Let it snow

As I walked from the tram to Droylsden's ground for Prescot Cables fixture, I spotted a notice on the wall of the neighbouring King's Head, announcing it as Joseph Holt's best wet pub last year. I am confused as to what this entails, as I thought all the brewery's pubs serve alcoholic refreshments and are wet in that sense, and their houses are generally well maintained and not springing a leak.

The weather forecast predicted snow showers with a strong wind. When I arrived, it was bright and sunny but, as the players went in from warming up, the first snow shower arrived. The tunnel steward kindly told me where I could obtain free tea and coffee. Everything and everyone had a light dusting.

I had some trouble stopping the wind blowing my polyethylene seat pad away before I had chance to sit on it, and this was not the weather to sit on cold ground, especially as there was a shallow drainage ditch in front of the perimeter fence. I realised this was going to be particularly cold day when I started to lose sensation in my fingers after about 10 minutes. I had sorted myself out in time to catch Chris Almond opening the scoring in bright sunshine.

Chris Almond shoots for goal

It then started to snow. A still photograph cannot show the sideways nature of it.

Valter Fernandes

The sun was soon back out.

Ben Barnes

An own goal just before the end of the half made the scores level. I spent half time with my hands in my pockets (not just an in joke, but a description of how I was staving off frostbite).

I have never seen someone brushing the snow off the lines before.

The weather kept me moving. Keeping warm was an incidental benefit, but the sun was from the south, so from behind the goal I was looking in to it, and the wind was from the east, so by the side it was blowing on to the front of the lens. Naturally, there came a point when it was doing both.

Jordan Wynne prepares for a free kick

Some on the stand side attributed the next goal to James McCulloch, and the hosts reported it to the league website as an own goal. However, those behind the goal, who had the best view immediately started chanting for Harry Cain, who retained a coating of snow on his head.

Celebrating Harry Cain's goal

Josh Klein-Davies had less clement weather to make the result secure a couple of minutes from time.

Josh Klein-Davies gets past Richie Branagan

After the game I retired to the King's Head, which appeared, in the light of its award, to be weather tight. I had intended to go straight home, but it is always enjoyable to stay around for a while after a win, and more to the point I wanted the toilet, and literally had to spend 15 minutes in the warm before I had enough feeling to grip my clothing.

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

Final score: Droylsden 1 Prescot Cables 3 (Almond, Cain, Klein-Davies).

New Boots and Panties

The rain at Prescot Cables' game at home to Clitheroe last week rather tested my clothing. I still had to visit a waterproof trouser shop, and I also found my boots, after several years service, had sprung a leak. I went shopping during the week ready for our FA Trophy home game to Stalybridge Celtic.

I need not have worried, as the weather turned out to be fairly uneventful with only a few spots of rain. However it was quite windy, and the trousers sold themselves, with justification, as windproof too.

This turned out to be a fairly defensive game that can be a bit difficult to photograph and write about. We started playing, as usual when we win the toss, towards the Safari Park End so I divided my time between the two sides of the goal. We came close to scoring, hitting the post, and a solid defence kept the visitors at bay.

Louis Coyne, Man of the Match

I always keep an eye out for the sponsors - they are paying to be seen after all - and with the North West Roadshow banner back in place at the end they have sponsored, I took the opportunity of the better conditions this week to crop a few pictures to get it in.

Josef Faux

This was the last game before the clocks go back, and the pitch had a decidedly autumnal covering from the trees at the back of the ground.

Jordan Southworth prepares to take a corner

The second half started with a good save from Marcus Burgess denying the visitors, and our finding the woodwork again.

Low light started to push the ISO settings up.

Jordan Wynne

James Sloane made his first appearance from the bench.

James Sloane

One of the substitutes for the visitors came from famous footballing roots - Jake Charles is the grandson of the great Welsh international player John Charles.

Jake Charles

Neither side was able to break the stalemate, making for our first 0-0 draw of the season.

After this game there were presentations, with Louis Coyne being the Man of the Match, Harry Cain picking up a delayed Player of the Month award for September after a bit of a mix up closing the poll, and James McCulloch collecting his award for 300 appearances.

