First impressions

I remember an article a few years ago in When Saturday Comes in which the writer, from Spennymoor but no longer living there, drew strange looks from watchers of a televised game by cheering when the commentator announced, "The referee is Mr George Courtney from Spennymoor in County Durham". After last week at Darlington, it might be wise to send a couple of tickets to Mr Courtney when Shaun Reid comes to town.

We should have first visited the Brewery Field nine years ago, but Spennymoor United failed to fulfil their fixtures at the end of the 2004/5 season, the fallout taking us to the playoffs for a place in Conference North. Evenwood Town became Spennymoor Town after these events, and have had a successful few seasons in the Northern League, waiting to apply for promotion until they attained financial stability.

Dr Phil the Pharmacologist, now researching in Edinburgh, took advantage of the border still being open to join us (as did the chap with the "Yes" badge obstinately blocking the view of the hand pumps in the Market Tavern), even if his luggage for his impending holiday nearly travelled without him. I once went on a gloomy November day to Mangotsfield United with a suitcase: a fellow supporter went over with a crisp packet, and lifted up the smaller bag I had put on top, thinking it was a litter bin with a lid.

There is a traditional sign over the gate.

The ground has a sloping pitch, which we can see against the main stand, presumably built to replace the clubhouse facilities lost in an arson attack in 2003 that led indirectly, through loss of income, to the demise of the original club.

James McCulloch, and a strategically placed flag

Our Reserves now play their home games at Hope Street, which we hope will make the teams more integrated, with the Reserves used to try players with potential for the first team and to give players match time returning from injury or suspension. Neil Prince watched the Reserves in their first home game earlier in the week, and called up Jack Hont to the first team.

Jack Hont

We were expecting Spennymoor to be a strong side, and they did not disappoint. Everyone was called into action in defence.

Phil Bannister and Ciaran Gibson deflect an attack

It is said that you only get one chance to make a first impression. Whilst I think very much of the team aspect of the game, once in a while there is a debut you will talk about in years to come. In the 78th minute, Ciaran Gibson mistimed an attempt to gather the ball from the advancing Lee McAndrew, and was adjudged to have denied a goal scoring opportunity. We had a substitution left, so off came Sam Corlett, and on came Youth Team goalkeeper, Ben Morrow, making his first appearance in Senior football.

Ben Morrow takes up position ...

... and makes his first touch a save.

After this, with 10 men and Matty West playing through the effects of recent injury, all efforts went in to defending our goal, with a couple more decent saves, and the defence backing him up well, to ensure we came away with the draw.

Matty West

On the way out, one of the home supporters expressed surprise we were celebrating a point - the answer being that we were not expecting one. In our league position in recent years, every point matters, and getting one from a stout defensive display can be just as inspiring as a win.

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

Final score: Spennymoor Town 0, Prescot Cables 0.

The foothills of Mount Radcliffe

I may displease the Radcliffe Tourist Board if I suggest rains a lot when I visit their town. This time, however, it was a sunny evening, affording an excellent view from the 98 bus to the hills above Bury. On arrival at Radcliffe Borough, the sun was shining directly down the pitch, making my interests and the team's diverge, with mine served by our playing uphill with the sun in our faces. The position of the home team's photographer suggested they prefer to play downhill in the first half, as he was facing the sun at the bottom of the hill. If the home side always play one way if they win the toss, you will be probably in the right place three quarters of the time. As it was, we played downhill, and the sun disappears behind a tree after 10 minutes, leaving it a bit cold for August. There is a large area of white paint around the perimeter, which makes shots very backlit, but we can easily deal with that.

Mark McLaughlin takes a corner

Radcliffe have abandoned a traditional programme in favour of a monthly magazine, although I did not see anyone selling it. I did not need a team sheet for our own players, as I recognised all of them. This is rare enough in the middle of the season, the squad is always being augmented. As for the second game of the season...

Player Assistant Manager Neil Black

For the home side, there was a familiar face - Danny Lambert, late of this parish, at left back, a position I do not recall his playing for us.

Danny Lambert

The light was still good for most of the first half, although we could have done with the lights a few minutes before half time, and sunset, when they were turned on. We did not take advantage of the slope, going in 2-0 down.

Although I remember the floodlights have three pylons per side, with three heads per pylon, two heads on each pylon point uphill. This gives good light in my position just uphill from the dugouts.

Danny Graham

You might think this would leave one end less lit than the other, but this seemed not to be the case, as we get good lighting in our goal.

Ciaran Gibson

Prescot's goal came with a Russian linesman moment, with a shot from Sam Corlett hitting the crossbar and bouncing downwards, the referee initially allowing play to continue for a few seconds before consulting his assistant.

Sam Corlett

The goal elicited a reaction from the somewhat pessimistic home supporters behind me, "I told you we would need a third to make it safe". Unfortunately, that is what they did, sealing our first (and at the time of writing only) defeat of the season so far.

