Fog lights

Prescot Cables entered their game against Ramsbottom United needing all the points we could get. The previous week's results left us in a relegation position, behind Goole on goal difference. The league is so tight that one more goal would have put us ahead on goals scored, and a not unrealistic 5-1 would have taken it to results in games between the clubs. Ramsbottom started the day three points ahead with poor away form, but we have usually struggled to obtain a result against them.

The day started clearly enough, with sunny spells.

Joe Herbert

However, as the temperature dropped, the fog started to form.

Valter Fernandes

It was patchy in places, and very much rising from the ground, with the air above about twenty feet looking clear.

The visitors had scored first, after seven minutes, with Rob Doran levelling the scores after half an hour.

Rob Doran

By half time, we were completely fog bound.

Jordan Wynne

Were I a betting man, and allowed by the FA to be so, I would have been tempted to open a book on whether we would be able to finish, or if I would encounter my second weather related abandonment of the year, having escaped such an outcome for the previous twenty five.

My photographic activities for the afternoon were more or less at an end, with the action only clear right in front of me. I could see our substitutes warming up on the opposite touchline, but would have been hard pressed to identify them with any certainty. Ramsbottom scored again, then Jordan Wynne was brought down for a penalty, converted by Rob Doran, three minutes later. The point slipped out of our grasp in the last 20 minutes, with the visitors scoring twice without reply. Those who saw it through the mist suggested the third goal was quite a good free kick.

With Goole losing 3-1, we remain level below them on goal difference, but with two more goals scored. Burscough are a distance away at the bottom of the table, but looked as though Dave Powell's meticulous approach to looking out for players was starting to pay off with results. Of particular concern was that he had secured Marcus Burgess in goal. However, for reasons best known to themselves, the club decided to part company with Dave, with the result that both he and Marcus were watching us, with the latter being available for us once the formalities have been completed.

With a change in management, it is inevitable some players will move on. Phil Bannister, who has been an excellent servant of the club in over 100 appearances in two spells with us, has been snapped up by Burscough.

Phil Bannister

Josh Nicholson, who has been a useful member of the squad in the last year, clearly impressed Ashton Town in our Senior Cup game, as he has joined them, as well as registering back at Skelmersdale United in our league.

Josh Nicholson in action against Ashton Town

This blog extends its best wishes to both Phil and Josh in their future endeavours. There are more arrivals and departures, but I will save those for the next game.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Doran 1 + 1 pen) Ramsbottom United 4

Dark afternoons

In recent years, a trip to Mossley has often involved a do. There was Flat Cap Day (long before I met Mr Matt, as he is known to his pupils in Slovakia, even though I thought they abandoned eastern name order on ceasing to be part of Hungary after the First World War), the evening with our German guests, and Dr Phil's 30th birthday. There was no such occasion this year, so I took the latest train to get me to the game on time. I did not realise Dr James was doing the same, meeting him when we alighted for our connection at Manchester "Victorior".

On arrival, we went straight to the ground. I made my usual observation about the hill being a mere bagatelle compared with Pitchfont Lane in Limpsfield, although it is 30 years since I ran up the latter, and getting on for 15 since I walked up. We were in time to watch the players warming up, although we had not tried dropping them at the bottom of the hill and getting them warm by making their own way to the top, but as the afternoon transpired, it would probably not have worked out much worse if we had.

This was the darkest afternoon (with the earliest sunset, at 3.53pm) of the season. With low cloud too, the floodlights were turned on at kick off. Knowing the best light would still be in the first half, I worked across the ground, spending a third of the time on one side of the pitch,

Rob Doran

a third behind the goal,

Danny Flood

and a third on the far side.

Michael Simpson

Whilst there was plenty of forward movement, it was in vain, as the important action took place at the other end, with Mossley looking dangerous on every attack. Michael Fish proved something of a storm (but definitely not a hurricane), scoring four goals in the hosts' five without reply in the first half.

