Four goals and a spilled pint

It was another fine day for Prescot Cables' game at home to Farsley AFC. We were still looking for points to give us the decisive advantage over New Mills to avoid relegation, whereas for the visitors the playoffs were out of reach, and they were well away from relegation. It was Grand National day, which claims a few supporters, and, looking at the team sheet, may have accounted for some players, and, being the weekend after Easter, the start of the wedding season, which accounted for another.

We started brightly, and I captured Ben Morrow being called into action. My view of the goal is often obstructed, and I (and Ben) have so far had to be content mainly with pictures when the ball has been safely gathered.

Ben Morrow

The scoring was opened when James Jenkins was brought down, and Neil Prince did not err in converting the penalty.

Neil Prince scores from the penalty

Neil was active with the dead ball a couple of minutes later. I like a goal as much as the next man, but the crowd like to be entertained too. His free kick was aimed for the top corner but went wide, landing on the pitch perimeter fence, just at the point Dave "The Monster" had balanced his pint.

The players look concerned at the fate of Dave's pint

With just the one goal lead at half time, we needed a second to keep up the momentum. James Jenkins obliged seven minutes in.

James Jenkins

Sam Corlett has held on to the top scorer spot for most of the season with ten goals. In the last couple of weeks, Jack Phillips has been putting in a challenge, with a match winning goal against Lancaster, and the goals to secure a point against Scarborough. Jack's free kick on the edge of the area found the goalkeeper's fingers, and then described a trajectory that seemed to defy the laws of physics to cross the line - the ball went across the line somewhere to the left of his feet in this picture.

A few minutes later, the goalkeeper handled a back pass, conceding an indirect free kick near the penalty spot. You do not see this error very often today, as the law has been in operation since before most players (certainly most of our team) were born. I remember when it first came in, around 1993. There were not as many free kicks as might have been expected then either, but plenty of goals caused by the keeper dithering because he could not remember quickly enough what he was supposed to do.

James Gardiner supplied the necessary first touch, for Jack Phillips to blast home and put himself into the position of top scorer.

Jack Phillips puts away James Gardiner's free kick

With the shortage of players, Assistant Manager Neil Black, who has mainly been concentrating on coaching, joined the squad.

Neil Black

This win turned out to be necessary, with both New Mills below us and Radcliffe Borough above us winning. Padiham won too: although they cannot escape the relegation positions, they are still in competition to claim the second from bottom position eligible for a possible reprieve.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 4 (Prince pen, Jenkins, Phillips 2), Farsley AFC 0.

Far, far, Farsley away

Our Prescot Cables train crew was a one person operation for our visit to Farsley AFC - only three had signed up to the event on Facebook, then Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, reported he had failed a late fitness test. I took the 10:22 as planned, so I had time for refreshment in Leeds. In Costa Coffee the staff were in their Christmas fancy dress already, so after I had my morning cup and stopped twitching, I adjourned to Mr Foley's Cask Ale House, where beers are now served in a traditional receptacle.

York Brewery Pilau Weisse

Heavy rain had been forecast, but it had stopped by the time I got to the ground, which was just as well, the covered standing is only at one end, and is some way back from the pitch. It was good news too for the community bonfire hosted by the club after the game: someone was bringing an old sofa to add to it as I arrived.

The pitch perimeter barrier is just the right height, and presents a nice flat top for refreshments. The price of pies has stayed the same for a while, so inflation has made the rather expensive pie of a couple of seasons ago a more average priced offering, especially with the still economical peas and gravy.

We had a good first half, and were rewarded after half an hour with a goal from Jack Phillips. I got a picture, of sorts.

Whilst it is good enough for the web, the goalkeeper is not in focus, and there is too much green space in the middle. Goals are the key part of the story in the paper, so I always try to include a picture of the scorers (which can be unfair on defenders who have been working just as hard at the other end): I sent this one instead.

Half time is always a danger when you are playing well, particularly when the opposition are not displaying the form that has brought them recent good results: there is always the chance they will be able to regroup. This was the case here, and with the sun setting and the lights having been switched on just after half time, I was not getting the best of pictures from our own half. There were enough moves forward to keep me busy.

Joe Evans

For the last few minutes I moved round to the side, under the floodlight pylon near the dugout.