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

Final score: Radcliffe Borough 3, Prescot Cables 1 (Corlett)

Starting the season

A fellow Dulwich Hamlet supporter put on his Twitter feed last week that he would clump the next person who asked if he was looking forward to football starting on Saturday, assuming football was equivalent to the Premiership. It could also mean the speaker watches the EvoStik League, as the Division 1 seasons had no week free of distractions from the moneyed classes this year. It's grim up north.

A new manager means new players. Many like to approach the first game completely fresh, whereas others follow the pre season programme and have an idea what we are likely to see. I came to our game against Ossett Albion, feeling there was work to be done, but we had enough in place for a reasonable start.

Ciaran Gibson started in goal, a surprise for those who had seen more of Adam Reid, but justified on recent form. He has what at this level can be a worrying tendency to stray upfield: I am not sure if this comes from past involvement with England Schoolboys, as Tim Horn at Burscough has a similar habit.

Ciaran Gibson

Some players have been with us for a while - even the advertising points them out.

Joe "Evo" Evans

Others were making their first appearances, at least on the team sheet: my memory starts to develop when I see the names.

Liam Dodd

The kit is very similar to last year's, with PMB Tools as kit sponsors - they have supported the club with advertising and sponsorship for some years. Believe it or not, there is an advantage to this from the photographer's point of view. All sponsors are welcome, and you become familiar with all sorts of text and logos, but PMB have one of the best (particularly the size and weight of the word "tools") for checking focus, and the effects of grain and movement blur, even when only part is visible.

Mark McLaughlin

However you perform in the friendlies, there are always surprises, a team can spring out of the blocks like Harrogate Railway Athletic with five goals, only to find Mossley doing the same in reply. We had no goals, which is unusual for us. Although this was a game both sides regarded as winnable, we avoided starting with a defeat, and the clean sheet was particularly welcome.

Unfortunately, Ossett's Ryan Harrison sustained a serious knee injury when he appeared to put his leg down awkwardly in front of the dugout - it is never a good sight when Club Secretary Doug on the pitch making a telephone call, as it is usually for an ambulance. According to the Non League Yorkshire website, Ryan can only have a scan to assess the full extent of the injury when the swelling has gone down. In common with all at Prescot, this blog offers him best wishes for a speedy recovery.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0, Ossett Albion 0.

A visit from the ancestors

They're justified and they're ancient ... ah, hang on, wrong Norton.

Prescot Cables' visitors for their last pre season game at the weekend were Norton United, last season's North West Counties League champions. They play in Smallthorne, near Stoke-on-Trent. Typing that, the predictive text on my phone offered everything Stoke could be on beginning with t - Stoke-on-tree, Stoke-on-the-job etc. In the 1840s, one Joseph Whitehurst left the nearby village of Dilhorne to sell pottery in London, then married and moved to live with his wife's family on the borders of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Norton are therefore from what might be called my ancestral home. Unfortunately, there was no team sheet published, so I could not check if any were my relatives (well, this is Stoke-on-Trent).

The final game of the pre season programme is either for those last minute tweaks to the team selection, so there is a smoothly purring machine ready for the first game of the season, or a last chance to try out players who have recently become available. We tend towards the latter - players will become available for us all through the season, both from bigger clubs trimming their squads, and those who show promise in local football.

For the first half we left out a couple of more experienced players to give some of the newer players experience against a team at the same level as us. There were those who have impressed in pre season and made a claim for a first team place.

Jack Phillips

This approach gave Norton the advantage for the half, of putting six goals past us, with Joe Evans pulling one back. This picture is an application of the "goal is a goal" principle, in which I publish a picture, which would normally be rejected on quality grounds, as it shows a goal being scored. The ball is about the only part of the picture in focus.

Joe Evans scores Prescot's first goal

For the second half, we made some changes, including bringing on Phil Bannister, whose omission had been a primary reason for thinking the first half team might not quite be the finished article.

Phil Bannister

This changed the balance of play, with a goal from Jack Phillips and a second from Joe Evans answered by one from Norton.

There have been encouraging signs from pre season, not least that we have an ability to score goals, even with Rob Doran still injured, and Neil Prince likewise confined to the dugout for a while. From the photographic point of view, we might have been able to score the goals, but I seem not to have caught many, but that should get better once I am more used to the way the team play.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (Evans 2, Phillips); Norton United 7.

The metal working derby

Prescot Cables' game in midweek against Vauxhall Motors was between two clubs with a metal working heritage. Car making still happens in Ellesmere Port, whereas cable manufacturing has been absent from Prescot for some years.

We had to cancel our previous game, a visit from Coalville Town of our league's Division 1 South, due to a heavy downpour a couple of hours before kick off leaving standing water on the pitch, which unfortunately, occurred when Coalville were on their way.

