Hopping into the sunset

From what I could gather, before Prescot Cables scheduled game against Lancaster City at the weekend, an early pitch inspection found standing water, with the referee allowing the volunteers time to see if they could get it to drain. Unfortunately, whilst they were successful, like Noah found when the ark came to rest, only the surface of the ground was dry, and the pitch was too soft to play. A delay in the referee arriving for the second inspection meant that we only knew at 12.45, which would have left the visitors tight for time if the game had gone ahead.

A game off means an opportunity to hop, but the rain and the time meant other options were limited. Marine were at home to Stafford Rangers, which I could not describe as a hop, as I must have been there getting on for 50 times over the years. Their sandy bedrock and well drained topsoil meant it was one of the few local games to survive, and no inspection was required.

To find the best combination of buses to the ground I tried the new version of the Arriva Bus app, to find that the journey planner still needs some work. The first attempt, starting at "current location" told me the journey was not possible (it is, by about five combinations) and the second, starting at my nearest stop, suggested going half way to town, crossing the road and taking two buses to 50 yards from where I started. Traveline, fortunately, proved more helpful.

The visitors were playing in orange - there was a time when it was a good colour for an away strip as it did not clash with anything, and the league thought along similar lines when they chose the colour for the substitutes' bibs.

The shorts and socks were more unusual. Undershorts are supposed to match shorts, but I am not sure if they are available in grey, so common sense probably prevailed in allowing black.

The visitors' goal was under pressure from the start.

I did not capture it, but Marine scored what turned out to be the only goal after five minutes.

The clouds cleared as the game progressed, with the coastal sunshine allowing for excellent shutter speeds even at the opposite end of the pitch.

1/1600s f/6.3 ISO400 300mm

Half time presented the opportunity to be arty.

The sun was now low in the sky, and, having had the full advantage of its being behind me in the first half, I was now looking directly into it.

Having checked the time of sunset, I knew the sun would drop behind the houses in Crosender Road after about ten minutes.

Two substitutes would be familiar to Prescot Cables supporters. Sean Myler has been with the club for some time ...

... and Michael Grogan (of the 95th minute equaliser in the Liverpool Senior Cup semi final at Tranmere Rovers in 2012) had been mentioned in that morning's transfer list.

With the assistance of the floodlights, I was able to maintain fast shutter speeds to the end, at least when the action was immediately in front of me.

1/500s f/4.8 ISO3200 135mm

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

Final score: Marine 1 Stafford Rangers 0

Stepping on our blue suede shoes

There was reason for optimism ahead of Prescot Cables' game against Clitheroe. Our last game was a morale boosting win against Padiham, and Clitheroe's league position suggested that this could be winnable. There was also the club Christmas party in the evening, with an Elvis tribute act. Ah, hang on, not that Elvis.

Both sides had been affected by the weather: the visitors last played 21 days previously, and we had to wait 14 days. Many supporters were unsure whether this game would go ahead, as it had been raining heavily until the small hours of the morning. On arrival, we could see the benefits of having the ground to ourselves: we can postpone Reserve games to avoid damage to the pitch, whereas for AFC Liverpool the referee only considered whether it was playable on the day, not the medium term good of the surface.

The day was reasonably bright, and the evenings had been getting lighter for a week or so. I have observed this before, but did not know the reason. However, the BBC have published a handy explanation.

We started well enough, with some decent attacks and Mason Ryan having a shot saved. However, the visitors started to get into the game after about a quarter of an hour, and were rewarded with two goals in quick succession just before half time. This was not irretrievable, and there was an increase in tempo early in the second half when Sam Corlett and new signing Oscar Durnin came on.

Oscar Durnin

It was not to last, Clitheroe's third goal starting the collapse, with three more being added in the next 15 minutes or so. Even a late penalty brought no relief when Rob Doran hit the crossbar and one of our players was adjudged to be offside in the resulting scramble for the rebound.

In a one sided game it can be difficult to get usable pictures, the collection this week was smaller than the 60 I usually aim for. It was not easy finding some for the Merseymart either. I send four: they need to be the right shape for the space, and I make sure they are of different players - without that restriction I could have provided a complete set featuring Jack Phillips.

Jack Phillips

Rob Doran

Daniel Whitehall

James McCulloch

I found the four above, only to realise in the newsagent's on Tuesday that they do not do a Merseymart in Christmas week.

I did not make it to the party in the end, not shifting from the pub after the game. I saw a couple of pictures, and it looked well attended. I first heard of Elvis when he died, but it looked as though people for whom he was the background to their formative years like to turn out for a tribute act. The moment of the day for me came when a gentleman came round the pub selling clothes of what may have been suspect provenance. Our friend Tony responded with a completely straight face and asked, "Have you got any lawnmowers?".