Assistant Manager Neil Black

We made a couple of enforced substitutions as I got there, with Sam Corlett and Jack Phillips coming off injured. The referee seemed to take a cavalier attitude to injuries, continuing play for over a minute with Sam motionless in the centre circle until play stopped with a Farsley shot going for a goal kick. He later uttered the immortal words "roll him off" when Mason Ryan took a knock three or four yards in from the touchline. Mason was limping for a while afterwards, but all our substitutions had been used.

Mason Ryan passes to Phil Bannister

We looked as though we would be able to hold on, but Farsley were able to score an equaliser on 87 minutes, and an injury time winner.

On the way home, the train between Leeds and Manchester can seem like the 10A bus, all human life is there. An annoying chap obstructed the doors whilst people were getting off at Leeds to bag a table, and was promptly joined by a group of overseas students. He solemnly told one of them he was not allowed to carry explosives on the train, and he would inform a member of staff. A few minutes later, he returned with the bemused conductor, who looked at the suspected sticks of dynamite and explained that, "even from here, I can see they are the handles of the gentleman's badminton racquets". The look our companion gave when he got off at Huddersfield suggested he was not convinced, and expected to hear later that we had all been blown to smithereens by a booby trapped shuttlecock.

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

Final score: Farsley AFC 2, Prescot Cables 1 (Phillips)

Hattie Jacques?

Sometimes, despite the best efforts of all concerned, public address will give the opportunity for a mondegreen. As an aside, when I was working in Big Oil, I confused people by spelling Diesel with a capital D, after the inventor of the engine, but petrol without, as there was no Mr Petrol. I am, however, not sure whether to spell mondegreen with a capital M. On the face of it, it is named after Lady Mondegreen, but this is a mishearing of the words "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And laid him on the green". So, do we adopt a capital letter when the character is merely a trick of the ear?

The announcement that prompted these musings was a substitution for Farsley in their visit to Prescot Cables. Our announcer, David Williams, with his usual excellent diction, announced that a substitute was replacing "number seven, Matty James", which prompted the reference by someone standing near me to the late comedy actress of the title.

The afternoon started brightly, although the forecast suggested the rain would be back after the end of the game. I was able to use the sports mode on the camera, which was giving me shutter speeds of around 1/500s. I do not usually include pictures of play without the ball, the main exception being anticipating a header.

Enzo Benn

Whilst the weather was mild for the time of year, the sports jacket temperatures of the last few weeks are gone, with coats being the order of the day. Dave Powell appears unaware that his dugout has become a makeshift bar.

By the beginning of the second half, I switched to shutter priority at 1/320s due to thick cloud. The floodlights were turned on about five minutes into the half. 10 minutes later, the rain started, for a few minutes it was the heaviest we have seen in a game for a while.

Connor McCarthy in the rain - his mother was the only person who had not headed for cover

I thought the rain was easing off, so I emerged from the cover and headed for the gasworks side. My optimism was misplaced, and the pitch quickly acquired surface water.

Antony Shinks

The rain eventually eased off ...

Jonathon Lynch

... but was soon back.

Jamie Menagh

Oddly, more pictures than usual were best cropped into portrait format (five of seven on this page for example), which gave me a shortage of images for the Merseymart. They have introduced a fixed page layout for the sports page, so they do not need anyone with layout skills, the writers can drop two standard length stories into the allocated space. So, instead of being able mix any shape of picture with the text, it now needs to go in a 26x18cm box.

Like me, they seemed to like the visual effects of the rain, choosing this picture of Rob Doran.

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

Planet Farsley is blue

Last weekend saw another small but select group of Prescot Cables' independently travelling supporters making the journey to Farsley AFC. This can be reached via Bradford or Leeds, the former being cheaper and the latter being quicker. I usually look at the fares, as Richie, our leader in pub and beer choices, worked for British Rail back in the day, so last needed to pay a train fare in about 1976. With only 4 travelling, 2 of whom joined at Warrington, we went for convenience over cost, and were rewarded with a good beer selection at Mr Foley's Cask Ale House, my first visit since the York Brewery took it over. I like a dark beer, but eschewed the Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout, I do spend the afternoon operating precision electronic equipment.

It was announced recently that the 2014 Tour de France will start in Yorkshire. Leeds Town Hall was getting in to the spirit.

Bicycle races are coming to t' town

To get to Farsley, we took the train to New Pudsey, but we could have got a ftr, a bus that pretends it is a tram, running between Leeds and Bradford. I was not able to ascertain whether they have anything to replicate the days of the original trams, half a mile or so from Farsley's ground, where the tram passed over a clever contraption to change the gauge of the wheels from the 4' 8½" of the Leeds system to the 4' of Bradford.

