The coach crew

Our planned trip to Prescot Cables' game away at Lancaster City was disrupted by engineering works, with replacement bus services between Preston and Lancaster. There were still a lot of trains north from Lancaster, with Virgin in particular trapping at least two 11 coach Pendolinos (or Pendolini?) where they will be lucky to carry 100 people per trip, leaving people from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham to squeeze into the 9 coach version. For those who like trains, the Giant Axe is a good location from which to spot them.

There's one

A few of us who would normally travel by train decided on this occasion to use the team coach. This takes away some flexibility, but once we had arrived, the town centre was a short, if steep, walk away (1 in 11, as we have been discussing gradients), so we adjourned to the Sun, a Lancaster Brewery house also offering a range of guest beers, with the choice of a tankard or straight glass.

This game would be a challenge: Lancaster are strong at home, and this was our first competitive game for three weeks. This has been a problem ever since I have been attending a majority of games rather than about a third - regardless of the manager or players, we struggle after a layoff. We tried a friendly game against AFC Liverpool in midweek, so it remained to be seen if it had helped.

We were playing with intermittent sun behind us in the first half, so I considered my best position over a portion of chips and rather decent curry sauce from the tea bar (food before photos, you know it makes sense). The cloud was mostly covering the sun by the time I started snapping in earnest, so I took up position behind the goal we were attacking.

James McCulloch

Taking photographs, you are concentrating on a small area of detail, and miss some of the wider aspects. One thing that does not escape you is which end of the pitch the action is taking place. We had a few good runs into Lancaster's half, which I captured...

James Edgar

... but we were spending most of the time in our own. It was a mark of the hosts' success keeping us contained that, when a player hit the corner flag in frustration after about 20 minutes, it stayed hit for the rest of the half.

Actually, it stayed that way until some time into the second half when Lancaster took a corner, which backs up a few grumbles about the observation skills of the match officials.

Back in the Cold War, at a United States Presidential Inauguration, you could tell when noon, the prescribed time for the transfer of power, arrived, because a gentleman of military bearing, carrying a small briefcase and sitting behind the outgoing President, got up and sat behind the new President. That briefcase contained the nuclear codes: I am not sure what was in the one substitute Sam Corlett fetched from the dressing room.

Sam controls Prescot's independent nuclear deterrent

This blog observes the occurrence of Natural Light Day, the first game of the year we are able to complete without floodlights. Technically, the game I watched last week was under natural light, but a 2.15 kick off and 80 minutes' play meant the rest of the day was my own an hour and a half before the sun went down - this was the first with conventional football timings. Ben Greenop was playing his first game for us in daylight.

Ben Greenop

With 10 minutes to go, my travelling companions decided to draw stumps (excuse the mixed sporting metaphor). I remained at my post, not least as I try to get everyone in the photos, and I knew I did not have anything of Mark McLaughlin, who has been on loan at, I think, Widnes, since the Senior Cup game, and came on as a late substitute.

Mark McLaughlin

Duty done, it was back over the hill (a location some may say I have been in for some time) to rejoin my travelling companions in The Pub (the name of the establishment, not a generic description).

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

Final score; Lancaster City 3 Prescot Cables 0.

New Mills, old hills

I was unusually gung-ho this weekend about the prospects of Prescot Cables' game away at New Mills going ahead: with not much rain having fallen during the week, I had no inkling there would be a pitch inspection shortly before midday, by which time I was on a train climbing towards the Derbyshire hills.

I decided to make the best of the scenery, so I got off at Strines, and walked to a pub I had found on the CAMRA WhatPub site, the Fox Inn in the hamlet of Brookbottom.

The Fox Inn - 50 yards outside Greater Manchester

The entry suggests the pub is close to a railway station, which is true, it is about half a mile, although one needs a modicum of fitness to make the trip, up a steep bridleway. Once inside its foot thick walls, I enjoyed an immaculately kept pint of Robinsons' Dizzy Blonde, in what I might also describe as immaculately kept surroundings. I may have been sitting in one of the regulars' seats, as an elderly couple came in, and the gentleman was casting rather confused looks in my direction until his wife chose a table.

