Man of the match - eventually

For Prescot Cables' game at home to Brighouse Town, we were joined by Dr Phil, continuing to recruit to the Cables interest, and his friends from Edinburgh, Drs Benny, Tammy and Victoria (at least I think they are all PhDs). Benny had a full day of sport, having risen early to watch the Australian Rules Premiership semi final, where his West Coast Eagles lost 19.11 - 9.4 (I have no idea what that means either, but it sounds grim). He was looking to Cables to redeem the day: not generally a course of action I recommend. Checking the AFL website, I noticed a team nicknamed the Pies, but was disappointed this was short for Magpies, rather than a celebration of pastry encased comestibles.

My photographic day started with some of the players at Poco Coffee, sponsors of the player of the month award and official suppliers to yours truly when the tea bar cannot cut it. As we shot at the outside seats, an elderly couple at a window table looked as though they were thoroughly enjoying photobombing.

We played the first half towards the Safari Park End.

Lloyd Dean

Whilst we had chances, even the photographer with the flimsiest grasp of tactics (that would be me) will notice when most of the play is in your own half. Only a bit more than a third of the collection came from the first half.

There was welcome news at half time, when Danny Flood reported he was back on both feet. I took the chance to get his squad photo.

Danny Flood

Things picked up in the second half, with lots of pace on the wings from Tunde Owolabi and Harry Cain.

Tunde Owolabi

Harry was rewarded with a goal on the hour. When I told him later that I had not got a picture as there were other players in the way, he replied that it was not a particularly good one anyway. That may be the case, but there are no points for style, any goal will do. In any event, I got something.

That is Harry Cain's foot, honest

Although I like the way everyone is looking as the ball goes in, being able to identify the scorer is a requirement for the collection. However, I caught the celebration.

Our Australian visitors (Drs Benny and Tammy) were represented on the field when Joey Faux joined the fray.

Joey Faux

When you have your own banner, it is always good to get a shot with it in the background.

Andy Scarisbrick

Dogs are a regular part of the non league game - there are those who keep a close eye on the action when their human is playing.

Marcus Burgess under observation

We were able to keep some late pressure at bay to secure all three points.

Valter Fernandes applauds the crowd

We had an excellent performance from both wings, but consensus emerged that Harry Cain had earned the man of the match award by virtue of his winning goal. So far, so good, but there was less consensus on who would do the presentation, with my being advised there would not be one. The alternative view prevailed after I had gone that as Harry had won it, it was only fair to present it, which I found out when I was safely settled on the premises of our sponsor, the Sun Inn.

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 1 (Cain) Brighouse Town 0

No ticket required

Prescot Cables' game for the penultimate weekend of the season was away to Warrington Town. This would normally be easy to attend, but, with the hosts likely to win the Division, they were anticipating a capacity crowd, and made the game all ticket. I thought that was a bit over the top, but that they would easily double their average home gate. I was unsure, due to other commitments, whether I would be able to attend. I was not prepared to buy a ticket I might not use, so it changed a 50-50 chance of attending into definitely not.

Finding myself free after all, I looked for a game somewhere I do not regularly go. Within the travelling time available, the most attractive option was Atherton Collieries, entertaining West Didsbury & Chorlton, third versus fourth in the North West Counties League. I last visited the club with Prescot Cables on the final day of the 2002-3 season.

If there is a more eerily quiet place at 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon than Atherton town centre, I have yet to find it. It was not just that there were few people about (the smoking ban at least means a couple of people outside pubs, on my last visit the place was completely deserted), there was hardly any traffic either. It was only near the ground that there seemed to be any activity.

The ground was much as I remembered it, apart from the tea bar being to the side rather than behind the goal, where it had been perfectly placed for a "tea bar massacre" (when a stray ball goes through the hatch, one hopes without any more serious consequences than some scattered stock).

The pitch has a significant slope, which I also remembered from 2003. In the first half of that game, the hosts had a penalty, which their taker would have placed perfectly if the ground between the spot and goal had been flat. As it was, it went six inches over the bar. In the second half, our taker had been observing carefully, as he put the kick we were awarded into the roof of the net to secure the North West Counties League title.

