Maxing the Dayrider

If a bus journey involves one operator, you can go a surprisingly long way for a small fare. A trip from Liverpool to Coppull United on Arriva buses cost the reasonable sum of £5.20. It is not the quickest journey, but many routes have WiFi, and there is nothing like knowing you have passed from one local authority to another by the rise or fall in the number of writing errors caused by bouncing over potholes.

A few years ago, I would not have made a trip like this, as getting timetables would have involved a lengthy call to an enquiry office. Large areas of the country should have had a "Here be dragons" sign on the map, as they were some distance from a train service. Haydock and Ashton in Makerfield rarely impinge on my consciousness, so I was surprised to find quite substantial settlements with a bus every few minutes. On arrival in Coppull, I made for the Co-Op. I cannot fault their prices at the end of the day: even if they sell items just before they go off for next to nothing, you save them the cost of taking unsold stock away, so I grabbed something to eat for loose change.

These pages do not follow televised sport, but I like a television transmitter in the background, in this case Winter Hill. Apparently it sends out different signals in four directions.

After an overcast day, the evening turned out bright and sunny. The sun was low in the sky, and if we had been playing towards the clubhouse I would have been looking straight into it. The sun and the trees that surround the ground gave a combination of shots well lit from the front, and some shadows.

Neil Prince

Danny Flood

Playing into the sun is not always good.

Ben Morrow

Phil Bannister made a welcome return.

The hosts had floodlights, which they turned on from the beginning of the evening. I think the main purpose of the lights is to illuminate training, the West Lancashire League do not have evening games in the winter. By the end of the game, the lights were making a similar impact to street lights.

Jonah O'Reilly

This game, and that on Tuesday at Charnock Richard, was at least in part to try out some "possibles". I did not attend the earlier game: by all reports I did not miss much, as the hosts won 5-0, a bit disconcerting given the difference in league position. This game was a much better performance, with a 3-1 win.

After the game, I had more cause to be glad of Phil Bannister's return, as his parents gave me a lift to Wigan, which, with the assistance of technology telling me where my bus would be and the driver finishing his cigarette, got me home half an hour earlier than I anticipated. These pages often record the 10A as a bus where all human life is there; however, the 352 put up some stiff competition: We were joined by two young ladies deep in conversation. Unfortunately, one was sitting at the front of the bus and the other at the back, and one had difficulty recalling she had travelled outside St Helens.

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

Final score: Coppull United 1 Prescot Cables 3.

It's a fair Coppull

A club's pre season programme will depend in a large part on the manager's preferences and ideas on what makes for the best preparation for the season. So, with Neil Prince, who led Bootle to the Liverpool Senior Cup the season before last, taking the helm at Prescot Cables, there is no repeat of last year's well supported trip to Rhyl, or the rather less well supported trip to Kidsgrove the year before.

There are, however, trips to clubs I have not visited before, the first being Coppull United of the West Lancashire League. This is on the Wigan to Chorley bus route, on which Arriva run their new Sapphire buses, with wi-fi, once I had connected to the right service, not the one from the bus in front; power sockets by the front seats, those in what in my younger days was the smokers' gallery are not trusted with electricity; and an information screen, which told you how bright and shiny the bus was, rather than displaying the next stop. Still, the wi-fi was zippy enough to download Mr Google's maps as we went along.

Coppull have a neat, modern clubhouse and natural cover (trees) on three sides. It is the first time I have seen dugouts with doors.

I am surprised more clubs do not do it - even in a desirable area, a large open space on the edge of the village is a magnet for under age drinking and smoking, so without the ability to close the dugouts, they would probably regularly start their matchday cleaning out cigarette ends and beer cans.

The usual reports and rumours about who is staying and who has gone are doing the rounds, but nothing is certain until people sign registration forms. I would be happy for any of the team from Dave Powell's two seasons in charge to return, but I was particularly pleased to see James McCulloch joining the action: his skill and leadership qualities make him a good person to start with when building any team.

James McCulloch

Other familiar faces were Adam Reid, who I believe has spent a few months playing in Australia (I hope they do not send international clearance by surface mail), Phil Bannister and Joe Evans. Also present was last season's top scorer, Rob Doran, hoping to be fit for midweek.

Adam Reid

Phil Bannister

Joe Evans

Taking up position, I was greeted by an elderly gentleman, who enquired if I was taking photographs for the local paper. When I mentioned the Cables website, he replied "Ah, it's good to have a website - thingumibob used to do a website, I do not know if you know him, he went to Skelmersdale".

The weather forecast promised storms, which had mainly passed by the time we started, and although the rain was heavy, the water soaked in, leaving a good quality playing surface. During the first half, I moved under the trees by the side of the pitch, where I was enthusiastically greeted by the residents - mosquitoes who had not had many visitors over the summer, so happily sunk their fangs in.

The rain cleared up for the second half, so I went back behind the goal, where insect life was more benign, and appropriate for the opening weekend of the Big Butterfly Count. I did not take part, as I would have missed some of the game, but I am also not sure how you know whether you have seen a large number of butterflies, or one or two flying round in circles.

Five goals for Prescot showed an encouraging ability of our players to find the goal, with our manager adding one himself.

Neil Prince shoots for goal

After the game, I headed back to the bus. Travelling to games has been made easier by the internet: a few years ago, I would have turned up in Wigan hoping that there was a bus, and using a street atlas to work out when to get off. Online tools for use on the ground can still be patchy: nextbuses.mobi was missing timetables in the Lancashire County Council area, but worked in Greater Manchester, whereas Google Maps, which I thought used the same data, worked - as long as it is not a bus station, when it does get rather confused.

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

Final result: Coppull United 1 Prescot Cables 5