It was nice weather, but I was still under it

"I would not mind if I had been doing anything", I greeted the assembled Train Crew, as I arrived feeling and, I am reliably informed, looking green around the gills. I had eaten something that disagreed with me, and started to feel unwell on the train to Warrington. Going to the game with the pharmacologists is not as much help as you might think, they conduct complex research at the cutting edge of medical science, but have long since forgotten how to knock up an effective remedy from commonly available ingredients.

As the bus service is limited on a Bank Holiday, I checked with Mr Google and his Maps how long it takes to walk from the town centre to Warrington Town (just over half an hour). That would be easier to find out if the address on the location tab of the website were that of the ground, rather than a PO Box at the sorting office. As I was not feeling up to the walk, I was glad there were enough of us to make a taxi worthwhile.

I had hardly taken up position when we went behind - the first proper picture I took was of Phil Bannister taking the kick off.

Phil Bannister

I did not feel up to staying behind the goal for very long. Fortunately, there is a nice shady stand on the side opposite the clubhouse, with seats providing a good low vantage point. I took up position alongside James McCulloch's father, who was looking after water supplies for our side of the pitch.

James McCulloch

End of season games can be an opportunity to try out promising players from the youth team, giving them experience of the first team with a view to assessing them more closely in pre season. I remember first seeing Steven Tames on a wet Tuesday at Skelmersdale and Connor McCarthy in rather better weather in Mossley. Taking his chance in a challenging game was Danny Brooks, who was probably expecting to come on as a second half substitute, but found himself stepping up when Lloyd Balazs was injured after about 10 minutes.

Lloyd Balazs

Danny Brooks

Prescot's goals were supplied by Rob Doran, making the scores level early in the second half, and again after Ben Wharton had again put Warrington ahead.

Rob Doran

Another young player making a substitute appearance was Dan Lowton, who has kept goal in previous games, but was making his first appearance in an outfield position.

Dan Lowton

We finally succumbed to a goal in the 90th minute - one the striker could not repeat if he tried, a shot from a tight angle into the top corner. There was a time when we fell to goals in the last few minutes with depressing regularity: a couple of seasons ago I calculated around Christmas that we would have had about 8 points more if games had been played over 80 minutes rather than 90. That has really improved under Dave Powell: I had to look up when we were last level going in to the last 10 minutes, and went on to lose - the answer was at Mossley in November.

Not that Shaun Reid looked any happier.

Get mobile phone and internet - from EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

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

As for the upset stomach, I finally got rid of it with some kaolin and calcium carbonate tablets, i,e, clay and chalk - so basically flavoured mud, then.

Final score: Warrington Town 3, Prescot Cables 2 (Doran 2).

More mud than last week's rugby

I have detailed before how planning to watch a game at this time of year involves almost constant monitoring of the weather. For Prescot Cables' visit from Mossley at the weekend, the rain on Friday night and Saturday morning (for the fifth week in a row) was less heavy than forecast, so the pitch passed an inspection at 10.30. Showers at lunchtime were lighter than expected, so everything was looking good when I arrived in Prescot a few minutes before kick off.

However, in the time it took me to get off the bus, buy a paper and go to the ground, the heavy rain forecast for 3 - 6pm well and truly arrived. The game got under way, with the pitch looking as though it had benefited from a rest, with only two AFC Liverpool games and none of ours on it during January.

There were a few changes since we last played a month ago. Rob Doran made a welcome return to the starting lineup, having returned from injury with a substitute appearance on New Year's Day.

A couple of familiar faces from previous seasons joined us on loan - Richie Mottram in goal, on loan from Runcorn Linnets ...

... and Danny Jarrett in defence, on loan from Rhyl.

I am not sure how easily that works: Danny will have needed international clearance (confirmation from the FA under whose jurisdiction the player has most recently played that he is not suspended) when he joined us, and will need it before he can play for Rhyl again. With half of the population of Wales living within 25 miles of England, and a similar number of people living in the same distance of Wales, the level of movement probably makes it it quite efficient. The same is not the case for true international moves, we had to wait a couple of weeks before Pavel Pinto-Vieira could play for us after playing in Portugal.