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0, Clitheroe 6

The foothills of Mount Radcliffe

I may displease the Radcliffe Tourist Board if I suggest rains a lot when I visit their town. This time, however, it was a sunny evening, affording an excellent view from the 98 bus to the hills above Bury. On arrival at Radcliffe Borough, the sun was shining directly down the pitch, making my interests and the team's diverge, with mine served by our playing uphill with the sun in our faces. The position of the home team's photographer suggested they prefer to play downhill in the first half, as he was facing the sun at the bottom of the hill. If the home side always play one way if they win the toss, you will be probably in the right place three quarters of the time. As it was, we played downhill, and the sun disappears behind a tree after 10 minutes, leaving it a bit cold for August. There is a large area of white paint around the perimeter, which makes shots very backlit, but we can easily deal with that.

Mark McLaughlin takes a corner

Radcliffe have abandoned a traditional programme in favour of a monthly magazine, although I did not see anyone selling it. I did not need a team sheet for our own players, as I recognised all of them. This is rare enough in the middle of the season, the squad is always being augmented. As for the second game of the season...

Player Assistant Manager Neil Black

For the home side, there was a familiar face - Danny Lambert, late of this parish, at left back, a position I do not recall his playing for us.

Danny Lambert

The light was still good for most of the first half, although we could have done with the lights a few minutes before half time, and sunset, when they were turned on. We did not take advantage of the slope, going in 2-0 down.

Although I remember the floodlights have three pylons per side, with three heads per pylon, two heads on each pylon point uphill. This gives good light in my position just uphill from the dugouts.

Danny Graham

You might think this would leave one end less lit than the other, but this seemed not to be the case, as we get good lighting in our goal.

Ciaran Gibson

Prescot's goal came with a Russian linesman moment, with a shot from Sam Corlett hitting the crossbar and bouncing downwards, the referee initially allowing play to continue for a few seconds before consulting his assistant.

Sam Corlett

The goal elicited a reaction from the somewhat pessimistic home supporters behind me, "I told you we would need a third to make it safe". Unfortunately, that is what they did, sealing our first (and at the time of writing only) defeat of the season so far.

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

Final score: Radcliffe Borough 3, Prescot Cables 1 (Corlett)

The edge of the world - or at least the county

When the fixture list comes out, there are games that jump out for those of us who travel independently. One such was this weekend's game away to Padiham - some distance away; somewhere most of us do not have cause to visit (I last took the train east of Blackburn to a FA Cup game at Great Harwood Town 20 years ago); a new ground; and some Good Beer Guide pubs on the way.

A couple of our Pharmacologists made late cancellations. Phil had forgotten he had a holiday booked, so had to eschew the Bridge Bier Huis, a Belgian style establishment in Burnley, for beers actually available in Belgium, whilst Jon succumbed to food poisoning, or was attending a wedding, I never worked out which.

As we were leaving the Bier Huis, an elderly gentleman at the next table wished us well and reminisced about games between our clubs in the Lancashire Combination.

Padiham's neat, compact ground is just a couple of hundred yards back from the main road, although quite tucked away, as we were to find. Although there is a bus about every 10 minutes, there were seven of us, so a minibus taxi was about the same price per head. Sat nav has not yet reached Burnley's taxis, so, following an attempt at direction with "follow that bus" just as it pulled in to a stop, we used Mr Google's maps on my phone. This worked until the little blue arrow decided to stop moving just before the crucial junction - fortunately someone spotted a sign.

Once inside, we were soon under way with a goal from Isaac Kusoloka. I got a couple of pictures, which Isaac put into a montage.

Montage and effects by Isaac Kusoloka, photos by me

No food or drink was lost in a nonetheless enthusiastic celebration.

The British Geological Society's online viewer shows maps of the rock under your feet at 1:50,000 scale, more detail than the 1:625,000 scale maps on our classroom walls at school. Padiham, like Prescot, sits on bands of sandstone alternating with the mudstone of the Pennine coal measures. Unlike Hope Street, the Arbories Memorial Ground is fortunate to be on well draining sandstone. The pitch was therefore in good condition despite the recent wet weather.

Rob Doran performs on the well drained pitch

Padiham drew level after half an hour, then Phil Bannister pulled us ahead again about 10 minutes into the second half. It was a good day for photography, the first day of the year I have been able to let the sports mode on the camera take care of shutter speeds without having to make sure it does not go too low, so I was pleased to get a picture of this goal too.

Phil Bannister shoots for goal

There was intermittent sun throughout the game. With one end of the ground facing south west, the sun was near the horizon by the end, so I moved to the side of the pitch.

