Prescot Cables' visitors, Darlington 1883, adopted this kit as part of their charitable activities in support of the local St Teresa's Hospice.
At the beginning of the season many of us thought Darlington would pass quickly through our Division, bringing four figure crowds with them. Although they are firmly in the play off places, the title looks in Curzon Ashton's grip; and, whilst their visit is the largest gate of the season for most clubs, this has been in the order of 350 - 500.
It made sense once fixtures for the later weeks of the season were finalised (this game was originally scheduled for February) to have the annual Beer Festival this weekend. Good numbers of locals and CAMRA members attended the Friday evening session, and Darlington supporters, some of whom made an early trip, boosted numbers on the Saturday. I have not attended on Friday in previous years, but most of the pharmacologists turned out, so I joined them. Some took a scientific approach, with notes and scores; one of Luke's notes on the ciders simply read "Welsh", not necessarily a complement after a bad experience with the generally well reviewed Naughty Horsey last week.
With the gap in League position, Darlington had to be favourites, but our better form had been at home, and we took points off them in October. We knew we would need to be solid in defence.
James McCulloch blocks Darlington's Terry Galbraith |
Francis Foy defends our goal area |
Man of the match for Prescot was our goalkeeper Richie Mottram, who kept us in the game with some fine saves, in particular a spectacular one in injury time (not this one) to ensure that we kept hold of another useful point.
After the game, it was time for more of the festival beers, and some of our visitors were staying for the weekend, so stayed on to enjoy some of them too.
The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.
Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Darlington 1883 0.