The North West Counties League started their season on the same day: Bootle's game at home to Squires Gate looked a bit wet. The start of the season has got gradually earlier: I remember reading that early in the last century, I think it was Dulwich Hamlet's Isthmian League and FA Amateur Cup winning season of 1919-20, the start of the season, in the last week of August, was delayed by a week due to extreme heat. The North West Counties League now starts in the first week of August, which makes it more difficult to find appropriate opponents for these games.

I did not notice the 7.30 kick off, so arrived a few minutes late. There was a team sheet, so the process of matching numbers and faces could continue - assuming I could see either.

Sean Miller - identified by the boots

The rain at the weekend had refreshed those parts of the pitch that had looked a little scorched the previous week, even after some good growing weather.

Stephen Milne

This blog adheres to the principle of pies before pictures if I have not finished my half time refreshments before play restarts. Some of my best shots have been taken with three fingers controlling the zoom, and the other two holding the last of my pie. However, I do not recommend trying this with a Danish pastry, unless you want to spend the half removing icing from the barrel of the lens.

Vauxhall looked a strong side, which should do well as they look to rebuild their position after resigning from the Conference North last year. With the visitors two goals ahead at half time, Charlie Stoker came on and scored twice to restore the balance.

Charlie Stoker scores his second goal

I believe that technically the game was abandoned with a couple of minutes to go when Neil Prince sustained a dislocated shoulder. This will put him out of playing for a few weeks: whilst a player-manager is primarily a manager, it is always handy if he can include himself in his playing options, and he has already scored some good goals.

Neil Prince

With the pictures from Saturday games, I have a deadline for the Merseymart, and free time in which to meet it, and the online pictures follow from there. For the midweek games, there is no specific deadline, and other things can crop up to delay processing. There is one, however that I try to meet, but did not do so this week - Friday lunchtime, so the players can show their exploits to their colleagues before the weekend.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Stoker 2), Vauxhall Motors 2

Charnock Who?

The third game of Prescot Cables' pre season programme was away to Charnock Richard, of the West Lancashire League. Like my original home, the village was named after someone called Richard. My village was given its name from the surname of Richard Dereman, eventually becoming Dormansland, whereas one Richard, in the 13th Century, named the village of Charnock that he owned after himself, to distinguish it from nearby Heath Charnock.

I had to wait for a bus in Croston on the way, enough time for a pint in the Good Beer Guide listed Wheatsheaf. Up north, we need to be constantly aware of cold weather, so, even on a hot day in July, the coal scuttle was full and primed to deal with a drop in temperature without the need to go to the bunker in an unexpected blizzard. It's grim up north.

At the ground, I found a party in full swing, which turned out to be their beer festival. If I had known, I might have got the previous bus, easier said than done, as the train to Croston runs to an irregular timetable. More significantly, the festival incorporated a family fun day, involving a bouncy castle on the pitch. I wondered if I had missed the note common in fixtures at this time of year, like "At Trub & Slattocks FC" (those are real places, and really should have a club). As I contemplated alternative sporting entertainment at the cricket club, I spotted the new first team playing facilities across the road, laid out with a view to meeting the conditions for the North West Counties League as funds permit. Our hosts were playing their last friendly before their first competitive match, in the Wilf Carr Memorial Trophy, next week.

Green is a less than common club colour in football - some people think it can blend in against the pitch, although I am not sure myself. However, this was the third match in a row that we have played a team in green (with yellow in the case of Runcorn Linnets).

Jack Phillips

This was the first game of pre season for which a  team sheet was on display, so the process of putting names to faces could begin. A name has to be matched to a number on the player's back, and to a face, which is, to state the obvious, on the front. Sometimes you get both in one view.

Paul Aixon

For others, it is a matter of seeing a picture with a number...

... and comparing the three "B"s - boots (although I am old fashioned, I cannot deny a coloured pair can help identify a player), build, and barnet. We can then identify our player - in this case in traditional black boots.

Stephen Milne

There are easier ways to do it - numbers on the front of shirts, you know they make sense! I was quite happy with last season's kit in that respect.

Another familiar face from last season is James Cairns (who also played in midweek, but came on when the light was starting to fade).

James Cairns

Joining us from further afield was Lee JungHwan from Busan in South Korea. I have not had chance to speak to him yet, but I think he is studying at the University of Liverpool. It may be some time before he is able to turn out in a regular game, as there will be more than the usual international clearance required if he is not a permanent EU resident.

Lee JungHwan

After the game, I went for the bus to Croston. Nextbuses.mobi was working again in Lancashire, although I would not have minded knowing that the train was half an hour late, as, added to the scheduled wait, I would have had time for further refreshment in the Wheatsheaf. Still, the Friends of Croston Station have planted a garden on the disused platform, making pleasant surroundings in which to read the paper. Traveline came into its own: I was keen to avoid the crowds in Liverpool City Centre for the Giants Spectacular, I had missed my planned connection, and it came up straight away with a new one I would never have thought of myself.

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

Final score Charnock Richard 3, Prescot Cables 2 (Prince 2)