Harry Cain

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 0 Stalybridge Celtic 0

It's Saturday, it must be Yorkshire

Prescot Cables' game at Farsley Celtic was our third visit of the month to Yorkshire, and another experiment in seeing how late I could leave home and get to the game. I arrived in plenty of time with the assistance of some nifty footwork to catch an unadvertised connection at Manchester Victoria. My footwork may one day not need to be so nifty if they fix the 10mph "temporary" speed restriction on the approach to the station from Liverpool, which has been there since two departments of British Rail could not agree who was responsible for paying to rectify it in 1987.

Walking down a side street on the way to the ground, I passed houses with the northern feature of the front looking exactly like the back, some having front doors opening to one street, and the back to another (a proper street, not an alley*). I would have said I was walking past fronts, were it not for the washing lines across the street just above head height. It was as well it was not a drying day, or I would have been navigating past the residents' thermals. On arrival, I fortified myself with a hot pork pie with peas and gravy, which, given the wind, I had to eat quickly to stop it becoming a cold pork pie (pleasant enough) with cold peas and gravy (not pleasant at all).

When we kicked off, I was alongside our own half, so I moved at a leisurely pace behind our goal and down the open side. We continued the experiment of having Chris Almond and James Edgar at full back. There was also a start for Josef Faux.

Josef Faux

The hosts had the wind behind them for the first half, and they looked intent on making the most of it, so we did well to only be a goal behind at half time.

We thought we might not make the most of the wind in the second half when Farsley scored a few minutes in. However, a couple of minutes later, Dominic Marie beat the keeper with a shot from the corner of the penalty area. At this point it had started to rain, so I had moved to the side of the pitch to keep it behind me, so I was in just the wrong place for a decent picture. I recommend, however, watching the video here, it is well worth it!

Dominic Marie

You can see at the end of the clip that we were keen to retrieve the ball for a quick restart, knowing our best hope for a result was to keep up the tempo, use the wind, and allow the hosts as little time on the ball as they allowed us. The wind was the one constant part of the weather, the rest was changeable, never raining heavily, but enough to blow drizzle on the front of the lens, interspersed with the sun breaking through the clouds.

Lloyd Dean

I read a film review once which described the lighting, "as if the only time the director had to speak to the lighting engineer was to utter three words, 'smoky blue grey'". The hosts' colour dominates the visual environment, and their chairman's cigar provides the smoke.

Harry Cain

The second half saw a decent performance against a team nine points behind Lancaster City at the top of the table with three games in hand, but it was not enough for more than one goal, despite hitting the post two or three times in the last five minutes.

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

Final score: Farsley Celtic 2 Prescot Cables 1 (Marie)

* or an entry, ginnel, twitten, back passage etc.

Nice cigar, but no try

Prescot Cables planned to make a special occasion of the game at home to Warrington Town, with local Mayors and the Member of Parliament being invited. Unfortunately, whilst the week had been reasonably dry, it rained overnight on Friday, and by Saturday morning the pitch was no longer playable. With most football in Liverpool being postponed, I decided to head for Birkenhead Park. The opposition of the day was Wirral RUFC, from a couple of miles down the road, so they could take a late decision on whether to play. A slippery pitch in football can lead to broken ankles, whereas rugby players are likely to end up flat on their faces in the mud, which is in many ways the idea. Standing water is, however, a problem for everyone.

At the time I needed to leave home, the game was still on, so I bought a ticket. Some refer to Merseytravel's Walrus card as "Oyster style", presumably meaning it is small and plastic. The essential component of Oyster is pay-as-you-go, whereas Walrus is pay-before-you-go, so you need the day planned before you first use public transport, and changes are either wasteful or expensive.

No sooner had I got on the bus, I found the game was postponed. However, Waterloo (one less zone on the Walrus) were still playing. This was against Sheffield, so if there was an announcement, it would have been made by then, although it was still raining heavily. I presented £10 at the turnstiles, and was pleasantly surprised to receive a programme and £7 in return.

I took a position on the terrace side, where there were pools of water: the pitch looked soft but playable. Waterloo were playing into a stiff breeze, with low cloud, and, with the floodlights being under repair, it was fortunate both sides' kit included some white

That did not last long, particularly for the forwards. although some of the backs tend to stay standing for longer.

Soon, mud was starting to merge with facial furniture.

For the second half, the hosts took advantage of being at home, and changed into dry kit, of a colour to do no favours to my exposures.

The referee also changed into something drier, although he was more visible.

