range of children's events organised by volunteer Dermot Allister with support from the Jamie Carragher 23 Foundation, Prescot Town Council Community Fund, and the Mayor of Knowsley's Magic Fund. This sort of event helps to raise the profile of the club in the community, and hopefully encourages a new generation of supporters, with under 16s admitted free to league games. The centrepiece was the creation of a mural at the Hope Street end.

Harry poses in front of the mural

Some of the children participated in a penalty shoot out, with certificates presented by the Mayor of Prescot, Councillor David Rigby, who looked as though he enjoyed his visit.

Club Secretary Doug Lace escorts the Mayor and Mayoress

Elsewhere, Liverpool were playing at home at 3pm, the traffic for which adds 15 minutes to my normal journey. Unlike when I started watching Cables in the 1990s, when it was every other week, it is now an occasional event that I forget to check is happening, and have to rush as a result. On arrival, I took up position in front of the tea bar, where a number of the Train Crew had gathered.

About half way through, I headed for my more usual position behind the goal. On my way, I found myself level with Connor McCarthy advancing towards goal - a common enough sight. Ossett's goalkeeper was perilously close to the edge of his area, so using his hands was not an option. This picture does not really show the ball (it is behind the keeper's right elbow), so did not make it in to the final collection.

Connor took advantage, as he calmly put it away.

My former companions remained in their position.

All eyes are on Isaac Kusoloka

At half time, I sometimes take some pictures of the substitutes warming up. I do not do posed portraits, but I sometimes catch a good one when the subject is not necessarily aware. I had to tweak the lighting on this quite considerably, as Enzo was in the shadow of the stand, with the sun on the pitch behind him.

Enzo Benn

Also at half time, I bumped into Jon Bathurst, now with Rhyl, who did not have a game. It is always good to see former players (well, most of them): it indicates the regard with which the club is held that they still come to watch when they have time available.

In the non League game, we are seeing an increasing number of players from Football and Premier League academies, either having been released or being sent on load for match practice. One such addition to the squad, making his first start, is Jamie Menagh, who has been involved with with Stoke City and Blackpool. Jamie was involved in the incident that led to Ossett's second dismissal (we were mystified by what the first, immediately after Connor McCarthy's second goal, had been for). I got a clear, if slightly out of focus view.

Given the position of the Ossett player's leg, and that he approached with some speed, we can see why the referee adjudged the challenge to be reckless.

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (McCarthy 3) Ossett Albion 2.

Hattie Jacques?

Sometimes, despite the best efforts of all concerned, public address will give the opportunity for a mondegreen. As an aside, when I was working in Big Oil, I confused people by spelling Diesel with a capital D, after the inventor of the engine, but petrol without, as there was no Mr Petrol. I am, however, not sure whether to spell mondegreen with a capital M. On the face of it, it is named after Lady Mondegreen, but this is a mishearing of the words "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And laid him on the green". So, do we adopt a capital letter when the character is merely a trick of the ear?

The announcement that prompted these musings was a substitution for Farsley in their visit to Prescot Cables. Our announcer, David Williams, with his usual excellent diction, announced that a substitute was replacing "number seven, Matty James", which prompted the reference by someone standing near me to the late comedy actress of the title.

The afternoon started brightly, although the forecast suggested the rain would be back after the end of the game. I was able to use the sports mode on the camera, which was giving me shutter speeds of around 1/500s. I do not usually include pictures of play without the ball, the main exception being anticipating a header.

Enzo Benn

Whilst the weather was mild for the time of year, the sports jacket temperatures of the last few weeks are gone, with coats being the order of the day. Dave Powell appears unaware that his dugout has become a makeshift bar.

By the beginning of the second half, I switched to shutter priority at 1/320s due to thick cloud. The floodlights were turned on about five minutes into the half. 10 minutes later, the rain started, for a few minutes it was the heaviest we have seen in a game for a while.

Connor McCarthy in the rain - his mother was the only person who had not headed for cover

I thought the rain was easing off, so I emerged from the cover and headed for the gasworks side. My optimism was misplaced, and the pitch quickly acquired surface water.

