Cup final

Following Prescot Cables' win in their Liverpool Senior Cup semi-final against Litherland REMYCA last weekend, the County FA were keen to complete the competition before it got in the way of the new season. For the final against Everton (the Under 23 side, a description applying to a fair number of our team too), they chose the next available date, five days later. Marketing got under way, with posters in the town and on social media, which worked, attracting a crowd of 865. People even returned to Prescot from abroad (well, Scotland anyway).

This was the club's first cup final since the North West Counties League Cup in 2002, so the first I would photograph. I watched the former from the blazers' enclosure at Bury FC, having wandered past a steward helpfully holding a gate open without checking who was going through it.

This time it would fall to me to provide the club's photographic output. In a big game, this leaves you feeling like Jonah (in Nineveh, not in the fish), plugging away at a collection whilst those who only need one or two frames are tweeting their results. I read an interview in the paper with a photographer for Getty Images at the Olympics - they can get an image from camera to editor's laptop to market in 180 seconds. Try that on a wet Tuesday night in November against Ossett Albion.

James Edgar

I try to capture all the players , but if I miss one in a  league game, it will even itself out over two or three weeks. For a game like this, everyone wants to be able to show they were there, playing against a Premiership club, in front of a large crowd, That means ideally pictures including an Everton player, and the crowd in the background. Missing someone out was not going to go down well. I made sure I was there early and got a few pictures of warming up.

Andy Paxton briefs the team

The next challenge came with the mascots, from the Junior section / All Star Coaching, 22 of them, one with each of the players. I snapped them lining up and shaking hands, an activity at which people were not hanging about, with the first players moving down the line before the last had taken their place. I produced a set of pictures with a heading so the boys and their parents can have a souvenir. Identifying that everyone is in is just the same for the adults - check for boots and haircuts.

Once we were under way, I snapped away furiously, making a mental note of who I had not seen for a bit. The new pitch perimeter that volunteers had worked on over the summer was looking tidy, and, most importantly, giving full support to the new advertising boards.

Nathan Quirk

Over the last few games, I have cropped many more pictures to the ratio the camera uses, rather than those like 10 x 8, unless there is a distraction I want to crop out. This is partly technical, the original ratio has more pixels, and partly changing taste on my part. It was handy for a few shots on this occasion.

Josh Nicholson

At the Safari Park End, evidence remained of Stuart Pearce's having been in the ground earlier, filming an advert.

Jonah O'Reilly

For the second half I took up position on the Gasworks Side, where I had more company than usual. With most of the advertising facing the same way as me, I concentrated on getting players in front of the crowd.

Rob Doran

The visitors were taking the competition seriously (not always the case with professional sides in county cups), and took a firm grip on the game with two goals in the first half and one in the second. Even with the game out of reach, our players were still looking for the consolation goal, but it was not to come.

I usually limit a collection to about 60 pictures, about the maximum number most people want to scroll through, but I allowed slightly for this game. The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Everton 3.