The rain continued steadily for the whole of the half.

Jordan Shirley & James McCulloch

It is difficult for players to judge a tackle in these conditions, the slightest misjudgement could give away a free kick in an advantageous position, but hesitation can allow the bold attacker to get past. Mossley's Lewis Nightingale took advantage of the difficulty to get past a number of our players (Mossley's website said at least six, which is a bit of an exaggeration) and supply the ball to Tom Pratt for the only goal of the game.

I had taken up position under the cover at the Hope Street end, from where I could watch a pool of standing water by the corner flag increasing in size. Keith was busy with the fork and the broom at half time to clear the water.

The referee made a further inspection at the end of half time, and decided to proceed. Whilst it meant Keith's efforts were not in vain, I am not sure about the wisdom of the decision: although it had stopped raining briefly, the pitch was by now soft. The home team has an advantage in this situation, there will often be a spare kit available, allowing the players to change in to dry kit at half time.

Lloyd Balazs

We used a kit from a couple of seasons ago that had to be replaced as it was too heavy, the players were becoming overheated, particularly on a warm day. As this was anything but a warm day, it seemed a good occasion to use it. I wondered how reflective it would be in the middle of the winter: despite the cloud having lifted for a while, I found my exposures were not as good as with the current kit.

I took up position behind the goal at the Safari Park End, but soon scuttled back under the stand when it started raining again. Everyone was liberally covered in mud by the end.

Phil Bannister

I have to hand it to the players of both sides for giving us a competitive match  in difficult conditions, but completing the game will have made the pitch more prone to waterlogging for the next few weeks. Fortunately the weather was kinder than usual up to Christmas, so we do not currently have a large fixture backlog.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Mossley 1.

Rwy'n hoffi bod ar lan y môr

... Google Translate for "I do like to be beside the seaside". This Saturday saw an eagerly awaited pre season game for Prescot Cables away to Rhyl.

James McCulloch

Rhyl has been a popular resort for those in the Liverpool area, although, like many seaside towns, it has seen better days. With demand for a day out making it viable, there was a coach, which gives newer players chance to get to know some of the supporters. For the Train Crew, there was also a good turnout. There is an assumption about the town's clientèle, I got a funny look from the chap in the combined shop and ticket office at Moorfields station when I bought a copy of the Guardian and a day return to Rhyl.

With Richie, our leader in beer and pub choices, arriving on a later train, and therefore unable to keep us on the right path, we found the first pub out of the station, a cheap and cheerful establishment with friendly service, but not a product range that would trouble the editors of the Good Beer Guide.

Rhyl will play this season in the Welsh Premier League, so this was an unusual away game for us, we would more usually travel to a side in the Huws Gray Cymru Alliance, which Rhyl won last season. Rhyl hosted Champions League football as recently as 2009, losing to FK Partizan of Belgrade, which explained the UEFA flag.

I was less sure about the flag the pre-1282 kingdom of Gwynedd, which is used by the National Assembly of Wales, and is the basis of the personal standard of the Prince of Wales (which has a coronet in the middle). I am not sure if this is also an unofficial flag of north Wales.

The ground has a capacity of 3000 with 1720 seats. I have no difficulty with the figure for seats, but I am not sure where that leaves for 1280 people to stand: most of the space was either in front of seats or in what seemed to be passageways. There was also a small standing area outside the bar, to which the Train Crew naturally gravitated.

This appeared to be the only area outside where drinking was permitted, although even this will cease in the regular season, as the Welsh Premier League is covered by the legislation prohibiting drinking in sight of the pitch.

