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)