Mike Kennedy

Our poor away form continued with Padiham scoring a second equaliser. We have not won away in the League all season, our position being maintained by our form at home, where we have sprung a couple of surprises on visitors expecting an easy win. However, we once again avoided defeat, so we maintained our position relative to Padiham, below us in the table.

Although the Merseymart carried pictures, they did not include a report, even of the basic facts from the League website, so I got three quarters of the back page - whatever the captions may suggest, the picture of AFC Liverpool manager Paul Moore is not one of mine.

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

Final score: Padiham 2 Prescot Cables 2 (Kusoloka, Bannister)

The shortest daylight

Prescot Cables' game at home to Curzon Ashton the weekend before last was the one for which we have the shortest amount of natural daylight. I am not sure why, but although the day with the shortest time between sunrise and sunset is 21st December, the sunset starts to get later from about the 14th, and the sunrise does not start to get earlier until the beginning of January. I thought it might be something to do with longitude, but it happens on the Greenwich Meridian too.

At this time of year, the cloud makes as much difference to the lighting as the sunset, a bright day can probably be worth about half an hour's extra natural light, and this was anything but a bright day.

Isaac Kusoloka

We cannot see very well from the pictures, but Curzon Ashton's kit was a particularly unreflective shade of blue - it looks a lot brighter with lighting enhanced in the final images, but I suspect it had some effect on the exposures. The floodlights were turned on about 20 minutes into the game.

The game saw a return to action for Dave Dempsey.

Dave Dempsey

Dave was participating in Movember, and unlike many participants looks like he has decided to retain a hirsute appearance: I am surprised more people do not, it has after all the advantage of keeping your face warm. Not that the weather has been particularly cold so far this season, I would have expected to have had at least a couple of matches postponed due to frozen pitches by this stage. The rain also seems to have fallen in manageable quantities, we have only had one game postponed, and that was an unexpected pre match downpour at Ramsbottom.

The first half ended with Curzon Ashton 2-1 ahead with our goal having come from Isaac Kusoloka. With the lighting indistinguishable from an evening game for the second half, we drew level again with a goal from Phil Bannister.

Phil Bannister shoots for goal

When you are busily engaged in looking at details, you can easily lose sight of the bigger picture, and with a strong wind making the running and passing that make for good pictures difficult, the goal somehow did not fully register, and I was thinking we were still a goal behind, and when Curzon Ashton went a goal ahead I thought they had put the game out of reach, whereas our team were putting in a superb effort to try and gain another goal.

The game also saw a welcome return from injury by Connor McCarthy, who came on as a second half substitute.

Curzon Ashton goalkeeper David Carnell gathers from Connor McCarthy

After the game, it was off to drop my kit off at home and then in to town for the Cables Train Crew Christmas Dinner. Naturally there was only one way to get there ... er ... by bus.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Kusoloka, Bannister) Curzon Ashton 3

Not an entirely happy return

Players moving clubs is common at all levels of the game, probably more so at our level than amongst full time professionals with their contracts, transfer fees and transfer windows. So, former players often return to play for the opposition. Some go into management at other clubs, such as Simon Garner, recently appointed manager of Prescot Cables' visitors, Clitheroe.

I was away for the game earlier in the month at Clitheroe, where we lost 3-1. The scorer of our goal on that occasion, Connor McCarthy was injured for this match, as were James McCulloch and Dave Dempsey, with Antony Shinks also absent through illness. So, prospects were not good on paper, but our home form has been considerably better than our away form this season.

At least, I thought, as I caught the bus, the sun will make for good exposures in the first half. This was not to be, as a lot of high cloud had appeared by the time I got to the ground. I arrived a couple of minutes late to find us also a goal down. With those who would normally take the captain's duties unavailable, the task fell to Enzo Benn.

Enzo Benn

The visitors had the most of the play in the first half.

That's my Lottery numbers chosen - numbers on the front of shirts make sense in so many ways

Clitheroe went in two ahead at half time, after which the sides came out to the high cloud producing a fine sunset, much reproduced on Prescot Online and other local websites during the evening.

A half time substitution, bringing on Isaac Kusoloka for Sean Breen seemed to improve matters, as he was able to disturb the Clitheroe defence, which we had not really been able to do in the first half.

Isaac Kusoloka (no 16)

Isaac posted this picture on his Facebook page: a comment from one of his friends indicated I was not the only one who thought his gloves (so far there has not been anything in the Laws of the Game relating to what part of the kit their colour must match, but it can only be a matter of time) made it look as though he was jumping with his hands in his shorts.

This effort was saved, but Ged Murphy opened the scoring shortly afterwards.

