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.