Millennial

In the Liverpool Senior Cup, if a tie is postponed twice, the club drawn away has the option to play the game at their ground, and for our first round tie against Bootle, we exercised it.

The week before the game saw our Chairman, Tony Zeverona, announce his resignation after twelve years in the post. Tony took the helm when we became supporter owned after our former owner withdrew his support in 2005, and has guided us through a fair few difficult moments since then. The job involves a lot of work most people do not see, often missing a fair bit of the football, and not many people want to do it for ever. This is probably a good time to look for a successor, with the results of many years' work bearing fruit in the league, better attendances than for many years, and some silverware. Tony's resignation also came just after he achieved national fame in the pages of When Saturday Comes magazine, illustrated by a rather decent photo, even if I say so myself.

I found dealing with WSC most straightforward, they asked to use the picture (and some well known publications do not), offered a fee and paid it with commendable efficiency.

Turning to the game, although I was standing next to Ben Barnes (I say "next to", it was more in his shadow) when he confirmed that he was not cup tied, I am not sure he had enough appearances to be eligible. Reserve team keeper Jack Morton therefore became our eighth first team keeper of the season.

Jack Morton

We have not had many evening games this season, so I have not had much opportunity to experiment with settings. At the moment I am using centre weighted metering, getting more consistent results than matrix metering. I have gone back to processing the raw files manually, lowering the black until it almost loses definition, which works well for the sky.

Josef Faux returns from injury

As there was no rain, I took the filter off the lens. However, the first divot flying in my direction reminded me water is not the only thing I would rather be cleaning off a filter, so I rapidly replaced it.

Jordan Southworth opened the scoring after ten minutes.

Joe Herbert congratulates Jordan Southworth

I swapped sides half way through - I had been reluctant to do this as it means sitting behind the assistant referee, but there is more than enough run off by the side of the pitch to mean I am not impeding his progress.

Valter Fernandes

The visitors were depleted by injuries, but put up a good performance, and would have been disappointed not to have levelled the scores before half time.

Five minutes into the second half, Jordan Wynne increased our lead.

Baba Conteh congratulates Jordan Wynne

Lloyd Dean was next to score ...

Lloyd Dean

... followed by a second from Jordan Wynne a few minutes later.

Fixtures like this are a good opportunity to introduce players coming through from the Youth team, and we saw debuts from Matthew Kewn and Dominic Murphy. Capturing players, particularly substitutes, at evening games has an element of luck, and I did not capture Matthew. However, in the 90th minute, Joe Herbert had a shot saved, for the rebound to fall to Dominic, who did not err in putting it away.

Dominic Murphy (15) shoots for goal

When I published the photos, I acquired a new follower on Twitter. The 00 on the end of Dominic's handle tells me this was our first goal scored by someone born in 2000. It is enough to make you feel old.

Despite the score, this was not a classic performance. The Man of the Match award went to Jordan Wynne, who, in an illustration of the quest for quality in the team, felt he had not had a good performance, despite his two goals.

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 5 (Southworth, Wynne 2, Dean, Murphy) Bootle 0

The correct equipment

For Prescot Cables' Liverpool Senior Cup semi-final at Bootle, the County FA kitted out the officials with the full range of equipment from the professional game, including coloured shirts, radio communications ...

... and spray foam for marking a line at free kicks, although there was a lack of training on when to let go of the button.

We should not be surprised that the spray seemed to run out in the second half. There was even a fourth official.

James Edgar notices the fourth official appears to be from Mars

I approached the game thinking the hosts would probably have a slight edge - when 20th in one division plays 3rd in the division below, the latter has momentum in their favour. I also approached the game carefully watching my step: I amused everyone with the effects of landing face first on the pavement on the way to the corresponding fixture at Litherland REMYCA last season, and was not looking to repeat the experience.

