After last weekend’s semi-final victory over Salford, Halifax Town duly beat Chorley 2-1 (after extra time) to get promoted back to the fifth tier of English professional football. 7,920 people were there to see it, an amazing crowd for the level of football (and a record for the National League North apparently). Sam Johnson, Halifax keeper, here clears a flare off the pitch. I’m telling you it was all happening at The Shay this afternoon….
A benign one I can assure you. FC Halifax Town fans express their feelings about the scoring of the winning penalty in the shoot out in the (take a deep breath) National League North Play-off Semi-Final 2nd leg at home to Salford City (whose players really should practice penalties more). Second trip to the Shay stadium this season, after New Year’s Day, and there’ll probably be another one next Saturday seeing as we might as well go to the play-off final now they’ve made it.
In my own way I am a collector, mainly of places, and this football season have made more of an effort to get around some of the nooks and crannies of the game around England and (once) Scotland. Today saw a visit to King’s Lynn Town FC of the Evo-Stik Premier League, the seventh tier of English football. The thirteenth game of my season sees its seventh different competition, which is a decent return, though one I can better next year with some effort. The thing worth noticing about English football is just how deep down it goes. 554 people came along today to this game: in almost any other country this level of the game would hardly exist. I like this shot of the home fans behind the goal their team were attacking in the first half — after half-time they go to the other end. The last game of their season ended well for King’s Lynn as they beat Chesham 3-1.
Molineux is the stadium of Wolverhampton Wanderers who became the latest side that the mighty Brighton & Hove Albion batted aside on their way to the Championship title this season. Well, OK… promotion at least. We’re not there yet but we could be, as early as Monday. I have given up trying to take decent action shots of games, which is impossible a) from the crowd b) with an everyday camera and c) when you care about the result. So here is one taken just before things got started with the 5pm kick off (thank you, Sky Sports). Of course it would be better if all the lines were straight, but as with other elements of sports photography — it really doesn’t help if you’re confined to one particular seat all evening.
Jamie Murphy has just scored the second goal for Brighton & Hove Albion against Reading at the Amex stadium, and you could say we’re all rather happy about it. 3-0 final score — bring on Newcastle…
Evening game at the John Smith’s stadium, Huddersfield — but let’s not talk about it past this point. Suffice to say that only here, when the teams were coming out, did we Brighton fans feel particularly optimistic.
A lack of cheap hotel rooms in the centre of London led to us staying last night in Stratford, on the doorstep of Olympic Park, venue for the 2012 Games. We went on a walk round there this morning. This counts as East rather than Central London, but is more than urban enough and, as is obvious from this picture, sees the occasional football fan now and again (though not this weekend).
When I first saw this cormorant perched on a post beside the unseen River Lea below, I genuinely thought it was a fake, put there as some vaguely cute piece of urban design when all this was built a few years ago. Then it moved. I wish I could have got a better photo of it — I had another one, a close-up, which made the wings look amazing but the head was out of focus and it didn’t locate it in this bizarre geographical context. I guess if birds like this can turn up in central London we may occasionally be doing something right with the environment.
With nothing else much to do while Clare was on her course today I took myself on the latest stop on my recent tour of obscure football stadia and took in a game from the Essex Senior League, Clapton v Barking. Clapton are notable for having a big ‘Ultra’ fan group, but they are a club with a history, having been founded in 1878 and still playing at the same ground they always have done, the marvellously named Old Spotted Dog stadium. The result — Clapton (here in red, white and black) 4, Barking 2. Better than my lot managed today anyway.
I’ve given up trying to get any truly decent action shots at football matches, I can never do it. With this one I was trying for symmetry and to capture that mother-of-pearl sky. Decent day out today — except for the result. Well, I guess our unbeaten run had to come to an end at some point.
Watching a game in the sixth tier of English football — the National League North — might seem an unusual way to see in 2017, but Joe, me and 2,509 other people decided it was worth doing today; numbers which help explain the strength of the sport in this country. Halifax Town 2, Darlington 2 was the final score, a good game, quite exciting, though from listening to the home fans around Joe and I you’d think it had been a disaster of Iceland v England proportions. I worry that this shot is a bit messy, but I like the crescent moon visible to top left, so let’s give it a go. I prefer it to most pictures I get at football matches, anyway, even if it is slightly out-of-focus.
Being 42 