Antony Shinks

The rain eventually eased off ...

Jonathon Lynch

... but was soon back.

Jamie Menagh

Oddly, more pictures than usual were best cropped into portrait format (five of seven on this page for example), which gave me a shortage of images for the Merseymart. They have introduced a fixed page layout for the sports page, so they do not need anyone with layout skills, the writers can drop two standard length stories into the allocated space. So, instead of being able mix any shape of picture with the text, it now needs to go in a 26x18cm box.

Like me, they seemed to like the visual effects of the rain, choosing this picture of Rob Doran.

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

Quaker oats

Prescot Cables' fixture at  Darlington was eagerly anticipated, with a larger than normal coach with tickets issued, and the proprietor of the Sun Inn laid on a reasonably priced breakfast. I am not keen on a long trip only to go to the game and come straight home, so I travelled by train on Friday (the 10:22, naturally), and visited Richmond and the National Railway Museum at Shildon. Making these journeys by bus, the locals looked strangely at my city ways of getting up as soon as I have rung the bell - follow the instructions to remain seated until the bus has stopped where I live and you will be on the bus for all eternity.

Darlington 1883 currently play at Bishop Auckland, and have announced plans to ground share with Darlington RFC, about half a mile from Darlington FC's old Feethams ground. Much of the historic industry and commerce of the town was developed by the Quaker community, reflected in the club's nickname. I am not sure even Joseph Pease, a founder of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the first Quaker to sit in Parliament, who did not remove his hat in the Commons Chamber, wore one like this.

I expected the weather to be cold but dry, which will teach me to look at the probability of rain on the Met Office app, not just the headline weather symbol. There was an almost constant drizzle, and the floodlights were on throughout. Grey conditions create photographic opportunities, particularly when the opposition are in black and white, as our players provide a splash of colour in an almost monochrome background where the rain gives even the grass a greyish tinge.

Carl Furlong goes for a header.

Even the crowd's coats provided a background of muted tones - apart from one little chap.

James McCulloch

The rain gave a fine mist over the pictures at the far end of the pitch, significant in what was a strong defensive performance. Rob Doran was particularly active in breaking out of defence, and was rewarded with a goal.

Rob Doran

The rain was more problematic in the second half, as there was a breeze blowing on to the front of the lens, so I was spending a lot of time cleaning it, assisted by Luke, one of our pharmacologists. He only looked after lens hood for one of these operations, but I like to be generous with the assistant credits. A position at the side of the pitch did not bring much improvement. The best option would have been to return to our own half, but a lot of home supporters of the crowd of 1379 had moved to the end they were attacking, leaving it short of space. Despite Feethams having been one of the last Football League grounds at which it was possible to change ends at half time, a very small group of those home supporters remaining on the covered terracing seemed to take umbrage at any visiting supporters making a noise in their presence.

At least I was in position to get Ged Murphy's goal.

I also caught our appeal for a penalty for a foul on Callum Hoctor, turned down by the referee. The picture is as demisted as I could manage, so you can judge for yourself.

Darlington's second goal came from a free kick awarded for returning goalkeeper Adam Reid holding on to the ball for more than 6 seconds. I think this is the first time I have seen a free kick for this since the law changed from 4 steps a few years ago. I am not even sure I have seen a referee look at his watch when the goalkeeper takes the ball in his hands to determine how long it has been held.

I got a lot less pictures than usual from the second half, which reduced the overall slideshow. Not that it was an entirely bad thing: my computer decided not to start when I got back. I keep my old laptop in working order, but I hope to get my regular machine back from the repair shop by the weekend, as I am not sure I can face processing another set that slowly.

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

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather

With Prescot Cables out of the FA Cup, the remaining opportunity for glory in a national competition (and an addition to club funds through the prize fund) was in the FA Trophy. In this year's Preliminary Round we hosted Scarborough Athletic, formed in 2007 following the demise of Scarborough FC, who had been the first team to gain automatic promotion to the Football League in 1987. We were surprised to see their minibus had been cancelled due to lack of interest, but we need not have worried, as plenty of supporters made their own way.

