Going home and winning away

I come from a village. Over the years you get to know the whole of a single settlement, rather than your neighbourhood being part of a larger whole. You can navigate from the train on a moonless night, you know which fields go with which farms, you remember the trees before the storm of 1987, and almost every house has its associations. For a football club, there will be the field where the farm workers or miners first assembled, the clubhouse built by the local builder, and the homes of now long forgotten players and officials.

My village had a small club, if FA ground gradings went down that far, it would probably scrape a Z. Summer was when we came out to play, the cricket club carried the village's name around the county. The Yorkshire village of Emley had a more substantial club, taking the village on to the national stage in the FA Cup. A few years ago, their home no longer met the required grading, so they moved to Wakefield, becoming Wakefield & Emley. When they became just Wakefield, and the Reserves left the village, a new club was founded to keep the game alive at the Welfare Ground.

Richie Mottram in front of the Belle Vue terraces

As is often the case with clubs getting in to bed with professional rugby league, the move has not been a happy one, with small crowds at Belle Vue. The former rugby union ground was more suited to their requirements, although it is just as well the graders did not find a hockey game, with associated whistles, on the neighbouring pitch. This was redeveloped under them, so it has been back to Belle Vue, until the rent rose to a sum beyond their means. They have therefore negotiated a ground share at ... the Welfare Ground in Emley. Whether they like it or not, they are going home, albeit to share with another club that has been carrying on the traditions and historical associations whilst they have been away.

For Prescot Cables, this was an important game. Having had our most winnable away games in the period when we always struggle after a long winter layoff, we were perilously close to the relegation places. At the time of playing, we knew Wakefield had not had their ground share in place by March 31st, and therefore should be relegated regardless of where they finish, but you can never be sure until the FA have consulted the entrails. There was also still a threat from bottom placed Ossett Albion, eight points behind with three winnable home games left.

It is sometimes said that The Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint. Belle Vue had a whiff of wet paint. Fortunately, the 64 in attendance had no difficulty fitting ourselves round the painters, the first time I have seen decorating going on during a game.

The game did not start well for us. Nikolaus Giannotta made his first start - unfortunately there is no photographic record, as he was injured before I had taken up position, being replaced by Max Pouncey.

Max Pouncey

Rob Doran was also injured early on in a collision with Wakefield's goalkeeper - he completed the first half, although he reported after being replaced at half time that he was not sure how.

Rob Doran

When it is dry, Belle Vue has good vantage points, but once it starts raining, particularly on the terrace, you have to go quite high up to get under cover, which is not the best position for pictures.

The rain eased off for most of the second half, enabling me to get back to the low position, first from the side ...

Isaac Kusoloka

... and then from behind the goal ...

Mike Kennedy

... although I had to take a few minutes' shelter on the balcony of the executive boxes (only the balcony was open, not the boxes).

It looked like a listless game, with our struggling to recover confidence from two back to back heavy defeats. That changed on 80 minutes, when the goalkeeper was adjudged to have brought down Chris McGann.

Phil Bannister converted.

This increased the tempo, with Prescot picking up confidence, and Wakefield finding something to play for, but neither side added to the score.

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

Final score: Wakefield 0 Prescot Cables 1 (Bannister pen)

And he gathered a mighty strong host

I once worked in the European Customer Service Centre for a major multinational company. We even had names appropriate for the countries with which people were dealing. There was a Mr Ireland on the Irish team, and a Ms Brittain on the UK team, but the office never reached its full potential when Fred Former-Yugoslav-Republic-Of-Macedonia decided not to join us.

Only part of that is true, but our mythical Fred would find himself at home with Prescot Cables' visitors in midweek, Bamber Bridge. James the Pharmacologist, who has an eye for the unusual in the non League game, explained that Bamber Bridge have a group of online supporters from Macedonia, who found the club online and liked the name. In consequence, someone takes a flag to games.

