Eyes open

August Bank Holiday Monday this year saw Prescot Cables at home to Skelmersdale United, who may be joining us on a more regular basis later in the year if they are unable to remain in their ground on the site of the former hamlet of Stormy Corner.

Before the game, there was the annual task with the most opportunities for things to go wrong - the team photos. For the individual pictures, commercial manager Steve Garnett suggested a backdrop of some of the supporters' banners. I was sceptical, but it worked out well, if a little orange, with a tequila motif (nothing to do with me, I cannot understand how anyone drinks the stuff).

Joey Faux

The light stayed fairly even with light cloud, for the players, but the sun came out for the management. Next up was the team photo itself, an exercise that needs a firm hand, as the team are certainly not going to listen to me.

Fortunately, the sun went back in, as the position, with the stand and banner in the background, meant everyone's faces would be in shadow if it had stayed out. With everyone in place, I was not loud enough with the "say testicles" (from The Commitments), so there was no take when everyone had their eyes open, which caused much mirth on Twitter.

Once it was done we could all relax, and someone could put the banner on the front of the stand back in position. Anyone tempted to caption a team photograph should put the names in a separate text file, as, when you make the inevitable errors, it is easier to amend the file and paste the contents into a new text box than to edit on the photo.

We only had one mascot for the game, which was just as well, as the assistant referee was looking to start the handshakes while most of the team were still walking in front of me.

We started playing towards the Hope Street end and I took up a position on the ground in front of the covered standing.

Baba Conteh

The first half ended goalless, but we swiftly opened the scoring in the second half with a penalty converted by Tunde Owolabi.

Tunde Owolabi scores from the spot

The visitors then opened their account from a penalty. Jordan Wynne restored our advantage a few minutes later.

Jordan Wynne shoots for goal

The penalty count started to look like rugby union when Tunde Owolabi was brought down in the box for our next opportunity. Unfortunately, Skelmersdale's Jack Sims correctly guessed where Tunde would put his second penalty, and was able to save.

Jack Sims

We looked as though we would hold on to our lead until the last seconds of injury time when the visitors snatched an equaliser.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here. A copy of the team photo is available here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Owolabi pen, Wynne) Skelmersdale United 2.