Moving to the Lancashire end at half time, we found a couple of floodlight bulbs out, which left dark areas in unexpected places, and the back lighting from the white wall at the Yorkshire end more severe than usual.

Bram Johnstone

We feared what Mossley might be able to do when they scored again a couple of minutes from the restart, although their attack was blunted after Michael Fish left the field for a well earned rest a few minutes later.

We were still looking for goals, with the reliable James Edgar scoring just after the hour.

James Edgar

The hosts restored their advantage a quarter of an hour later, quickly met with a reply from Dominic Marie.

Dominic Marie

Had the second half been a stand alone game, it would have been a reasonable performance, but it was to no effect, as the damage was well and truly done in the first.

The importance of pursuing goals, even when the result is in no doubt, was made clear in the league table. We have gone from first place at the beginning of September to occupying a relegation position on goal difference. It is frighteningly tight this year, with eight points separating us from Bamber Bridge in tenth place, so every goal matters, for goals scored, not just goal difference.

Returning to the station, we found clouds of smoke pouring out of the shelter, as a group of users were smoking electronic cigarettes (steaming might be an appropriate description, as they looked like they were that as well). With our train delayed by the Rail Ale Trail attracting lager louts up the line, Realtime Trains was our friend, as we could see our connecting train was still behind it. At Stalybridge, I treated James to a virtuoso display of how anorak level knowledge of rolling stock and the layout of stations up the line helps you work out where to bag a seat - we headed to the back of the train, whilst everyone else made for the more crowded front.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Mossley 7 Prescot Cables 2 (Edgar, Marie)

Things to do in Goole in the fog

As I travelled to Prescot Cables' game at Goole AFC, the weather varied across the country. It had frozen in Liverpool, but the Met Office App suggested it had not in Yorkshire. I therefore set out into fog, then encountered fine views in the Hope Valley, until another wall of fog in the Edale area. It was clear when I got off the train at Sheffield, leaving in the seat behind me a Nantwich Town supporter with a nasty cough. I am not sure why he was staying on, as Nantwich were playing at Shaw Lane.

My main tourism in Sheffield was indoors, in the Graves Art Gallery, trying my varifocals for the first time in a gallery (it takes precision neck work to look at the pictures at the right angle). The fog reappeared after Doncaster, along with news from the M62 that the coach had broken down, and we were expected to kick off at 3.30. This turned out to be optimistic, and, had I known, I would have set up office in the Costa opposite the station.

I went to the ground, to find we were not now expected to start until 4pm. Speaking to Bram Johnstone's father, I liked the look of the soup he had procured from the tea bar, so I went for some, to find it had run out, but there was some excellent vegetable pasta. The replacement coach brought the team at 3.40, and they proceeded straight to warm up, followed a couple of minutes later by Phil Priestly carrying a mug of tea - the tea being no surprise, the goalkeeper needs to be warm before going out, but I am not sure how he managed to lay hands on the chinaware.

Phil Priestly

It looked unlikely to freeze, but we were concerned about the fog, which, fortunately, did not get thick enough to halt play.

James McCulloch

The Victoria Pleasure Ground has a running track, so on the stand side the match officials and the coaches in the technical areas are far enough away to block quite a large angle of view. After a few minutes, I went round the Curva Ferrovia (I am not sure it is called that, but they are welcome to the name) to face the stand.

The view from the railway end

This side had the advantage of less people in the way, apart from the ball boys and girls, who were small enough to see over, but had the disadvantage of the long jump pit taking me further away from the pitch. Lighting was good when play came near enough.

Valter Fernandes

I went back to the stand side for what I thought was the last couple of minutes, and was as far as I could be from our goal when the hosts scored, and the announcement told me we had played 36 minutes. We have had issues with falling apart when we went down, but seem to have put that behind us, with Lloyd Dean restoring parity three minutes before time.

Lloyd Dean

The second half started as the train I had planned to catch was departing. The lighting was effectively that of an evening game, and the fog meant there was not a lot of point capturing anything that was not happening in the quarter of the pitch in front of me.

