Doing things in style

Danny Blanchflower once said, "The game is about glory. It's about doing things in style...". That should be the case when you are at the top of the table, but safety from relegation does not often come in the same way, at least if you avoid taking it to the last day of the season. It is not the angel with the flaming sword blocking the path of Balaam, rather a ripple round the ether from someone scanning Ossett Albion's Twitter feed on a wet Tuesday evening in April and finding that their late goal means their visitors cannot now catch us.

However, every now and again ...

Having secured a surprising three points against playoff chasing Glossop North End at the weekend, one point in our Tuesday evening game against the league leaders, Lancaster City, would make us safe for practical purposes. Mathematical certainty would need a second point, but Goole would be unable to catch our goal difference by any reasonably predictable run of results. Having said that, with the way results have been going this year, I would not rule anything out as impossible.

Being in the last couple of weeks of the season, we started with reasonable daylight, and exposures to match.

Josh Dolling 1/500s f/5.6 300mm ISO2800 7.53pm

With sunset half way through the first half, I was soon notching up the ISO settings.

Dale Wright 1/320s f/5.3 195mm ISO5000 8.05pm

Both sides were trying to break the deadlock with a marked lack of success. The video highlights list seven misses in the half, four for us and three for Lancaster - and that is just those Glyn the camera operator felt were close enough to be worth uploading a clip, there were plenty more for both sides.

By the start of the second half, the light was that of a standard night game.

James Edgar 1/320s f/4.8 125mm ISO20000 8.51pm

Dominic Marie broke the deadlock five minutes in (this is not a picture of the goal: that was from the other side of the penalty area, too far away to catch).

Dominic Marie

There was some confusion over who scored the second. Glyn, who has less than ten seconds to select a player and upload, credited it to Andy Scarisbrick.

Andy Scarisbrick

Looking through the stills, I thought it was Josef Faux, whilst the official record (assuming the League website corresponds to the official record) has it as an own goal.

Josef Faux celebrates as Lancaster retrieve the ball from the net

A determined effort from Lancaster could not break down our defence, and it became apparent we were going to secure safety in style, with our own result at home.

Staying up

Soundings for the Rogues and Rascals Barbershop Man of the Match did not produce the usual consensus, with everyone getting a mention. I avoid expressing an opinion, as my view is constrained by a small window (that and having acquired startlingly little footballing knowledge in 25 years), but I was pleased to see the award go to Danny Flood, who has performed well in between not having the best of luck with injuries all season. Having the winner fit the board was of limited use when Company Secretary Peter Kneale was too tall for it, and it helps to remember to set the ISO setting back to Auto when you come indoors if you do not want the resulting photo to look a bit grainy.

Danny Flood

To finish that Danny Blanchflower quotation, "it's about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."

Job done.

The rest of the pictures can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Marie, og) Lancaster City 0.