More mud than last week's rugby

I have detailed before how planning to watch a game at this time of year involves almost constant monitoring of the weather. For Prescot Cables' visit from Mossley at the weekend, the rain on Friday night and Saturday morning (for the fifth week in a row) was less heavy than forecast, so the pitch passed an inspection at 10.30. Showers at lunchtime were lighter than expected, so everything was looking good when I arrived in Prescot a few minutes before kick off.

However, in the time it took me to get off the bus, buy a paper and go to the ground, the heavy rain forecast for 3 - 6pm well and truly arrived. The game got under way, with the pitch looking as though it had benefited from a rest, with only two AFC Liverpool games and none of ours on it during January.

There were a few changes since we last played a month ago. Rob Doran made a welcome return to the starting lineup, having returned from injury with a substitute appearance on New Year's Day.

A couple of familiar faces from previous seasons joined us on loan - Richie Mottram in goal, on loan from Runcorn Linnets ...

... and Danny Jarrett in defence, on loan from Rhyl.

I am not sure how easily that works: Danny will have needed international clearance (confirmation from the FA under whose jurisdiction the player has most recently played that he is not suspended) when he joined us, and will need it before he can play for Rhyl again. With half of the population of Wales living within 25 miles of England, and a similar number of people living in the same distance of Wales, the level of movement probably makes it it quite efficient. The same is not the case for true international moves, we had to wait a couple of weeks before Pavel Pinto-Vieira could play for us after playing in Portugal.

The rain continued steadily for the whole of the half.

Jordan Shirley & James McCulloch

It is difficult for players to judge a tackle in these conditions, the slightest misjudgement could give away a free kick in an advantageous position, but hesitation can allow the bold attacker to get past. Mossley's Lewis Nightingale took advantage of the difficulty to get past a number of our players (Mossley's website said at least six, which is a bit of an exaggeration) and supply the ball to Tom Pratt for the only goal of the game.

I had taken up position under the cover at the Hope Street end, from where I could watch a pool of standing water by the corner flag increasing in size. Keith was busy with the fork and the broom at half time to clear the water.

The referee made a further inspection at the end of half time, and decided to proceed. Whilst it meant Keith's efforts were not in vain, I am not sure about the wisdom of the decision: although it had stopped raining briefly, the pitch was by now soft. The home team has an advantage in this situation, there will often be a spare kit available, allowing the players to change in to dry kit at half time.

Lloyd Balazs

We used a kit from a couple of seasons ago that had to be replaced as it was too heavy, the players were becoming overheated, particularly on a warm day. As this was anything but a warm day, it seemed a good occasion to use it. I wondered how reflective it would be in the middle of the winter: despite the cloud having lifted for a while, I found my exposures were not as good as with the current kit.

I took up position behind the goal at the Safari Park End, but soon scuttled back under the stand when it started raining again. Everyone was liberally covered in mud by the end.

Phil Bannister

I have to hand it to the players of both sides for giving us a competitive match  in difficult conditions, but completing the game will have made the pitch more prone to waterlogging for the next few weeks. Fortunately the weather was kinder than usual up to Christmas, so we do not currently have a large fixture backlog.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Mossley 1.