This was a low scoring game, more rare in rugby of either code than a few years ago. Better pitches and rule changes have reduced the incidence of matches with pushing and shoving in the mud for 80 minutes finishing 3-0. This was not quite such a game, but the scores came from a penalty apiece in each half. I only attend three or four games a season, but I think this is the  first I have been to where both sides stayed in single figures, and the first where neither side scored a try.

As for the cigar, I was not actually going to attempt to smoke one (the last time I did was when you could do so indoors), it was far to wet for one to stay alight.

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

Final score: Firwood Waterloo 6 Sheffield 6

A visit from the leaders

Before Prescot Cables' game against Northwich Victoria it had rained heavily during the week, but been dry on Friday. Our Chairman was in correspondence on Twitter on Saturday morning with the visitors, advising that the pitch was playable, but its continuing to be so would depend on the weather. A referee was on standby to inspect, although it was not forecast to rain until around 1:30. It arrived a little later than anticipated, when I was at the bus stop following reports on Messenger from the club bar, local public houses and from those stuck with shopping, whilst trying to grasp why so many buses disappeared into thin air on travel apps (they have not invented one whose predictions cope with a sudden traffic jam).

Arriving at the ground a few minutes late, I was surprised to see the places that normally accumulate standing water had drained reasonably well. Low cloud as well as the rain meant lighting conditions were poor, with floodlights required from the outset.

Marcus Burgess was unwell so we saw Ben Morrow return to action for Cables.

Ben Morrow

Andy Paxton's policy is not to have a goalkeeper on the bench, which seems a sensible use of resources, as you rarely replace a goalkeeper unless he is injured or sent off. Ben has been at Widnes - for a young goalkeeper, being on loan a division below and gaining for first team experience is probably more productive than watching from the bench.

I took up position on the gasworks side, quickly realising this was not such a bright idea. After some time of my rain cover flapping in the "breeze", I joined everyone else taking shelter under the stand, which also provided some shelter from the wind. I am still working on a balance between showing rain in a picture and a decent amount of noise reduction.

Danny Flood

I was able to emerge again after a few minutes, to find some water in the goalmouth, but with the pitch otherwise bearing up. I have to admit to losing track of when in the weather related proceedings the visitors scored their first goal (the record says 20 minutes, which suggests in the downpour), but they scored again a minute from time in the first half.

James McCulloch & George Mannion

The second half was drier, so I just had the wind to contend with. We had the chance to score when Rob Doran was fouled just inside the penalty area, but put the resultant kick over the bar. I do not think it made any difference to the outcome: whilst we had a good performance, Northwich are top of the table for a reason, and we did not look like denting their armour.

James Edgar

With the poor lighting conditions, I had a limited range of pictures that came out at print quality. Although the Echo no longer produce the Merseymart supplement, so the shape is not as important as it was, landscape format is still better for their website, where they report on the club most weeks. I try to keep the player libraries at the Echo and TheNonLeague magazine up to date, which is not helped when the most suitable images are of exactly the same four players I sent in from the last game.

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

Final score: Prescot Cables 0 Northwich Victoria 2.

Goals with the wind

The geek in me thought of getting the electric train to Manchester on my way to Prescot Cables' game away at Mossley, but the timetable told me the connections were at the wrong time. As there was a limited turnout from the usual suspects, and Mossley is not packed with tourist attractions, I thought I would make a contribution to club funds by going on the team coach.

Having consulted whatpub.com, I adjourned on arrival to the Fleece, a down to earth establishment a couple of minutes' walk from the ground, where I was joined by Luke and his father Peter, who have relatives involved at the club. Whatpub mentioned that real ale was relatively new to the Fleece, and Peter said it had a reputation in the past for being rough, so the landlord may be using the tried and tested method of using real ale to create a better environment. I could have sworn I saw him puffing on a pipe, which puzzled me: it is illegal to burn anything in it indoors, and, whilst electronic cigarettes are popular, I have never heard of the process in a pipe.

The Met Office app was predicting cloud, down from overcast in the previous day's forecast. but if I had known how good the weather would turn out, I would have got an early train and gone for a walk before the game.

Our timing getting to the ground was perfect, but the referee was ahead of himself, so the game was under way when we got there. There was a fairly strong wind blowing towards the Yorkshire end, and we were playing in to it. I took up position sheltered by the cover at the Lancashire end. Incidentally, I am not aware of anyone else using these descriptions, I devised them from a traditional county map. We started well with a goal from Sam Corlett after 12 minutes.