Rob Doran put us in the lead after a few minutes.

Rob Doran

We had opportunities to extend the lead, but could not find the net. Unusually, we finished having made no substitutions. Whilst there is a temptation to bring on a fresh legs later in the game, it carries a risk whilst the players get used to the change, so I can see the sense, if the team are defending a one goal lead and there is no obvious player tiring or injured, of keeping the balance as it is.

On the way home, the online travel tools came into their own, with my train from Goole being late, I could see my connection at Doncaster was also late, saving an hour on the journey. National Rail could, however, make their station plans (for the location of the platforms) easier to find on mobiles, and they have not yet developed a tool to see the density of dawdling Yorkshirepersons in the subway.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Goole AFC 1 Prescot Cables 2 (Dean, Doran)

First and repeat visits

I was joined at Prescot Cables' game at home to Tadcaster Albion by my friend Roger, who recruited me to the Cables interest in the Augustus John pub on the University of Liverpool Precinct one winter evening in 1991. The name of the Precinct went the way of the life membership of Convocation (bag for life as it turned out) promised as part of our Graduation Fee. The Augustus John, however, survived the University's stratagems, and continues to serve real ales and ciders, under the guidance of, amongst others, our latest Cables PhD, Dr Tony, who combines bar work with teaching in the Politics Department.

There had been plenty of rain in the previous 36 hours, but the 60 tons of sand procured with the Supporters on the Pitch money over the summer seemed to work, as a 10am pitch inspection confirmed the game was on. As well as Tadcaster's first visit, there was a mini beer festival, with Melwood Beer Company, who supply our hand pump in the bar, offering six brews and a selection of ciders and gins. We had wisely not staked sales on the game, as there was a Friday evening session, and a live band for Saturday evening.

After a successful evening at Ashton, Brian Richardson had to consider whether to go with that team, or use players from last week's draw against Clitheroe. He mainly stuck with the team from last weekend, with Jordan Wynne having successfully made a claim for a league start, and Dominic Marie wearing the number 9 shirt sponsored by the 10:22 crew (even if none of us have actually caught the 10:22 since the start of the season).

Jordan Wynne

Dr James spotted the absence of any manufacturer's branding on the visitors' kit, for the last time at it turned out, as Tadcaster announced Admiral as their new kit sponsor a few days later. I did not know manufacturers sponsor kit at this level, I thought clubs went for the best deal (or, like us, take payment in kind for hosting an advertising shoot), and branding came as standard. Unsurprisingly, I spotted the numbers on the front of the shirts - you know they make sense.

James Edgar, and the visitors' kit front and back

We had some attacking opportunities, with Tadcaster's report mentioning a run the full length of the pitch from Ben Cartwright.

Ben Cartwright

Having warmed up at half time, I emerged from the bar in time to see the only goal. Dominic Marie followed the ball from the kick off, and was therefore perfectly placed to take advantage of a fortunate bounce.

Dominic Marie

Tadcaster had the better of the play for the second half, but a solid defence ensured they were unable to capitalise. It was no surprise that the Rogues & Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match award went to Bram Johnstone.

Bram Johnstone

After processing the photos I had the dubious pleasure of using the new Pitchero uploader to put them on the club website. There is a new feature to upload from Google Drive, which might be useful as I also upload to Google Photos. It is speedy, but copies and displays in what appears to be a random order - definitely not file name, date or time, or even size. I suspect most people want to look at pictures in order of play, and the only remedy is to compare against a contact print and drag everything manually into order. So, I was back to uploading from the computer, which lets you do a random number (between 7 and 63) at a time, and reverses the order. For readers who also upload to Pitchero, the remedy was simple once I had found it by trial and error: select your last photo, and use Shift + Click to select the rest, rather than starting with the first.

The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 1 (Marie) Tadcaster Albion 0

The brightest lights in town, part 2

With a small area in the Liverpool County FA's jurisdiction - eighteen miles from Liverpool Town Hall in Lancashire and eight in Cheshire - the pool of eligible clubs for the Senior Cup is small, with only four rounds to the final, as we found last season. For this year's first round, we were drawn away to Ashton Town. Whilst you should never underestimate your opponents, the hosts were propping up the Hallmark Security League.

