Mr John's shilling

The Augustus John (known to all as the AJ), a Good Beer Guide establishment on the University of Liverpool Precinct (sorry, Campus, people can no longer cope with local variation in these matters), has at times been a fertile recruiting ground for Prescot Cables supporters. Unsuspecting students and graduates have been for a quiet drink on Friday evening, and found themselves on the terraces at Hope Street on Saturday afternoon with only a vague recollection of how they got there. When I first attended in such circumstances, we had to get to Prescot for 1pm, for a kick off that I think turned out to be 2pm, as this was before floodlights were installed at the end of the 1990-91 season, and there were no mobile phones and internet to confirm the time. At least Prescot still had a museum then.

With this in mind, it was appropriate that our group of pharmacologists, photographer and phork lift truck driver travelling to our Liverpool Senior Cup tie at Burscough was joined by Tony, one of the bar staff from the AJ, who had been to a number of home games, and was dipping his toe in the waters of away travel. The Liverpool Senior Cup is probably the one piece of silverware we have a chance of winning: last year's Final was contested between Bootle and AFC Liverpool, both of the North West Counties League.

Having squeezed through the turnstiles, I found a traditional floodlight arrangement with four pylons along each side. In addition to two heads at the top of each pylon, there was a third head, two thirds of the way up, pointing directly down to illuminate the touchline. This made for an even light, which took some time to get used to, as it did not have the pools of light of which I usually make use.

Once I got to grips with the light, the results were quite acceptable.

Ryan Dunn

Results were good and clear near the touchline, where there is often the lowest levels of light.

Jonathon Lynch

Prescot were down to 10 men after about 25 minutes, when Jonathon Lynch was dismissed for a handball in front of our goal. He was probably unfortunate: the ball immediately fell to an attacking player, who put it across the line. By this time the referee had blown the whistle, so a penalty had to be awarded. I only heard the whistle after the ball had crossed the line, but I was more than half the length of the pitch away. Had the referee been half a second slower, the goal would have stood, and, although reaction time is not exactly the same as playing an advantage, the principle from the Guidance for Referees about not dismissing a player for denying a goalscoring opportunity where a goal is scored directly from the advantage would presumably apply.

The game also saw a return for Jamie Menagh, back on loan after signing for Chester a couple of weeks ago.

Jamie Menagh

Note the "I have just committed a minor foul and hope no-one notices, so I shall put my arms in the air to draw attention to it" posture from Jamie's opponent.

In the second half, the Burscough goalkeeper was keen to engage in dialogue with the assistant referee with a stream of complaints about offside and queries about how much time was left. A complaining player is often best dealt with by humour, and the fourth enquiry as to time in as many minutes, with 20 minutes still to go, drew the retort, "If you stop moaning to yourself, you will find the time goes faster".

A Rob Doran goal brought the scores level, with neither side able to secure further advantage in normal play. In common with a number of other cup competitions, the Liverpool Senior Cup no longer has extra time, and goes straight to penalties if scores are level at full time.

There are many advantages to an enthusiastic young team, and their energy and will to win has gained us points in the League, but I believe experience counts in a penalty shoot out, with Tim Horn saving three of our penalties to put the home team through.

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

Final score: Burscough 1 Prescot Cables 1 (Doran), Burscough win 3-1 on penalties