The conditions were excellent for photography, with the pitch perimeter fence being the right height to support my arms and camera. The sun was slightly hazy, allowing good shutter speeds without casting deep shadows, and the stands were quite low, so there were few shadows on the pitch. It was also a well fought game, with plenty of the competition for the ball that we need for good photos.

In many ways, North Wales has more links with North West England than with South Wales, and there is regular movement of players between the countries. One such is Chris Rimmer, who played the first half of last season for us. When he joined us from St Helens Town, he had a tendency to lose concentration and drift out of position, but playing alongside Ged Murphy helped to address that, and he looks like he will be a good addition to the Welsh Premier next year.

Chris Rimmer chases Isaac Kusoloka, but cannot prevent him shooting for goal

At half time, I was talking to one of our party attending his first Cables game, who had thought about bringing his camera (a Canon apparently, but you cannot have everything). He enjoyed his day, so I encouraged him to take some pictures when he comes again. In the meantime, he coped with my vibrating vibration reduction unit, and got me a picture of our first half goalkeeper in the half time warm up.

Lee Novak. Photo by Sam Auty, crop by me.

The second half saw many substitutions by both managers. I am not sure who is taking the corner here, watched by the rather lugubrious linesman. Note that the match officials have radio communication.

After the game, pub choices seemed to be dictated by the simple expedient of going in the next one we came to, not my usual method, but as good as any in something of a real ale desert, and it made for an enjoyable evening.

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

The possum is flying

The motto of Garforth Town, who Prescot Cables were visiting at the weekend is "Possum si volo". I tapped this in to Google Translate, which assumed the phrase was Italian, and came up with our airborne marsupial. Trying Latin, it offered me "'Appen I can if I want to", which seemed more likely. Indeed, "'appen" was not actually offered, but this is Yorkshire.

This is not a trip to make in the rain - the ground is a little over a mile from the station, on a route that bypasses the town centre, with no pubs en route, and the only shops being a sandwich shop that had just closed, and a chip shop that was not yet open. The main feature of the ground is the main stand, of impressive height, although I doubt the effectiveness of the cover on a windy day, the design seems to offer the opportunity to get wet from front and behind. This is the only cover, and the fence was the regulation minimum 6', so little shelter there. Fortunately, the forecast showers only arrived after the game, so this was not put to the test.

The main stand

A trip to Yorkshire is not complete without sampling the local beer, so a group of us went by train to Leeds, and adjourned to the excellent Hop (which could nonetheless have done with a couple more staff), owned by the Ossett Brewery, just yards from the southern entrance of Leeds Station. Unfortunately the southern entrance to Leeds Station is not due to be built until 2014, necessitating a longer walk.

The Transpennine posse - photo by Garforth's gate steward

It was a scrappy game, and a poor Prescot performance, which is never easy to photograph. The purpose of the photos is to showcase our players, which is not so easy when the opposition are winning the ball in most of the challenges.

In the first half, Prescot had a shot inches wide and another that hit  the crossbar, but it was a day of defensive errors, opening up opportunities for the smallest player on the pitch, Garforth's David Brown, who featured in these pages causing us problems visiting Hope Street with Harrogate Railway Athletic.

Garforth's David Brown and Prescot's Gerard Kinsella, watched by Harry Boydell, David Williams and Dennis Bellairs

Here Cables' Gerard Kinsella is holding David Brown at bay, although the main figure of interest is the gentleman with the white hair watching play. Harry Boydell is, as far as we know, Prescot's oldest former player, having appeared for the team in the 1940s and 1950s. Harry celebrated his 83rd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and continues to serve the club in the role of Boardroom Host. With him are Matchday Announcer David Williams, who recalls watching Harry when he first came to Hope Street as a boy, and Board Member Dennis Bellairs, who also takes photos for the club, and when capturing the action has a rather better eye for goal than I possess.

The mood of the travelling support was depressed further when Liam Hollett was carried off injured towards the end of the game.

Manager Shaun Reid watches Liam Hollett take a free kick

The rest of the pictures from the game are available here.