Had the weather been less pleasant, I would have stayed for a while, but I decided exercise was in order, and walked to the Pack Horse, a mile away up and down another hill, then on to the ground, another mile or so, involving descending to the level of the River Sett, and up another hill. I was glad to reach the town and its pavements: whilst I am used to walking country roads, I am used to a hedge in which to shelter from any passing cars that get a bit close, whereas dry stone walls look a bit less yielding.

I arrived five minutes before the scheduled kick off to find warming up still in progress. The match referee had not been happy with some areas of the pitch, and was minded to call the game off, but was prepared to accept sand being spread on the affected areas. Unfortunately, there was no sand on the premises, and a trip to the nearest builders' merchants in this part of the world is not as quick as you might at first think. Still, at least I got pictures of Manager Dave Powell and Assistant Manager Carl Furlong taking training.

Dave Powell

Carl Furlong

The original date for this fixture was the first of January's postponements. Quite a few of our Train Crew planned to travel on that occasion, but our numbers were depleted this time by some of our regulars jetting off on foreign holidays, and some taking the train to what might be a foreign holiday next season - in Scotland.

Not that we were short of supporters who travel on the coach or by car.

Dave, Cliff, Ken and Peter keep a close watch on Dave Dempsey

Players move between clubs all the time, so it is no surprise to encounter former players in the opposition line up. Mike Smith moved to New Mills earlier in the season, and was as energetic, and appeared as much in the frame, as he did when playing for us.

Connor McCarthy gets away from Mike Smith

With so few games over the last few weeks, we have not experienced the gradual extension of daylight, instead jumping from a dark second half to full daylight in a couple of jumps. Even with the delay for purchasing sand (kick off eventually occurring at 3.25), there was a decent amount of daylight right to the end.

The floodlights were on on one side for the first half, and both sides for the second. As is often the case, this gave some pictures a blue cast, which in the more extreme cases I tried to remove, you can judge for yourself how natural the end result looks.

Robert Gilroy - colour not adjusted

Phil Bannister - colour adjusted

We were disappointed not to come away with the first away win of the season, although, when we had not been able to score downhill in the first half, I thought we might find it even more difficult to do so uphill in the second. Still, all points are useful, and we kept a clean sheet and therefore avoided a defeat that would have improved the hosts' position at our expense.

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

Final score: New Mills 0 Prescot Cables 0

Natural Light Day

Around this time, there occurs an event which always brings a sense of cheer - the first football game of the year (3pm kick off) to be completed without the floodlights. We can call it Natural Light Day. Never mind there will probably be a couple more dark afternoons, and evening games to come, proof is here that the days are getting longer. It is good for the club too, they do not need to add a couple of hundred pounds to the electricity bill.

Natural Light Day this year saw Prescot Cables' first game for four weeks, hosting Bamber Bridge, who have also switched to amateur status. Shortly after the last game at Durham City, Cables' new manager Shaun Reid took up his duties, so this was his first opportunity to see his new team in a competitive game.

The Management - Lee Smith, Shaun Reid and Tony Carroll

Lee Smith has been appointed as Assistant Manager, matching Shaun's UEFA A licence with Lee's experience of the local game as a player, including 181 appearances for Prescot. I think Dave Ridler's coaching was an attraction for players, and helped the club retain players through the switch to amateur status, so I hope similar professional level coaching will be an attractive option for good local players.

In a game in bright winter light, Prescot went ahead early in the first half with a goal from Ashley Ruane, who has been looking promising for some time, but just missing the net. So the score looked like staying, until the last 10 minutes struck again (our league position would be better if games were played over 80 minutes), with Bamber Bridge equalising with a penalty, then going ahead. The game was still not over, with Ashley Ruane equalising with a second goal.

I have started to supply some pictures for the Merseymart, a supplement to the Liverpool Echo, about which I will say more in the next post. From this game, I sent 4 pictures. There was this one, that I thought was the best action shot.

John Couch tangles with his marker

This one shows Ashley Ruane shooting for his second goal - one that would normally miss the final cut, as Michael Grogan in the background is in slightly better focus than Ashley, but a goal is a goal.

Ashley Ruane shoots for goal number 2

Then there were a couple of images to build up their stock library, so they can illustrate a mention of a player in a match report.

Jack Booth

Joe Gibiliru

Readers in Prescot will know which one they used, but I will be talking more about that in the next post.

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