Franny Foy plays in front of the Macedonian flag

When you have had a heavy defeat away to the league leaders, a visit from a team making a late challenge for the playoffs is not what the doctor ordered, but the fixture list delivers what it will.

With sunset at about 8pm, the first few minutes of the game were in daylight, so I spent  few minutes behind the goal.

Lloyd Dean

With the light falling, I retreated to my usual position by one of the floodlight pylons on the gasworks side. Once the sun had gone down, the lighting conditions were challenging - a clear sky, so no nice fluffy white clouds to reflect the light from the floodlights, and the opposition in a dark red kit.

Rob Doran

Richie Mottram

I am familiar with these conditions, and have built up a range of tricks and tactics to get the best from them. However, one needs to keep practising, and I realised how little I have had with evening games this season. Usually, postponements from earlier in the season mean that there are evening games most weeks at this time of year, but the weather has been particularly kind this season, with the main loss of fixtures being throughout January, when we usually only have games on Saturdays, so we only missed out four games. As a result, we have had only two evening games at home since the beginning of the year, so I have been getting a bit rusty.

Our visitors showed their quality with four goals in the first half. We feared more of the same in the second, although we played somewhat better, and kept them to just the one further goal, Nathan Parish having probably our best chance of a goal.

Nathan Parish

After two games where the result was not unexpected, but the score was heavier than we might have wished, we are now off to Wakefield, already relegated due to ground issues. We have not translated good performances into results playing away this season, but Wakefield's home form almost matches our away form.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Bamber Bridge 5.

Nash Gnash

Approaching Prescot Cables' game away to Curzon Ashton, there were two probable outcomes. Either everything would go right, and we would pull off a surprise point against the league leaders. Anything less, and our hosts were likely to show the efficiency that had taken them to the verge of the championship with three weeks to go and inflict a heavy defeat. It was not surprising there were a few regulars missing - most who travel on the coach were there, but less who travel by car or luxury motorhome (a mode of transport of which I was unaware until Webmaster Geoff mentioned it after the Padiham game).

Doug, Peter and Norman watch Isaac Kusoloka

Only three of us took the train, gathering at Lime Street with crowds on their way to the Grand National in shiny suits that come out only for the races, weddings and christenings; almost as large crowds heading away; and the cleaners assiduously mopping the spot at which Mr Wenger was pictured a few weeks previously making a surprise landing on his Arsenal.

Given Curzon Ashton's form, I was surprised at the attendance of only 199. It is refreshingly transparent, if a little envy inducing, to see how they can afford to sustain a title challenge on relatively small crowds, with their modern function facilities and 3G pitch hire. They also have a decent junior setup, with the under 6s and under 7s playing exhibition games at half time.

I am not sure whether The Nash is a contraction of their name, in the way that in Middle English an apple was a napple (or so it is said, although it is strange that in all languages using the Germanic root, it begins with a vowel, never a "n"), or whether it comes form their former home of National Park.

I took up position behind the goal we were attacking.

Chris McGann (11) passes to Lloyd Balazs

With the home side trapping us largely in our own half, I moved to the large covered terrace at the side of the pitch. Fortunately, the forecast heavy rain did not materialise, as the roof is steeply angled, presenting a large jaw to the south, from which the wind is most often blowing when it rains.

Franny Foy in front of the covered terrace

Being a new ground, with extensive terracing, there are plenty of guides for the horizon - all the terraces are level (perhaps a bit too level, a one or two degree slope may assist water to run off and inhibit the formation of slippery mould), and all the railings are upright. This also makes for an unforgiving background: I had to re-crop a few pictures, and even then I think I was a degree or so out with some.

Craig Haynes

The seats were also good for lining up the frame.

Phil Bannister

Just as winning games against teams in a similar position to ourselves is the way to avoiding relegation, top places will often be decided not by how the top teams perform against each other, but how efficiently they dispatch teams in the lower half of the table, and on the basis of this performance, Curzon Ashton have done this very well.

