No hat, no picture

The phrase "hat trick" to denote a sporting achievement occurring three times comes from cricket. When one H.H. Stevenson took three wickets in consecutive balls in 1858, his team mates bought him a hat. This seems more practical than the traditional match ball in football: the principle of "bring your own ball" does not apply much above the public park, and you cannot have too many hats, especially if you leave them on public transport at the rate I do.

For the weekend after Christmas, Prescot Cables were entertaining Padiham, whose original incarnation was one of the most successful clubs in Lancashire before they were overshadowed by the teams from the larger towns of Burnley, Blackburn and Preston. They, like us, were members of the Lancashire Combination and founder members of the North West Counties League, but had to drop out of the latter in 1990. Over the last few years have successfully rebuilt, and are playing their first season in the EvoStik League.

The weather was much more pleasant than on Boxing Day, and although the stand blocks out quite a lot of sun by 3pm, some still gets through on to the pitch.

Lewis Coyle goes for a header

The primary purpose of these pictures is to highlight our players at their best. Conceding a free kick does not fit in with that objective, so you do not see many of those minor offences everyone gets up to from time to time. However, when the light is just right and the referee is not looking...

Sean Breen gets to grips with his opponent

The justified man of the match for Prescot was Phil Bannister, with all three goals.

Phil Bannister

The first was announced as an own goal, but the attribution was corrected after Dave Powell gave his opinion that, whilst the defender changed the direction of the ball, it was from heading to the bottom corner of the net to going in to the top. The other two came in the second half, the first when I was not quite in position, and the second I when thought I had time to change a battery. The scorer of a hat trick is a natural subject for a picture for the Merseymart, preferably when scoring one of the goals, but I had to make do with the picture above. So, not only no hat, but not the best of pictures either.

With the sun, there was plenty of natural light well in to the second half, and I delayed my move to the gasworks side. I was rewarded with probably one of the best resolution shots of our own goalkeeper I will probably get all season.

Nick Culkin

I was speaking to Dave Powell after the game - he mentioned that there is a flurry of activity on Twitter when I publish the link to my pictures. That is the idea - if players are tweeting pictures of themselves playing for the club, it builds team spirit, and helps to promote the club amongst their families and friends.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (Bannister 3) Padiham 0