Team of the week

At Prescot Cables' game at home to New Mills, a working title for this post suggested itself less than a minute into the game - "Oops". Ciaran Gibson, with an opponent bearing down, confidently gathered the ball - unfortunately two yards outside his penalty area. I was level with the incident, but speaking to Jack Phillips' brother, Anthony, whilst also checking my equipment, and looked up just as Ciaran took the ball. Some said he looked down to check his location before catching the ball. It is possible, "looked but did not see", i.e. looking where you need to but misinterpreting what is in your vision, is a factor in about a fifth of accidents.

It is a popular misconception (held by me until Anthony and my refereeing friend James put me right) that a goalkeeper handling the ball outside his area automatically incurs a red card. The Guidelines for Referees state that the goalkeeper outside his area is subject to the same restrictions as other players, so a red card should only be shown if the handling denies a goal scoring opportunity. This was outside the corner of the penalty area, so getting the ball 25 yards to goal (geometry occasionally comes in handy) with other players nearby is not necessarily an obvious opportunity, possibly more a foul breaking up a promising attack, a bookable offence. Unfortunately referees often act as though the goalkeeper being that far off his line automatically creates a goal scoring opportunity, so we were down to ten men, with James Edgar taking Ciaran's rather large gloves.

James Edgar

New Mills are one of the two clubs below us in the table, and a win would open up the gap. Being a man down meant that a draw would now be a good result. Most of us were expecting the priority to be protecting our goal, with limited scope for much else. However, it was soon clear that attack was still very much on the agenda.

Mason Ryan shoots wide

Our fears seemed to have been realised when the visitors scored on the half hour, but a couple of minutes later, Joe Evans beat the keeper to a free kick from Neil Prince ...

... with James McCulloch making sure it went in.

James' father captioned this picture on the forum as "Kirk pinches Joey Evo's goal as Joe looks on" - I thought at the time that it had gone in from Joe's header, but remember the way a SLR camera works, anything that is in a picture, I did not see myself. All three parties to the challenge were hobbling for a bit, and the defender needed the attention of his injury assessor, who seemed to be equipped with nothing more substantial than a bottle of water.

It looked bleak again when the visitors scored two goals in quick succession after half time, but our team were made of sterner stuff. A further goal from James McCulloch getting on the end of a free kick and one from Jack Phillips in the last minute of normal time, ensured we maintained the points differential.

Jack Phillips celebrates his goal

In a game with six goals, attention will be on the scorers, but this was a complete team performance - some excellent saves from James Edgar, the defence working as a unit to protect him from the trickier stuff that might trouble someone who is not keeping goal every week, superb set pieces from Neil Prince, and the forwards keeping up pressure on the New Mills goal.

Neil Prince

Not only were the team's efforts rewarded with a point, but also with winning the Non League Review Team of the Week poll, which made for a much better title for the post.

Finally, we have a departure and an arrival to report. Phil Bannister, the well deserved winner of the club's Young Player of the Year award last season, has left us to join Dave Powell at Warrington Town. This blog wishes him well in his future endeavours.

Phil Bannister

Coming on from the bench in his first appearance for the club was Ben Greenop, from Chester FC.

Ben Greenop

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 3 (McCulloch 2, Phillips), New Mills 3