The coach crew

Our planned trip to Prescot Cables' game away at Lancaster City was disrupted by engineering works, with replacement bus services between Preston and Lancaster. There were still a lot of trains north from Lancaster, with Virgin in particular trapping at least two 11 coach Pendolinos (or Pendolini?) where they will be lucky to carry 100 people per trip, leaving people from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham to squeeze into the 9 coach version. For those who like trains, the Giant Axe is a good location from which to spot them.

There's one

A few of us who would normally travel by train decided on this occasion to use the team coach. This takes away some flexibility, but once we had arrived, the town centre was a short, if steep, walk away (1 in 11, as we have been discussing gradients), so we adjourned to the Sun, a Lancaster Brewery house also offering a range of guest beers, with the choice of a tankard or straight glass.

This game would be a challenge: Lancaster are strong at home, and this was our first competitive game for three weeks. This has been a problem ever since I have been attending a majority of games rather than about a third - regardless of the manager or players, we struggle after a layoff. We tried a friendly game against AFC Liverpool in midweek, so it remained to be seen if it had helped.

We were playing with intermittent sun behind us in the first half, so I considered my best position over a portion of chips and rather decent curry sauce from the tea bar (food before photos, you know it makes sense). The cloud was mostly covering the sun by the time I started snapping in earnest, so I took up position behind the goal we were attacking.

James McCulloch

Taking photographs, you are concentrating on a small area of detail, and miss some of the wider aspects. One thing that does not escape you is which end of the pitch the action is taking place. We had a few good runs into Lancaster's half, which I captured...

James Edgar

... but we were spending most of the time in our own. It was a mark of the hosts' success keeping us contained that, when a player hit the corner flag in frustration after about 20 minutes, it stayed hit for the rest of the half.

Actually, it stayed that way until some time into the second half when Lancaster took a corner, which backs up a few grumbles about the observation skills of the match officials.

Back in the Cold War, at a United States Presidential Inauguration, you could tell when noon, the prescribed time for the transfer of power, arrived, because a gentleman of military bearing, carrying a small briefcase and sitting behind the outgoing President, got up and sat behind the new President. That briefcase contained the nuclear codes: I am not sure what was in the one substitute Sam Corlett fetched from the dressing room.

Sam controls Prescot's independent nuclear deterrent

This blog observes the occurrence of Natural Light Day, the first game of the year we are able to complete without floodlights. Technically, the game I watched last week was under natural light, but a 2.15 kick off and 80 minutes' play meant the rest of the day was my own an hour and a half before the sun went down - this was the first with conventional football timings. Ben Greenop was playing his first game for us in daylight.

Ben Greenop

With 10 minutes to go, my travelling companions decided to draw stumps (excuse the mixed sporting metaphor). I remained at my post, not least as I try to get everyone in the photos, and I knew I did not have anything of Mark McLaughlin, who has been on loan at, I think, Widnes, since the Senior Cup game, and came on as a late substitute.

Mark McLaughlin

Duty done, it was back over the hill (a location some may say I have been in for some time) to rejoin my travelling companions in The Pub (the name of the establishment, not a generic description).

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

Final score; Lancaster City 3 Prescot Cables 0.