There was some anticipation online of a championship party in Curzon's following game away to Harrogate Railway Athletic, in the justified anticipation of picking up the points they needed in these two games. It would have been interesting if Darlington had dropped points and the title come to Curzon a game earlier than expected, as there did not seem to be the excitement one would expect in such circumstances. The under 6s entered into the spirit, setting up a chant of "6-0" as I was walking round to the exit, even if they were largely addressing it to each other.

After the game, our group took the new tram into Manchester from the windswept Ashton West stop, where it will surprise no-one familiar with Metrolink to learn that we were among those who "may have to wait up to 24 minutes".

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

Final score: Curzon Ashton 6 Prescot Cables 0

Engineering works

Hopes were high before Harrogate Railway Athletic's visit to Prescot Cables. We had seen a superb defensive point against Darlington, and were encouraged by three goals in a 5-3 defeat at Ramsbottom United. Draws and good goals against top sides keep players and supporters enthused, but wins against sides with whom we are competing to avoid relegation provide the points to secure safety. Harrogate looked safe, and we need a few more points to be sure.

Harrogate sides often include industrial sized Yorkshirepersons, but this time they had a few smaller players. Nathan Cartman, seen here with Phil Bannister, is a name that reaches even this side of the Pennines, being 10th in the scorers' table for our Division.

I took up position in front of the tea bar.

Mike Kennedy playing in front of the stand

I intended to adjourn behind the goal, but my lens hood blew on to the pitch (fortunately not the field of play) before I had chance to attach it, so I had to wait for the substitutes to start warming up so one could retrieve it.

Lloyd Balazs - second half substitute and impromptu photographer's assistant

I could probably get a bib and access to the pitch, but I have never done so, as I blog about using consumer kit from places spectators can access. Also, the perimeter is quite close to the edge of the field of play, so there is a risk of ending up sandwiched between a player and the fence.

Conditions were a bit misty, especially when the sun came out.

Robert Gilroy - picture taken from one corner flag to the other

There have been reports of air pollution including sand from the Sahara brought over by high level air currents. These reports had not appeared at the weekend, although a couple of friends found their cars surprisingly dusty on Sunday morning. Whatever the mist was, you still get an impression of it in the final version.

Dave Powell said to the Merseymart that the team did not really click as a unit for this game. We could not provide a response to an early Harrogate goal.

In the last few weeks we have been helped by teams around us losing or drawing when we have done so, and avoiding defeat at New Mills and Padiham maintained our position relative to them. This weekend, teams around us won, closing the gap between us and the relegation positions. In "normal" circumstances, two clubs are relegated from each division at Step 4, making 12 in all. In the event of Step 5 leagues not providing a club for promotion or of resignations further up, the club(s) second from bottom with the best points per game will be reprieved, so we develop an interest in the tables of the Ryman and Calor Leagues. Clubs finishing bottom is not eligible for reprieve.

However, we know Wakefield will not have a ground for next season. Clubs must own, lease or share for the following season a ground meeting the FA's Grade D by 31st March. Wakefield will therefore be relegated. I thought this meant they take the non-reprievable place, although Sports Performer understands the FA have stipulated the bottom placed club cannot be reprieved even in these circumstances.

This is further complicated by our local rivals Cammell Laird. Their Football Committee is separate from the Board of the Limited Company that owns the club. Due to a dispute over ownership, the Football Committee will not continue to run the football side after the end of this season. This places the ball with the Directors to find someone to run it or resign from the League. If they resign before the end of the season, and take a relegation position, the bottom club (it if is not Wakefield) must presumably be reprieved to avoid three clubs being relegated. If they resign after the end of the season, I have no idea whether they take the place of a relegated team, or a place goes into the national pot for reprieves.

With games against Curzon Ashton, Bamber Bridge and Warrington Town, our run in is not without challenges, but we are capable of picking up surprise points, and still have to travel to Wakefield - whilst our away form has not been good, neither has their home form.

The pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Harrogate Railway Athletic 1