Disrupted arrangements

Many Prescot Cables supporters were looking forward to visiting South Shields on the 9th December. Rooms, train tickets and minibuses had been booked, with deposits and fares paid, and we expected a large support. Two weeks ago, the fixture was switched by the league to the 25th November as Droylsden progressed in the FA Trophy and South Shields were knocked out, so our longest away trip was brought forward by a mere 2 weeks at short notice. We would have had difficulty raising a side, as many players needed more than two weeks' notice to get time off work or rearrange family matters. Fortunately, South Shields were prepared for the possibility of going anywhere if they had won in the Trophy, so we were able to play our home game this weekend, with the away game over the Easter bank holiday.

We have not been accustomed to top of the table clashes, but the league leaders were visiting third place, so I was not surprised to find two coaches parked outside with a third manoeuvring in as I arrived. We attracted an attendance of 418, including a flag bearer from Scarborough, who called in on the way back from his abortive trip to Colwyn Bay, where their game fell victim to a late downpour. Our Verti-Draining once again paid off, as the pitch, whilst heavy, had no standing water from the week's rain.

There were a number of photographers, including Andy Nunn, whose work I have seen with Dulwich Hamlet and various southern clubs, some way off his normal circuit representing the Non League Paper. You can see his pictures here.

The visitors were captained by Julio Arca, formerly of Sunderland and Middlesbrough, and Argentina at youth level. I was tempted to engage in Copa America related trolling by asking Rod the bugler to play the instrumental introduction of the Chilean national anthem, but I suspected it might not be in his repertoire.

Julio Arca pursues Jordan Wynne

Two photographers were with the visitors, and Andy joined them at the Roadshow End, so I had the sole lens trained from the Safari Park End.

Reece McNally

There was an extra fixing behind the net (which may have been for the visitors' video camera), which prevented me crossing the pitch, so I stayed in one position for the whole of the half.

For the second half, I once again started in front of the stand at the Roadshow End. Many away supporters decided to stay put, either because they liked the cover amplifying their sound, or they had assessed the likely weather and did not want to be out in it. Either way, they were joined by our Fence End, so I had plenty of noise behind me.

Chris Almond

After a few minutes, I needed to move to the side for the light. The weather since the previous afternoon had been showery, and given the noise it made against my roof and window, was mainly hail. We had a couple of hail showers whilst I was on the Gasworks side. Hailstones are large enough to attract the attention of the autofocus, thus ruining a fair proportion of my exposures.

Harry Cain makes a tackle

We were holding the visitors at bay when Louis Coyne was dismissed for a foul denying a goal scoring opportunity, so for the last ten minutes we were defending with a man down. A superb team effort secured the draw and meant the visitors dropped points for only the second time in the league this season.

With a whole team performance, the man of the match award went to the captain.

James McCulloch receives his award

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here - the Pitchero uploader has at last acquired an option to display the pictures in the order I took them - and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 South Shields 0.