I took up position towards the bottom of the slope, so the visitors were attacking towards me.

I finished my pie before giving pictures my full and undivided attention - if I apply the maxim of food before photos for our games, I will certainly do so visiting the neighbours. The lighting conditions were close to ideal, with bright, but not glaring, light, allowing plenty of frames with shutter speeds at 1/1600 or 1/2000s, and very little processing required.

There are usually a couple of throw ins in a collection, they are easy to capture, but you wonder how some positions are physically possible.

I approached the game as a neutral observer, but I got more frames in the second half, when Atherton were playing towards me, so they got the balance of the final collection. There was intermittent cloud cover, so shutter speeds dropped in many cases to 1/1000s.

I do not look out for our canine chums, but I often snap one if I see one. I generally find them fine looking creatures, although I am not that confident around them, being more of a cat person.

After the game, I adjourned to the Jolly Nailors, advertised in the programme, for a quick pint before my train. I am not sure if the locals I encountered at the bar were nailors (they either make nails, or maintain the teeth in a carding machine), but they seemed jolly enough as they knocked on the bar and called out "service" to attract the barman's attention.

Back in Warrington, there was a pay gate after all, which I found out on the way to Atherton. I did not miss much, with the champions putting six past Prescot with one in reply (I am told that was a superb Rob Doran free kick). The declared attendance, i.e. the number of people who paid, not necessarily the number who actually used their tickets, was 1411, more than I expected, but substantially less than capacity.

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

Final score: Atherton Collieries 2 West Didsbury & Chorlton 0.

All a bit quiet

At Prescot Cables' game against Ossett Town, Rod, our drummer, was unusually quiet. His Vicar was on holiday, so Rod was looking after his dog, and left his instruments at home. This can be an occupational hazard of going to church, although it is unlikely to fall to me. Our Vicar has a cat, who does not accompany anyone to football, and who looks at me with the disdain that can only be mustered by a cat determined to remember my accidentally treading on his tail 18 months ago.

Rod's Vicar's dog - I'm sure his collar should be white

We were joined at the game by friends and family of Dermot Allister, a long standing club volunteer who died recently. Dermot will be remembered at the club for many years to come for the murals he organised, the tiger visible from the top of Hope Street, and the 1884 mural unveiled last month.

Whilst we have been sure of league safety for a few weeks, we have for some time met teams who have a greater need for points, and coming off second best from the encounter. The visitors were no exception, in a struggle with Harrogate Railway Athletic, against whom we suffered a defeat earlier in the week, to avoid the remaining relegation place.

I started the game in front of the tea bar,

Charlie Duke

and then worked my way round behind our own goal and along the Gasworks Side,

Shane Glean

to behind the goal we were attacking.

Phil Bannister

The visitors had the balance of play, so I made my way back to the side, where I stayed for most of the game. One goal in the first half, and two in the second, secured the result for Ossett, the last being from David Brown who has featured in these pages on many of our encounters with Yorkshire.

David Brown

A positive aspect of our season is that we do not stop looking for goals, and we secured a late consolation from Oliver Grundy, his first for the club since joining us the transfer deadline day last month.

Oliver Grundy

After the game, I had another duty, photographing the presentation for the Player of the Month for March, won by Lloyd Dean.

We did not quite get the presentation in before the Grand National, so I found myself watching it, which I never make a conscious effort to do. Despite growing up near a racecourse (or perhaps because of it, having the village person's natural suspicion of all things connected with the village next door), I have never followed horse racing. Steve Garnett, our Commercial Manager, likes to get a picture of the presentation on the website as soon as he can, so I tried using the camera's WiFi and the Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility to process the picture whilst still out supporting a pitchside advertiser.

Bram Johnstone playing against Burscough

Steve was happy with the result, but I found that, having loaded it from the camera as a jpeg, then cropped it on the phone's photo editor, the quality was borderline acceptable for the size at which it displays on the website. However, every time you save a jpeg file, including uploading to many websites, it loses more information, so it was looking decidedly pixellated when it made it to Twitter.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen on the club website here, and on Google Photos here.

Final score: Ossett Town 3 Prescot Cables 1 (Grundy)