Farsley's pies maintained the high standards of previous seasons, and, although the steak pie was a little on the pricey side at £2.20, peas and gravy at 20p each made a reasonable price for the lot.

Before the game, a minute's silence was observed for George Hayward, our Club President, who died last week. This would normally be (and will be) observed at our next home game, so for Farsley to observe it too was a fitting tribute to George's contribution to his club and town.

When the game got under way, we attacked from the start, with a goal on 5 minutes from Ryan Grattan. When we score from a run towards goal, it provides the best opportunity to capture it, and I had a sequence of shots, which I put into the slideshow.

When I capture a goal, I include it in my pictures for the Merseymart, usually the last shot before the ball goes in the net, in this case including the other members of the day's independently travelling support in the background, in what is sometimes called soft focus. They used it, although not as the main picture, for which they took one of Anthony Shinks. I was a bit surprised, as the picture tends to illustrate the words, the main event for us was the goal, and the article reported Dave Powell talking about strengthening his attacking options.

We can see from the pictures above one feature of Farsley's ground - a large amount of blue paint, of a similar shade to the players' kit. I used the shutter priority mode throughout, and, especially when the floodlights come on when there is still daylight, that can make the pictures off the camera look a bit washed out, which is easy enough to fix by adjusting the lighting in Photoshop Elements. The Farsley players were blending in to the background a bit, and I thought they may have problems picking out their team mates, although the interceptions they were able to make suggested the problem may be for the visitors.

With Farsley's predecessor club having played in the Conference, the floodlights are among the best in our division. There was one issue: on the pylon nearest the goal we were attacking in the second half, two of the five bulbs were out, so I decided to take up a position between the two dugouts, where I found the lighting to be most satisfactory.

Danny Lambert, voted Man of the Match by the players and supporters on the coach

Matty Taylor

A good second half performance meant we were able to keep the high flying Farsley to one goal, and returned home with a much needed point.

I usually make my own way home: having worked with the camera all afternoon, I like to relax with some quiet refreshment. As my ticket was valid both ways, I decided to return via Bradford. I arrived at about 5.45 to find the city centre deserted - the shops still close at 5.30, and on Sundays, and people do not hang around in the evening. This has advantages: it is easy to find a seat in a pub; 24 hour binge drinking seems unknown; and you can get to your chosen establishment (in this case the Sparrow Bier Café - Yorkshire is getting very continental these days) without dodging groups of lairy youths and scantily dressed young ladies falling off their heels.

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

A day in the sun

A busy bank holiday weekend saw Prescot Cables' first trip of the season over the Pennines, to newly promoted Farsley AFC, last season's champions of the Northern Counties East League. Farsley AFC was founded following Farsley Celtic's going into administration.

I always enjoy a trip to this area, as it includes travelling through Calderdale, great scenery from the train, and always a good place to stop on the way for walking and pubs.

There was bright sunshine for most of the match (unlike back home, where Prescot's tenants, AFC Liverpool, had to postpone their game due to heavy rain). The most obvious effect of this is plenty of light for fast shutter speeds, with all my exposures being between 1/1000 and 1/2000s, apertures of f/5.6, f/6.3, and even a couple at f/7.1, at ISO 400.

Bright sunlight does, however, give problems with shadows. Farsley's pitch is oriented south-west / north-east, so for an afternoon game, the sun sits behind one goal. If, like me, you like to watch the game from the end your team are attacking, the best direction of play will be the opposite of that for the team - the players are more likely to be dazzled attacking into the sun, whereas taking pictures of the players with the sun behind them means more work to eliminate shadows.

Take this example, with Cables' Liam Pearson. Here is how the picture, cropped, but otherwise as it came off the camera. By this time, I had moved from behind the goal: even with a hood, the sun was too strong.

Here is the same picture after lightening shadows in Photoshop Elements.

Of course, the shadows can make a good effect in themselves, such as in this shot of Cables' Fraser Ablett, in front of the dark of the dugout.

In the second half, it became much easier for me, with everything front lit, I hardly needed to touch the lighting, just crop and publish, as in this shot of Cables' Kevin Townson.

Unfortunately, whilst Prescot had held level with Farsley with the sun and the breeze behind them in the first half, Farsley dominated the second half, with the final score 4-2 to Farsley. The slide show from the game can be seen here.