Sam Corlett sets off for goal

We have encountered the white wall at the Yorkshire end before. Previously this has been in summer time, the difference in the position of the sun from still observing GMT made it less troublesome with the action taking place right in front of it...

Ben Morrow makes a save

,,, and in the middle of the pitch.

Jonah O'Reilly takes a free kick

However, the stand and the trees behind it cast an irregular shadow, which gave a problem with backlighting, as here with Andy Harper. Here is the picture as it came off the camera.

We need to crop the picture and use the selection tool to enable us to lighten the player separately.

Finally we have the finished result.

The Cheshire side (another of my geographical descriptions) provides an easy background with which to work, especially with our players in red.

Oscar Durnin

At half time I had some rather decent chips from the tea bar. Luke also recommended the pies. When someone mentions a pie, I think of my favourites, steak and kidney or pork. I therefore failed to compute Luke's next comment, that the cheese and onion was particularly good, and replied that I was off red meat for Lent (red in this case meaning anything that once had four legs).

The wind played a part in at least one of the hosts' two goals in the first half, but it was dropping in the second. I took up position near the corner flag, having to stay in the shade to avoid being dazzled, so I was cooled by what was left of the wind. A surprising number of people stayed in the cold on the stand side, although some had the good sense to watch in the sunshine.

Tommy and Bob watch Liam Dodd

Although the situation looked retrievable at half time, there was a more scrappy display from both teams in the second half, with Mossley securing a third goal.

After the game I thought we were leaving at 6pm, so went back to the Fleece, only to find myself summoned back to the coach when everyone else was ready to leave 20 minutes earlier. At least I did not need to worry about train connections or trundling slowly through Manchester. Going home from Prescot, there was one success of the day: after several attempts, I got my phone to work with the Wi-Fi on the bright shiny new buses they have put on the 10A.

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

Final score: Mossley 3 Prescot Cables 1 (Corlett)

Changeable weather

There was a relaxed air amongst our pharmacologists for Prescot Cables' game away to Salford City: theses had been submitted, vivas booked and new jobs started. James and Jon joined me for the train to Manchester, with Luke joining us there. There is a lack of pubs near the ground, so we could have gone anywhere in Manchester, but we honoured Salford's city status, by visiting the excellent New Oxford, next to the former Salford Town Hall. The company developing the Town Hall for flats describe it as an idyllic location, but I would not go that far.

Our party ready for the game - photo by Richie Brown

The pub is a few minutes' walk from the stop for buses to Moor Lane. The first to come was the 93, so it was handy to have Luke, who caught the 93 to college about 10 years ago, with us to reassure the driver of our local connection.

We arrived as the game was starting, with the team's transport having successfully avoided emus in the Warrington area (the last telling of the collision with the pheasant in October had escalated to a swan, so I thought I would up the ante further). I did not see any of Salford's owners, and assumed they had punditry commitments for Manchester United's game at Swansea, although I subsequently learned Paul Scholes and Phil Neville were watching the game from the Moor Lane side.

The sun was shining, and we were attacking the car park end, so I took up position in the corner where I would be looking across the sun rather than into it.

Danny Flood

It  was a first appearance for James Jenkins, on loan from Accrington Stanley.

James Jenkins

The weather changed a few minutes later, with a sleet shower. This was all very well for photographic effects...

... but I have been continuing my practice of not attaching a filter to the lens except to avoid getting water on the front. This is fine when I know it is going to rain, but, not expecting a shower, I found myself cleaning the lens somewhat gingerly to avoid scratching it.

There was a comment after the game that we treated the hosts with too much respect in the first half, a fair assessment, with the half time score standing at 4-0.

The sun was back before half time, so for the second half, when we were playing into the sun, the lighting conditions were perfect. Looking at the photos, you might think it was a summer day, although the wind demonstrated it definitely was not.

Oscar Durnin

Our play seemed better too: whilst we conceded two more goals, we seemed more coordinated, and took away the hosts' clean sheet with a penalty from Jack Phillips.

Jack Phillips takes a penalty

We saw the return of Liam Hollett (he had also played at Ossett Town in midweek) wearing number 6, with James McCulloch at 4, a combination we are used to seeing the other way round.

