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.