Our visitors' club badge features a well mannered Scarborough seagull, trained by generations of thrifty Yorkshire visitors who believe in eating t'chips for which they have paid good brass into understanding that the clue as to where to find its food is in the name. In contrast, the Llandudno seagulls I encounter if I have a day at the seaside are trained by more profligate visitors into thinking a share of every portion is for them.

The visiting manager, Rudy Funk, led the club to the Northern Counties East League Championship last season, previously enjoying success with Rainworth Miners Welfare. I am not aware of his having had a career in experimental electronic music, athough ...

Rudy Funk (standing) watches Rob Doran and Scarborough's Brian Hughes

The sky was overcast for most of the game, unlike the last few afternoon games. This means we do not need to worry about shadows, although with the automatic sports mode on the D5000, the results tend to be a bit dark, which is easily fixed on the computer.

I even got a picture, from behind our own goal, of our goalkeeper making a save without anyone else in the way of the picture.

Nick Culkin

It was a competitive game.

Alexander McMillan

Based on the fairly unscientific evidence of my own estimate of how many shots I was taking close up and how many were in the other half of the pitch, I though Scarborough had the better of the play.

At half time, I was chatting to another photographer, building a portfolio for his degree. He had been at the Cammell Laird game, where he found the light a bit murky. We had comparable kit (he had a D90: I had a lens with a longer focal length), so were getting shutter speeds of around 1/1000s. He asked about the floodlights, as he was planning to attend a midweek game. I gave a couple of tips, like standing under the floodlight pylons, and that he would find it amazing how slow a shutter speed you can get away with if you do not mind motion blur on the feet, so I shall be interested to see how he gets on.

All lenses are trained on Enzo Benn

The game was still competitive after Scarborough scored the only goal, but the struggle became uphill when Carl Furlong was sent off for an incident off the ball. I was following the ball, so did not see it, but there was a suggestion, even from some Scarborough people, that both the players involved should have received a yellow card, rather than one yellow and one red.

The result means we will  not now be visiting Stocksbridge Park Steels' ground on the edge of the Pennines in the next round, but will instead enjoy the more prosaic delights of entertaining Farsley in the League.

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

Northwich lights

Football in Northwich is currently in a state of flux. Our opponents on Tuesday evening, Northwich Victoria, play at Flixton, sharing with Northwich Flixton Villa, whose name suggests they may regard Flixton as a home, unlike Victoria, who aspire to return to Northwich. Meanwhile, in Winsford, 1874 Northwich have broken away, and also aim to play in the town.

The home kit was three quarters white, which helps with lighting

Arriving at Lime Street, the conversation with the woman in the ticket office went like this: -

Me - Day return to Urmston please.
Booking clerk - Single?
Me - No, day return.
BC - Coming back today?
Me - Yes, this evening.
(A price twice what I was expecting appeared on the display)
Me - Is that right?
(The display was turned towards me without a word)
Me - Can you check that, it seems a bit high.
BC - It's right: two day returns to Urmston.
Me - I only want one.
BC - You said two.
Me - No I did not.
BC - (Aggressively) Yes you did.

At this point, I decided I would get more sense out of the self service machine.

I can only describe the pitch as pristine, and floodlights were the best I have seen in a while. They were in an unusual arrangement, two pylons behind each goal line level with the edge of the penalty area. This makes behind the goal a good vantage point. The pitch perimeter wall is only mid thigh height at this point: fortunately our team were not sending shots wide of target: a low flying ball could have played havoc with my exposures.

The quality of the lights gave me the option of a 1/200s shutter speed for the best lighting, or a faster speed for a better freeze of the action. This time I stuck with the slower speed. I was happy with the lighting in front of me.

Enzo Benn, pursued by Northwich's Joe Garvin

You would think it was easy to identify the opposition player here, even without the number: look for the forearm tattoo in other pictures with the number visible. It was not that simple, three or four players had something similar.

I was also happy with results in the middle of the pitch.

James McCulloch

Even the touchlines were well lit enough to produce usable frames.