Liam Hollett

James McCulloch

After the game, we needed some more refreshment, and I needed to thaw my fingers, so we adjourned to the Northern Quarter (or It's Grim up North Manchester), where even door staff had hipster beards. It was handy for the station, to allow married or soon to be married members of the party to head home at an appropriate hour. After this, Luke recommended the Angel, with an excellent beer range, good (if a little pricey) food, and Farmer Jim's Dry Cider, which Luke declared to be delicious. The pump clip featured a drawing of the eponymous farmer with a pig that looked as though it would be equally delicious cooked in the product.

When we finally left for our train, Luke was sceptical about the estimate from Mr Google's Maps that Piccadilly Station was 20 minutes' walk away, airily indicating, "It's just down there on the left". He was right about the time, but the maps had the advantage on the direction, as we actually needed to turn right, going left would have led us to Oldham.

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

Final score: Salford City 6, Prescot Cables 1 (Phillips pen)

Handy for the railway

Travel to Prescot Cables' game at Burscough on New Year's Day was almost as complicated as Boxing Day, with a limited bus service, Merseyrail operating a Sunday service, and Northern operating a weekday service, apart from local routes in the north east.

The combination allowed us to travel to Burscough Junction, a shorter journey than Burscough Bridge, but a longer walk at the end. My friend Luke observed that the station and the village seemed some distance apart: I replied, not entirely facetiously, that the station was built to be handy for the railway. There are many places where a town or village is some distance from its station, with a story that it was because residents did not want the railway - almost all are incorrect, and easily explained by a map showing that the railway follows the most logical route. The line from Ormskirk to Preston, built mainly for express services, follows a straight line across flat and open land, and has stations where it happens to pass near a settlement.

Team captain James McCulloch gave us a cheery wave as he drove past.

James McCulloch

The players need to be at the ground an hour and a half before the game to change, warm up, hear the manager's team talk etc. The supporters can be more relaxed, so we adjourned to the Hop Vine, which has a dress code - "No urban sportswear please". I was wearing a Cornwall rugby union shirt, but had no trouble being served, so my sportswear was presumably sufficiently rural.

Burscough's current club was founded in 1946. The infeasibly narrow turnstiles may have been erected at the same time: with spectators kept thin by wartime rationing, the builders could hardly have imagined just how large people would become in later years.

We had a couple of not-quite-new faces - Daniel Flood, who had played in the previous two games ...

Daniel Flood

... and Andy Harper, a product of our youth team, making his first competitive start, having been on the bench in the previous game.

Andy Harper

Ciaran Gibson was back in goal, which made my life easier, his playing style and confident demeanour makes him easier to capture than many goalkeepers.

Ciaran Gibson

The Met Office had predicted heavy rain for about 4pm, which would have been the second half had the game not kicked off early because of storm damage to the floodlights. In the event the damage appeared to have been repaired, as the lights were turned on for most of the game, but, having brought the game forward, it was sensible to stick to the rearranged time.

The rain fell quite heavily with a side wind in the first half, when we were attacking the Mart Lane end, which does not have any cover. The rain cover for the camera was blowing about, and at one point I ended up with it over my head in the manner of the user of a large format camera. I was happy with the performance of Mr Barbour's wax topping up the coating of my jacket, and with the rain effects on the photos.

James Edgar

The scores remained level until about 5 minutes into the second half, when Jack Phillips was brought down for a penalty, converted by Neil Prince. We had our best chance for the elusive second goal a few minutes later when Neil took a free kick on the edge of the area, which hit the upright - a knot or two less wind and it would probably have gone in.

Neil Prince

The hosts equalised 10 minutes from the end, but stout defence ensured we still went away with a point.

After the game, it was back to the Hop Vine to discuss important matters, namely trying to persuade Luke that his family home in Radcliffe is in historic Lancashire, of which the southern boundary is the River Mersey. He was not convinced, even by Lancashire playing cricket at Old Trafford (even if not doing so might mean less games when a winning position is lost due to rain). Things are different elsewhere, despite London having had administration across historic boundaries since 1888, the cricket followers at Dulwich Hamlet have no difficulty knowing whether they are from Surrey's broad sunlit uplands or Kent's Slough of Despond.

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

Final score: Burscough 1, Prescot Cables 1 (Prince pen)