Victoria victorious

Last Tuesday saw Prescot Cables travel to Northwich Victoria, who play at Flixton, a common destination in our days in the North West Counties League. The nearest station is Irlam, but that has the problem of a large ship canal in the way (which can lead the ground to feel a bit damp) and no convenient bridge. It is, however, easy enough to get to if you do not mind a bit of exercise, being 35 minutes' walk from Urmston and 20 from Flixton: there are buses, but not conveniently timed for evening games.

Andy Griffiths

They have lighting I have not seen anywhere else, with pylons a third of the way along the goal line, which produces a squashed, sideways version of my little diagrams. I can therefore take up my normal daytime position behind the goal we are attacking, although I cannot expect the camera to capture clearly much further than the half way line, a bit like when I started taking pictures with a 18-55mm lens.

Phil Bannister at the outer end of the camera's range

We have seen on our previous visit that the lights are good, with remarkably little leakage to surrounding properties, complaints about which are a major objection to planning permission for new installations.

Sam Corlett

We had the better of the game in the first half, and had a couple close shots, but sent them over the bar, dispatching the stewards into the overgrown waste land behind the ground. The substitutes warming up at half time fared no better - there is now a ball in a tree that is probably staying there until the ground is hard enough for someone to get up a seppblatter, er, sorry, a stepladder, with a broom handle to dislodge it.

Joe Evans, Callam Gardner and Yunus Giwa warm up

Having missed our best chances in the first half, despite remaining, in the words of the hosts' report on their website, determined and spirited, we succumbed to their physical strength and organisation, going down by two goals without reply.

Not that we were left without entertainment, James McCulloch's father made an innocuous observation about the speed with which a home player got up after play had been stopped for his injury. This upset a gentleman on the balcony, who asked three or four times, at a volume audible to most of the ground, "Are you a doctor?". He then offered the opinion, "Manchester's loads better than Liverpool - where do you do your shopping?", and finished up with, "And what happened to Brookside, eh? Coronation Street's still going".

One of the last pictures of Jack Phillips at 20

Finally, this blog would like to extend belated birthday wishes to Jack Phillips, who turned 21 the day after the game, which surprised a few of us, we thought he was younger. 21 was once the age at which you could vote, own property, etc., but that was reduced to 18 a couple of years after I was born. In the intervening period, even the age for things like standing for elected office has been reduced. Still, it remains a reason for a celebration, although not too wild, it is in the season after all.

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

Final score: Northwich Victoria 2, Prescot Cables 0