Taking a bus through unfamiliar territory in the evening often needs the assistance of Mr Google's maps. Led street lights have many advantages over orange sodium lamps, needing less electricity, less maintenance, and giving more directional light. This is good if your bedroom window is next to a street light, but it makes it more difficult to see signs from a brightly lit bus. Regulated London buses have next stop displays, mandated by Transport for London, but mostly no WiFi, as operators are paid the same regardless of how many people use the service. Commercial services elsewhere increasingly have WiFi, a marketing point, but almost never next stop information, which is useful but unlikely to induce anyone to travel by bus.

Edge Green Street, leading to the ground, had newish houses, but no street lights or tarmac, which suggests the builder went bust without making up the road for adoption by the council. Once inside there was no problem with the floodlights, of a surprisingly high standard for this level.

The hosts' shirts brought an air of Croatia to a cold Wednesday night.

Our team looked quite cheerful.

There were a couple of additions to the squad - Jordan Wynne from AFC Fylde (who had been on the bench at Kendal) ...

Jordan Wynne

... and Jack Morton from Chester.

Jack Morton

Andy Scarisbrick made his first start of the season.

Andy Scarisbrick

I took up position under a floodlight pylon, probably the best place for general photos, but not the best to capture goals. The first came after a few minutes from Phil Bannister.

Phil Bannister

Josh Nicholson was next to score ...

Josh Nicholson

... followed by Jordan Wynne.

Nathan Quirk was next ...

Nathan Quirk

... and the league's record shows he scored the fifth just before half time, although I thought it was Josh Nicholson, as did Andy, who was managing the Twitter feed.

Rob Doran scored just after the break and again ten minutes later.

Rob Doran

He was withdrawn after a job well done, and replaced by Dominic Marie, who was next to contribute to the scoring. He illustrated the problem with second half substitutes in an evening game, when I decide to stay put for the half I do not get many pictures if they are mainly on the other side of the field.

Dominic Marie

Jordan Wynne completed the scoring with ten minutes to go. This was an encouraging performance for a side that has found it difficult to score, with plenty of players regaining the experience of finding the net.

After the game I accepted a lift to Prescot from Rod the drummer, whose presence had not gone unnoticed.

Sharing the car were the drum and stalwart supporter Harry Thomas - regular spectators can decide for themselves which makes the most noise.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on Google Photos here, and for those who like to view the game backwards (a consequence of Pitchero's new uploader) on the club website here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 9 (Bannister, Josh Nicholson 2, Wynne 2, Quirk, Doran 2, Marie) Ashton Town 0.

Beware of the last ten

I sometimes wonder how much warmer my feet would be if football was, like rugby, played over 80 minutes. There was a time, a few years ago, that Prescot Cables would have been more successful: one season I counted eight points that, by November, had been lost to goals conceded in the last ten minutes of a game. We have largely avoided that more recently, and in the last couple of games have secured late goals, even if they were consolations.

The visit of Clitheroe was Brian Richardson's first home game, and with no Liverpool or Everton games, there was an attendance of 296. Only a couple of seasons ago, the same fixture would have attracted about 100 less. It had been raining during the week, and St Helens Town had played on Thursday, so there was quite a bit of sand on the pitch. When they agreed the ground share, St Helens thought they would be with us for three or four games, but completion of their new home has taken a bit longer.

I started by capturing the presentation picture for the mascots, who I thought I heard announced as the Belle Vale under 60s. We have had older mascots, but even so. Fortunately, I had misheard, it was the more conventional under 6s.

We had one new member of the squad.

Valter Fernandes

I had not had time to take up position at the Safari Park End before the first goal came from James Edgar.

James Edgar

We have had a problem maintaining confidence when we have gone behind to an early goal, but there looked to be no chance of the visitors doing likewise.

