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)