John Beattie

This was the first outing for the new away kit, sponsored by Britannia Fleet. The socks appear to answer a recent change to the Laws of the Game, which now stipulate that where tape is used (to keep the shin pads in place), it must be the same colour as the part of the sock to which it is applied. Our home socks are black, so there are handy black hoops where the tape goes on the away socks, so we only need one colour of tape.

During the second half, I decided, as I did at Lancaster, to follow the action from the side in our half for a few minutes to catch some shots of our defenders.

Jonathon Lynch and Antony Shinks prepare for a free kick

Back behind the goal, I was buttonholed by Northwich's programme editor, who wanted to use some photos. I was happy to agree, not everyone has a photographer, especially for evening games. Unfortunately, he picked the moment Ged Murphy took a free kick for Isaac Kusoloka to put in the net and cancel out Northwich's earlier goal. I turned towards the action and snapped more in hope than expectation.

"I take it you will not be wanting that one", I said, as I showed him the result. Fortunately Isaac described the goal to the football52 website.

Isaac Kusoloka

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

Off the field, it was confirmed that Sean Myler has joined Conwy Borough of the Huws Gray Alliance, to fit with personal commitments. Sean is excellent player, conducts himself impeccably, and his style of play is a gift for the photographer. We will miss him more than most, but players moving on is a fact of life, and Dave Powell is proving adept at picking up quality players (including Sean himself). We wish him well, and hope he will eventually make a well earned return to the professional game, where his career was interrupted by illness.

Sean Myler, pursued by a Bear (against Congleton)

At least I got one of the goals

The sports jacket weather I have been reporting continued for Prescot Cables' game at home to Radcliffe Borough. Our visitors had made a poor start to the season, having only gained one point. So, there were all the hallmarks of an easy win on paper, and a trap for the unwary on grass.

In the programme, the referee's assistants are listed with the colour of their flag, usually red and yellow. However, this does not always mean much when you look at the flags, as they are often just a bit more than half of one colour and a bit less than half of the other. So, feel free to work out which is the red and yellow below.

Classic Lancashire name: Mr P Shacklady (yellow flag), with the other officials and captains

There was a trend in the 1990s for goalkeepers to wear bright patterned shirts, with Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos being a particular exponent, and England's David Seaman sporting a lurid outfit. I think the idea was that forwards would be so distracted they would aim shots safely at the keeper. Either that, or they were following road safety advice to be seen in the dark. With a bit of high vis, Radcliffe's Chris Cheetham can be seen in all lighting conditions.

Also playing for Radcliffe was Danny Lambert, who scored some useful goals for us last season before moving on to play closer to his home in Manchester.

Phil Bannister keeps Danny Lambert at bay

Prescot took the lead on 26 minutes, with a goal, to nobody's surprise, from Connor McCarthy. I, however, failed to capture it, with my sequence going straight from Enzo Benn crossing in ...

... to Connor being congratulated by his team mates.

That was the only score of the first half, and Radcliffe made a recovery in the second, scoring on 57 minutes. This was met by an almost immediate response, with Mike Smith restoring the lead. I got something of this, with Mike, the ball and the goal in the same frame, but no suggestion of any interaction between the three, so I decided it was not worth editing even for illustration.

Mike Smith

A miss by Nick Culkin from a not entirely prudent backpass gave Radcliffe the opportunity to level again. No sooner had I got the picture of Prescot kicking off (like goal celebrations, they are a handy marker to indicate where a goal was scored), but I was ready to take another, with Radcliffe having immediately taken possession from the kick off and taken the lead.

There was a time when such an event would have finished the game off, with the visitors adding to their points tally, and probably further augmenting their goal difference. However, this is not then, and, whilst there are good and bad days at the office, the team keeps going to the end. I got our equaliser, or at least close enough to the shot being dispatched to claim it as a photo of the goal.

Rob Doran rounds Chris Cheetham to level the score

It looked as though we would have to be content with a point, until, for the second week in a row, Enzo Benn snatched a late goal, that I came nowhere near capturing, and ensured there was no improvement in Radcliffe's start to the season.

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