Work to do

On previous visits to Trafford, I have found the lighting conditions a bit challenging. It seemed a lot brighter when Prescot Cables travelled there last week, so I am not sure if they have replaced the bulbs, or I am better at handling the conditions after almost a year with my D5300. I started my journey near Moorfields station in Liverpool city centre, from where the whizzy algorithm at National Rail Enquiries told me I could leave at 17.41, with one change. On closer inspection, this involved walking to Lime Street, so I applied some fuzzy logic and caught the Hunts Cross train one minute earlier, with a cross platform change.

I arrived with plenty of time to spare, so I watched the players warming up. Brian Richardson had not had the opportunity to see the players in training, so I was not expecting significant changes.

The corresponding fixture last year was the last before Andy Paxton took over, where we lost 8-0. The fifth goal going in was probably the closest I have come to leaving well before the end of a game, being discouraged by the distance of the gate from the station and the 9pm train. On this occasion, I was speaking to Bram Johnstone's parents before kick off, and they kindly offered me a lift home, so I was there for the duration.

Having looked at grain and lighting at Lancaster, I took a couple of pictures using the sports mode with auto ISO (a maximum of 3200 - you can set it higher, but it will then be fixed at that value, which is not what I want).

1/60s f/4.5 ISO3200

I took up position by a pylon. I was hardly in place when Trafford scored their first. Two more (which were admittedly good goals) in the next quarter of an hour did not bode well.

Whilst I was looking for the opportunity to drop the shutter speed where I thought it might work, I mainly stayed at 1/200s. I once again found that sensitivity (ISO) seemed to bear little relation to grain.

James McCulloch, 1/80s f/4.8 ISO4000

Bram Johnstone - in a fairly similar pitch position to above, 1/200s f/5.3 ISO12000

A further goal from the hosts just before half time dampened spirits further.

Things looked better in the second half, despite a fifth goal from the hosts. Under pressure from Lloyd Dean, Luke Pilling held on to the ball for too long, and was penalised with an indirect free kick. A short pass enabled Nathan Quirk to put the ball in the net, only for the goal to be disallowed. The only reason we could think of was that the referee had not been ready.

We then descended into farce, when the linesman flagged for pushing and shoving in the goalmouth as we tried to get the ball for a quick restart and the hosts protested. The referee issued a red card ... to Rob McIntosh, who had been on the half way line. I am not a big fan of the style of numbers on our shirts, opposition announcers have confused 6 and 8 when crediting goals on at least two occasions, and I would add 3 and 9 to that mix, although 4 has never struck me as having a problem.

Ben Cartwright - the 4 is one of the clearer numbers in the set

Rob McIntosh

Our pressure paid off when we were awarded a penalty, converted by Nathan Quirk for a consolation goal, the final score giving plenty for Brian Richardson to think about.

Nathan Quirk

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

Final score: Trafford 5 Prescot Cables 1 (Quirk pen)