He'll have to score another one

At Prescot Cables' game at home to Mossley at the weekend, Player Manager Neil Prince made the best possible start with a goal from 20 yards in the first minute, whilst I was still attaching my lenses. "Well, he'll have to score another one if he wants to get in the paper", I observed. However, unless a goal is scored by a player coming on late in the game, there will almost always be an alternative picture I can use. I sent this one in.

Neil Prince

There was no lack of trying to get the elusive second goal, with shots from six or seven of the team, but all went wide or found the goalkeeper. One came my way, safely elbowed away from the camera. I keep a UV filter on lens lens for such an eventuality. There are different opinions on this: some consider any impact likely to break a filter will break the lens as well, and a low cost filter may degrade the image. I am taking pictures for the web and newspaper print rather than A2 prints, so the optical effect is probably negligible, and the most likely cause of damage is not an impact, but a scratch keeping the front of the lens clean in less than optimal conditions.

We had two players making their first appearances, who had their share of shots.

Daniel Whitehall

Steven Boothham

Our domination of the first half was to no avail, with Mossley scoring after about 30 minutes and again just after half time, to take all the points back to the hills. This was disappointing, when we had so many chances to score, but there is a strong feeling we will come right in front of goal and get the scores our performances have earned.

Commenting after the game, Neil Prince stressed the need to be more effective in front of goal, stating we are not a team that can sit back and defend a one goal lead. There speaks a striker! It is the way I like to see us play too, attacking is easier for the photographer, and it only takes one error to wipe out a slender lead. You could try to eliminate errors, with players who make them disappearing from the field of play, in some cases never to be seen again, but I never enjoyed that when Shaun Reid tried it.

Examining the pictures closely, sometimes odd little details jump out. Socks are small, easy to miss gathering the kit after the game, and the item most prone to damage. It is an argument for having plain socks in a common colour - it is easy to buy emergency replacements. This year our socks have been black, with an amber top, the latter feature not having weathered well. Replacements will stand out for a few weeks - this week Jonah O'Reilly had drawn the new pair out of the bag.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 1 (Prince), Mossley 2