New dad Sam Staunton Turner avoids Clitheroe's Bradley Carroll

On an overcast but not dark day, most of my exposures were coming in at 1/500s, with ISO varying until the end of the half.

Lloyd Dean 1/400s, f/5, ISO3200

Shutter speeds dropped rapidly for the second half ...

Michael Simpson 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO3200

... so I switched to shutter priority ...

Rogues & Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match Dominic Marie - 1/320 f/4.5 ISO8000

... gradually dropping the shutter speed.

Phil Bannister 1/200s f/5.6, a surprisingly precise ISO14368

We looked to have secured the points with a second goal from Rob Doran ...

... but the curse of the last ten minutes struck, with Clitheroe's goalkeeper pulling off some point winning saves, whilst they scored two, the second with almost the last kick of the game.

After the game, we had presentations for the Rogues & Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match and Warrington Motors Player of the Month awards, which went more smoothly than in recent weeks, with the winners, Dominic Marie and James McCulloch identified and ready to have their picture taken whilst they were still comfortably in the bar.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Edgar, Doran) Clitheroe 2.

A view of Westmorland

I have often heard that the town of Kendal has a picturesque setting. I had never seen it, my previous visits having been in the rain or at night. The forecast for our game at Kendal Town was for bright weather, so I took an early train and went to Windermere. Being unable to see a hill without wondering what is at the top, I walked up to Orrest Head, where the advertised views were most definitely available.

Returning to Kendal, the day was still bright and sunny, but the west of the ground has a stand and a number of trees, so there were plenty of shadows. I usually just need to use the automatic settings on Nikon ViewNX 2 to convert my files from raw to jpeg for processing. I sometimes wonder whether it would be easier to shoot in jpeg and let the camera do the work, but ViewNX 2 makes use of the computer's processing power and not having to deliver a result in a second or so. In some high contrast situations, I need to work on raw files manually, and this time I used the facility for 15 - 20 frames.

Phil Bannister

In some locations, the players cast strong shadows on themselves.

Ben Cartwright

Now that Brian Richardson had seen the squad for training we were expecting a few changes. The only new(ish) face was goalkeeper Phil Priestly, who played in the Liverpool Senior Cup semi final in July, but has been with Skelmersdale United in the meantime.

Phil Priestly

James McCulloch was in midfield, having played in defence so far this season. He has played there before, but has been accustomed to midfield in recent years, and looked particularly effective on this occasion.

James McCulloch

Dominic Marie was on the bench: having joined in pre season, he was making his first competitive appearance.

Dominic Marie

The hosts made the most of the terrain, as you expect the home side to do - I still remember with some bewilderment the Cables manager a few years ago who said our pitch made it difficult to play our preferred game. They got the ball downhill as quickly as possible, endangering our goal, and, even when we cleared, making us tire ourselves chasing it back uphill. It was effective, giving them two goals.

Garry Williams emerged at half time to brief the substitutes that we would attempt the same in the second half - he also briefed me, as he thought it might be good for a few photos. He was right on that, assisted by my taking up position in the bottom corner of the ground, and by the floodlights being switched on during half time.

Jacob Jones

It took longer to work in the footballing sense, with the hosts scoring another before we were able to break our own drought, with Lloyd Dean scoring on 67 minutes.

Lloyd Dean

Despite keeping up the pressure, we were unable to add to this.

It is sometimes said that in this country we do not take cold seriously. I remember a few years ago visiting Helsinki over the second weekend in September: when I arrived on Thursday there were plenty of short sleeves, by Monday everyone was in seriously warm looking coats. Following a mild October, I did not realise how quickly the temperature had dropped, so I was slow to adopt extra layers and gloves. I declined the offer of another lift from the Johnstones, having in mind a pint or two in the Ring O'Bells with their local ales and open fire. I needed it by the time I got there, I had lost feeling to the extent I needed to pick my first pint up from the bar with both hands.

The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Kendal Town 3 Prescot Cables 1 (Dean)