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)