Dropped points

Last Tuesday saw Prescot Cables at home to Radcliffe Borough. Realistically, the visitors are one of the six or seven clubs with whom we are competing to avoid relegation. They had made a similarly slow start to the season, having yet to gain a point, so the game was an opportunity for our new management to pull ahead of our rivals.

The spectators were joined by two of our players who have moved onwards and upwards, Jack Phillips of Accrington Stanley, and Connor McCarthy, now at Southport. It is always good to see players like Jack and Connor when their clubs do not have a game, as they remind able and ambitious players that a good way to be spotted is to play well at our level.

This was the first opportunity to see how the new kit came out under the floodlights. Sunset was at around kick off time, so for the first few minutes, the lights were supplementing the remaining natural light. I took up position for a short time behind the goal...

Joe Nicholson

... before moving to my usual evening vantage point on the gasworks side.

Joe Herbert

The visitors were in red and black stripes, which did not look as though it would reflect much light. A dark back can have the disadvantage that player accidentally direct passes to the referee: Radcliffe avoid this by having a large white number, stripes on the lower back, and red shorts.

Marcus Burgess makes his second headed clearance in as many games

As I have agreed to contribute photographs to TheNonLeague magazine (not many from evening games unless the editor spots something of interest in the public collection, most of my night photos are a bit too grainy for print), I need to pay attention to opposition players' names. All Radcliffe's players are called Stewart Fell.

As in the Scarborough game, an early goal left us with an uphill task particularly without the injured Rob Doran.

There were more new faces, with Tom Ince starting ...

Tom Ince

... and Sam Staunton-Turner coming on from the bench to replace the injured Joe Herbert.

Sam Staunton-Turner

Unfortunately, Joe was injured near the half way line and slightly closer to the touchline on the gasworks side, so had a long walk round half the pitch to the changing rooms, even though it was plain when he got up after treatment that he would be playing no further part in proceedings.

After a lacklustre first half, we performed better in the second, but were unable to convert this into goals. In the short term, the result hands an advantage to Radcliffe as they pushed us back into the bottom two, but it is early in the season, and the week reminded us we will probably drop points we might have hoped to gain, and pick up others where we were not expecting them.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Radcliffe Borough 1