Steam pipe trunk distribution venue

The day before Prescot Cables' game at Witton Albion, the hosts, with commendable accuracy, explained that the pitch was playable, but heavy rain was forecast overnight, so an inspection was scheduled for the morning. Lighter than expected rain meant this was not required.

The club's name comes from Witton cum Twanbrooks, one of Northwich's constituent villages, after which the parish church, St Helen Witton, is also named. I decided the most comfortable travel option was by train via Chester. It was raining heavily when I changed trains, and I anticipated a late postponement, although the rain was lighter in Northwich. The walk to the ground was along a new road built on a former railway alignment. Running alongside were some large bore pipes with warnings about high pressure steam, and visual evidence leaking from one. I am not sure whether they only carry steam, as I thought a factory that needed it would generate it on site.

I was concerned I might have made a wasted journey, as a number of players who would normally be starting but for injury emerged from the bar just as I arrived. However, the pristine playing surface drained well, and a few ground volunteers were energetically forking to make sure. There is a stand along one side and some covered standing on the other three. It was clear the floodlights, in a corner arrangement, would be needed from an early stage. I took up position opposite the stand.

Rob Doran opened the scoring after 30 minutes. I was not in the best position to capture the goal ...

... but I captured his celebrating with his normal unflappable match day demeanour.

The lead did not last long, with Jamie Menagh, formerly of this parish, scoring four minutes later.

Jamie Menagh chases Connor Grainger

The rain continued to fall throughout the half. I attempted to get an impression of the rain in the pictures, but I think I removed quite a bit with over enthusiastic noise reduction, which removes grain, but can also remove anything that resembles it. The pitch was draining well, aided by a comprehensive replacement of divots at half time.

For the start of the second half, I went behind the goal we were attacking, and was rewarded by capturing a first goal for the club from Joe Nicholson.

Joe Nicholson shoots for goal ...

... and watches it go in

Shortly afterwards, I moved back to the side. At this time of year, there is a point when the floodlights go from assisting with natural daylight to taking over the primary illumination. I had not given this much thought before managing my own white balance - I was only concerned with illuminance. Colour balance is expressed in temperature units: high temperatures for blue light, and low for red. This feels counter intuitive: as the afternoon gets darker and colder, the light gets bluer, so its "temperature" goes up. Once the floodlights take over, the temperature falls to the red end of the spectrum, in a clear discontinuity, one frame needs balancing for shade, then a few frames later it is for fluorescent light. There is not, however, much difference in the processed output.

George Mannion in cloudy light

Marcus Burgess with the floodlights dominant

We held on for a good win, our form at home starting to show on the road. Witton have struggled more than we expected at the beginning of the season, but this was a demonstration that we can perform when missing some first choice players. Our latest recruits from the Youth Team, Andy Scarisbrick and Connor Grainger, continue to impress, with the latter adjudged by a poster on the Witton forum to have caused their defence problems all afternoon.

Andy Scarisbrick

Having visited Witton's new ground, I bought a sandwich on my way to the train at (as I did not realise until later) their old one, Sainsbury's on the site of the Central Ground being a successful example of a club working with the retail sector to develop new facilities.

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

Final score: Witton Albion 1 Prescot Cables 2 (Doran, Joe Nicholson).

Stationary

Bus timetables almost always allow the bus the same time to complete a route regardless of the time of day. There seems little consensus amongst companies, or drivers, on how to address when light traffic means the bus is ahead of time. Some set out late and have you standing at the start of the route; some race along and arrive early leaving prospective passengers at intermediate stops; others take extended pauses at every timetable point. My 10A to Prescot Cables' home game against Witton Albion took the third option, which meant we were passed by at least three buses taking one of the first two approaches. In the event, I might have preferred the bus to have stayed put for the evening.

Jack Cookson

To manage expectations, I thought this game would be likely to prove fruitless, barring a stellar performance on our part. Witton were narrowly relegated last season, and appear to have recruited well over the summer.

A club in our position can still be building a team in the first few weeks of the season, due to players becoming available from higher placed clubs, and to holiday commitments. In an ideal world, everyone would be away when there is no football, but particularly where people are tied to school holidays, players who have been training in pre season become unavailable for a few competitive games. At least three or four likely first choices were missing for this game.

I took up position, unusually for me, in front of the stand, so I could continue my conversation with Dr Jon. We thought the visitors shorts were a bit close in colour to our own, but agreed this was the least important part of the kit to avoid a clash.

Phil Bannister

Witton's shirts had a plain panel on the back, too make the numbers easier to read; however, this was negated by black numbers, which come out better in the photos than with the naked eye.

Joe Evans

As a result, I was alongside our own half.

Witton looked likely to stop us scoring, whereas we looked in danger at the back. Jonah O'Reilly was doing a reasonable job in defence, but had to go off injured after 18 minutes.

Jonah O'Reilly

With the visitors 3-0 ahead at half time, the second half would be about damage limitation, and we were none too successful, with Witton adding three more to their total. This was undoubtedly a poor performance, with some first choice players absent, and the team unable to perform as a unit, The result will not be good for morale, there is nothing like getting those first few points on the board, the priority now is to make sure it is a one off at the start of the season rather than anything worse.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Witton Albion 6.