I do not do much evening work under North West Counties floodlights, and I decided after a short while to experiment, using the sports mode on the camera. I set the ISO between 12800 and 24600 as the location of the action permitted, and let the shutter speed take care of itself, rather than using shutter priority mode. Adjusting ISO is a bit more complicated than shutter speed, needing three button presses rather than turning a wheel, but I got to grips quickly enough. I have read that Nikon cameras apply some noise reduction even in raw, and that astronomers do not like them for that reason (it is possible to noise reduce out anything from a star or two to an entire galaxy), and there seemed to be some difference in grain between the modes.

We got the scoring under way with a goal from Josh Dolling ...

Josh Dolling

... quickly followed up by Dominic Reid.

Dominic Reid

Our physio, Tony Carroll, had to speak to some of our supporters after the first goal, asking them to desist from letting off smoke grenades, so hopefully we will avoid a fine. There also seemed to be steam drifting intermittently across the pitch - I was not able to work out whether this was from the industrial premises next door, or if someone was using a particularly vaporous electronic cigarette.

Michael Ordish pulled a goal back for the hosts, and a fine save from England Universities squad member Marcus Burgess ensured that we remained ahead at half time.

Marcus Burgess

We dominated the second half, with goals in quick succession from Dale Wright ...

Dale Wright celebrates his goal

... Lloyd Dean ...

Celebrating Lloyd Dean's goal

... and Josef Faux ...

Josef Faux

... completed a convincing and confidence boosting win, and secured a place in the final against Southport.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on Google Photos here. I attempted to post them on the club website, and thought I had been successful at the second or third attempt, but Pitchero seems to have eaten them, and the moment has somewhat passed to try again.

Final score: Bootle 1 Prescot Cables 5 (Dolling, Reid, Wright, Dean, Faux).

The 63 derby

Due to Boxing Day's limited public transport, I was unable to attend Prescot Cables' game at Bamber Bridge, so I went to a local game instead. Bootle v AFC Liverpool looked easy enough to get to, with Merseyrail running a service.

It has become common to refer to derby games by a mode of transport that connects the clubs. There is a bus between today's opponents, which I discovered earlier in the season watching Bootle play Barnton. In a senior moment, thought AFC Liverpool were playing, and turned up to find College Road unexpectedly dark. Fortunately, Traveline suggested the 63, just as one hove into view, so I only missed the first few minutes. Not that it would have helped on this occasion, as it was participating in the Boxing Day transport obliteration, but I would have been able to watch Marine, in the M58 derby against Skelmersdale United.

I had not planned to take pictures, but as it was the first bright, clear match day for over a month, I decided to treat myself to some decent light.

Jack Leamey

I met Dr James getting off the train: as the walk was a couple of minutes longer than we needed to be on time, we missed AFC Liverpool's first goal. I noticed when it was 3pm, and heard a cheer about half a minute later. As the golden goal competition had 4 minutes, the referee had started early.

When names matter for captions, I like to get a quick picture to match boots and haircuts to numbers. I often say I have trouble recognising players when they have had their hair cut, and, positioning myself at the Dodge Kop end Bootle were attacking, I did not spot the hosts' goal was being kept by a friend of these pages, Ben Morrow.

Ben Morrow

The visitors kept up the pressure, scoring a few minutes before half time to add to the goal we had missed on the way.

Emini Adegbenro

The second half looked to be going the same way, but after AFC Liverpool's third goal, Bootle made two substitutions and changed formation. This was almost immediately effective, with two goals in the next ten minutes.

Although the sun had set, there was still some natural light to assist the floodlights.

Josh Hamilton

Time looked to be ebbing away for the hosts to claim a result until Jack McGowan made the scores level with five minutes of normal time to go. With the momentum now firmly with the home side, the visitors were keen to run down the clock, and the home bench keen to ensure that all stoppages were added. Ryan Cox finally secured the result near the end of injury time.

Ryan Cox

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.

Final score: Bootle 4 AFC Liverpool 3