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.