Ged Murphy (no 4) scores our first goal

Isaac added the  equaliser a couple of minutes later, sealing a performance that earned him the Man of the Match award, and ensuring Clitheroe's returning manager took a point from his visit. The only snag for me was that I did not have a print quality picture of Isaac from the game to send to the Merseymart - there is a certain amount of pot luck involved in what you get from the second half at this time of year.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 2 (Murphy, Kusoloka) Clitheroe 2

If the rain doesn't get you, the bus washer will

The Boxing Day fixture is a long standing part of the football programme. For those of a non sporting persuasion, the Boxing Day sales take a similar part in the calendar. That is, at least, for those with their own transport. Public transport remains patchy, with no trains, and buses depending on your location. London has a full service, other cities vary, and anywhere else has none. Liverpool had a Sunday service on most routes, between about 10am and 7pm. The information from Merseytravel was not as helpful as it might have been, with the booklet only giving times at the start and end of the routes, and only some routes uploaded to the Traveline database, leaving times at intermediate stopping points something of a lottery.

This year, Prescot Cables were playing away to Cammell Laird, on a bus route that was running, next to the Crosville (now First, soon to be Stagecoach) garage in Rock Ferry.

St Peter's Church, opposite the ground

A small but select group of independently travelling supporters made our way to the game, via Gallaghers Pub and Barbers in Birkenhead, something of a favourite for us when we visit the Wirral. Unfortunately, the barber's side was closed, as I could have done with a trim, but the range available from the pub side provided more than adequate compensation.

Cammell Laird seem to illustrate that a club with a profitable social club and small attendances will often do better than one with larger attendances and a lack of social facilities. We arrived at the well appointed Lairds Social Club expecting the game to be off, as it had been raining heavily for a couple of hours, not to mention for a few days beforehand. Looking out of the window, the bowling green looked in pristine condition, which had me wondering whether it is possible to play bowls in the rain. It might be better not to do so if the former World Champion David Bryant CBE is playing, as the rain would extinguish his trademark pipe.

Joining us in the bar was former Cables manager Dave Ridler, on holiday from his job with the Liverpool International Football Academy in Cairo. I assume he joined the 38 people who fitted themselves into the ground, the lowest attendance in the Division so far this season. At least there was plenty of room when the rain meant that everyone, apart from our intrepid musical section (Rod and Richard) made use of the available cover.

Fortunately, the covered standing is by the side of the pitch, at the end Prescot were attacking, so I had a good view of our attacks on goal.

Marlin Piana is denied by the goalkeeper

Our first goal was scored by Carl Furlong, in his first appearance for the club.

Carl Furlong

I did not capture the goal, the closest I came to it was Anthony Shinks crossing in, but the angle meant we would not recognise him without a team sheet. I captured him later, in a shot that sums up conditions in the first half.

Anthony Shinks

Despite the rain, I was happy with the light: sunset a few minutes later makes all the difference. The earliest sunset of the year was for the Radcliffe game a couple of weeks ago. In these latitudes, sunset starts to get later 7-10 days before the shortest day, and sunrise only starts getting earlier 7-10 days after it, although the latter point does not concern us for football.

Dave Owens, also making his Cables debut

The rain eased off for the second half, so I took up a position away from the cover. With 3 floodlight pylons on each side, the best position is about a quarter of the way along the pitch. This is level with the bus washer in the garage, so one usually gets a good spraying as buses return to the garage. Fortunately, on the Bank Holiday, they must have decided the buses had not accumulated enough mileage to need washing, or First decided to sell them dirt and all, so I stayed dry.

I did not capture Prescot's second goal either, a minute into the half, on the "pies before pictures" principle, and as it was a cold wet day, not just a pie, but the last of the soup as well. Marlin Piana, who showed promise on his debut at Radcliffe a couple of weeks ago, fulfilled it with his first goal for Cables. At least I was in the ground to see it, a fair proportion of the crowd were still on their way back from drying off in the social club across the road. With the score at 2-1, it looked like a promising afternoon, and still did even when Cammell Laird equalised again. However, when they went ahead, as Dave Powell explained after the game, we seemed to throw caution to the winds to get a goal back, allowing them to put the game out of reach.

I am not sure if Cammell Laird have improved their floodlights since my last visit. I always thought theirs to be one of the darker grounds, but I was happy with the results to the end of the game. The pylons and heads looked the same, but it is quite possible they have had new bulbs.

Joe Fielding, pictured towards the end of the game

After the game it was back to Gallaghers to squeeze in a pint, about all there was time for before the end of the bus service. As for the haircut, I had that at a Turkish barbers in Liverpool: they even flambée your ears for you!

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