Off colour

Chatting to our programme editor, Gareth Coates, after Prescot Cables' game at home to Goole AFC, I discovered I had committed a faux pas. Ashford Town (Middlesex) play in tangerine, most definitely not orange: in the same way our satsuma shaded shirts are a manifestation of amber. Thinking about it, apart from the Dutch national team, does anyone officially designate this range of colours as orange?

My reaction to the "service" Arriva provided on the way to the game was, on the other hand, turning the air as blue, or perhaps turquoise, as their vehicles. They were keeping buses to time by simply not carrying passengers. There was no bus in service for over half an hour past my stop in either direction, where I would expect one about every three minutes. Those showing on the Arriva Bus app coincided suspiciously closely with empty buses trundling by. Once one turned up, it was delayed further, so I arrived after kick off, without getting the mascots their souvenir picture. Fortunately they had their own photographer, who took a team photo at half time.

James McCulloch

Two weeks ago we had a comfortable eight point cushion ahead of the relegation position occupied by the visitors - by the start of the game it was down to one without our having kicked a ball. Goole's win against Farsley when we did not have a game, and a draw against Mossley when our game against Burscough was postponed (our volunteers got the pitch playable, but it started to rain again) gave them four points. We lost three, having played Lloyd Dean in the Boxing Day win against Bamber Bridge, when he was still suspended after a red card against Scarborough at the beginning of December.

Both sides approached the first half as though the most important thing was not to lose, which, given the league table, seemed reasonable. This, combined with the unaccustomed sun, made it that bit trickier to get a decent picture.

Chris Almond & Jordan Wynne

We took a grip on the game almost immediately in the second half with a goal from Dominic Reid, who is turning out to be something of a find. I was not quite in position to catch the shot, although it would have been more luck than judgment if I had, as I was not expecting it to go in from that far out. I did, however, catch the celebration.

We secured our advantage, or so we thought, when Josh Dolling put away an attempted clearance.

The players celebrate Josh Dolling's goal - Josh remains careful to avoid a card for excessive celebration

I still thought we were still being profligate in front of goal, with plenty of shots going astray or finding Thomas Beaurepaire without requiring him to stretch what appeared to be an injury, as he was not taking his own goal kicks.

What I was fearing happened with seven minutes to go, with Goole exploiting a moment's inattention to score. From then, we were very much on the back foot, as the visitors, with their last minute goal against Mossley in mind, looked to take a point, and deprive us of two. They succeeded with two minutes to go, leaving us very much regretting points lost rather than one gained.

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 (Reid, Dolling) Goole AFC 2