Paulton Rovers v Winchester City

The entrance sign at Paulton Rovers FC. So now we know where we are, we can start the story...

It's not a competition. I repeat - it's definitely not a competition, and there is no winner, but every weekend, amateur and semi-pro photographers all over the country go out and try to take the ultimate football picture. We go to the match, we click away, then eagerly check the screens on the back of our digital cameras looking for this week's finest photos (we know when we've got a good 'un! Like a fisherman reeling in the biggest trout of the day, there's a frisson when we first see our best pics...). We download our pictures to our PCs or laptops, delete the out of focus ones, or the pictures where the linesman ran in front of the lens at just the wrong moment, do a bit of cropping and brightening, then upload our favourite photos to our preferred internet platform and wait for the Likes to roll in...

We just want our labours to be loved.

The structure photo. Players giving foreground interest.

Details:
Paulton Rovers FC (1) 1 v 0 (0) Winchester City FC
Emirates FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
Saturday 2nd September 2017
Attendance: 129
Admission: £9
Programme: £2
Colours: Claret / claret / white v Blue and black stripes / blue / blue
National Grid reference: ST6556

Landscape for context. Tiny players. Spoil heap covered with trees...small gap top right!

You can classify football photos in to different groups. An interesting match photo album will have some pictures from each group.

If you're going to create a satisfying album, you want to tell a story, so we tend to start a photo-story with a sign. It will literally set the scene by showing the viewer where we are that day. Is there a match board? A road sign pointing to the ground? A big board outside the entrance with club name and badge? There's one of the latter at Paulton Rovers, so that's the title of this week's story sorted.

We enter the ground. We need to set context for the match, so we take photos of the structures. The stands and terraces are part of the history of the club - there's emotion in these places. So many cheers and tears over the years, so many stories from matchdays past. Today is the latest chapter in the club's ongoing history. Empty or full of nervous, fingernail-chewing fans, the stands and terraces are our background for the day. Paulton Rovers' 25-year-old main stand is smart and colourful - painted in pink and claret - it makes a cheerful backdrop for the later action pictures. I make sure it appears often (backdrop is important for action photos).

The action shot. Crunching tackle version.

The match starts. We select a position where the backdrop is interesting or the light is good (sun shining on players is often better than shooting in to the sun...). Structure pictures are useful for the story, but there's also the wider context of the ground's setting. What lies outside of the confines of the stadium? The keen football photographer will take a few "landscape" pictures at every match. At Paulton Rovers, to the south, there isn't much to see, so no landscape photos on that side. To the west lies the village of Paulton itself, so slatey-grey rooftops are visible on this side. To the north, behind the pink stand, you can see green Somerset hills with wind turbines way off in the distance. These hills carry on round to the east (and most open) side of the ground, so the north and east sides give the best backdrops. A wide angle camera lens gives us tiny players, but there's pretty countryside and big sky to make up for this (if there's no attractive backdrop, then Big Sky is always a good fallback, especially if there are fluffy clouds).

We'll return to the landscape to the east in more detail in due course...

Great action shots aren't easy to take. There's anticipation, timing, and luck involved. You have to anticipate that crunching tackle, that aerial battle from the goal kick - a split-second too early or too late, and the ball hasn't arrived yet, or it's already gone (it's always good to have the ball in the picture). You also want to have the players facing towards the camera - whoever views your pictures will want to see their grimacing faces. In the action shot above, it looks like Simba Mlambo is being fouled, but the ref thought otherwise and waved play on.

The goal photo. Almost inevitably taken from the far end of the pitch. At least the scorer isn't hidden in this one.

The ultimate action shot is The Goal! As with the standard action shot, a little luck is needed. Are you going to be at the right end for the first goal of the game? On Saturday, the first goal was the only goal of the game, so miss it and there would be no goal photo for the story. Paulton were having their best spell of the match five minutes before half-time (Winchester had been disrupted by losing two players to injury in quick succession at this point - Adam Tomasso to a particularly nasty-looking head injury after he caught a flailing elbow, and Andy Jenkinson to a muscle injury). Paulton won a corner on their right. Dale Evans floated the ball in to the box where Joe Chandler rose highest to head home (video retweeted by the club here).

The trouble with goal photos is that the scorer is often obscured by another player, so it's a good idea to have a motor drive on your camera, taking several photos per second - at least in one of these pictures, the scorer may be visible.

Allied to The Goal shot is The Celebration! Taking many pictures of the goal celebration improves the story (but just choose the best shot for your story - don't fill the entire album with essentially the same moment -  just because you took 17 pictures with the motor drive doesn't mean your audience want to see all of them). It's the most emotional part of the match. Are the players leaping all over each other? What are the fans in the background doing (answer: not much in the picture below - although the other photographer at the match is looking at his camera - I wonder if he caught the goal)?

The goal celebrations. Always with the goal celebrations.

Then there's the portrait shots. Photographers may snap individual players during breaks in play. There are the full length shots, such as the one below of Pat Cox, or half-body or head and shoulders shots. If someone is pointing or shouting or otherwise showing some emotion on the pitch, so much the better. As I was following Winchester on Saturday, I concentrated my portrait shots on the away team only, trying to snap each of them at least once (I failed miserably).

Action shots and portraits can be taken at any game, and are essentially interchangeable. But what makes the match or the ground different? This is where a quirky or arty picture comes in. Is there an unusual sign in the ground? Or is there coloured tape wrapped around a goalpost? Zoom in and highlight the quirks. The arty shot featured here from Saturday is of a pair of speakers taken from inside the stand, taken at such an angle that Winchester's subs can be seen as well for extra interest.

There are other types of photo not featured here, such as the "crowd's eye view", where you might stand behind someone and take a picture of them watching the match. Pictures of the fans, floodlights, the carpet in the clubhouse with the club crest on it - it all adds to the story.

My photo-story of Paulton Rovers v Winchester City is partly here, but mostly on the HAH Facebook page.

The full-length portrait with bonus blurry background landscape.

But there's one more type of photo I haven't mentioned yet, and it's one that us amateur football photographers dream of - the perfect whole-stadium view taken from an overlooking vantage point outside of the ground. We don't get many chances to do this. A rare example of this type of pic in the Wessex League would be at Laverstock & Ford - there's a hill behind their ground - on my last visit there I climbed up the hill to take pictures of The Dell and the rest of Salisbury stretching out beyond and it was lovely!

The further west you travel, the more hills there are, the higher the chance of getting an elevated full-stadium view. So I checked an Ordnance Survey contoured map before setting off for Paulton, and sure enough, I found a lump overlooking the ground. Even better, there were public rights of way wending their way up there.

I made sure I arrived in Paulton early. I parked in the ample club car park and went for a walk. Ten minutes later, I was at the base of the lump. It's no ordinary hill - it's an old spoil heap from a neighbouring coal mine (the disused mine is no longer visible, as it apparently was a few years ago). It's a steep old lump, but I was determined to get my perfect photo! So I followed the path along the base, looking for a gap in the trees with a view of the football ground. It didn't happen, so there was only one thing to do, and that was to climb the spoil heap to the top. One major problem...it's surrounded by barbed wire, so no go.

So I walked round the base to the right, through a kissing gate and in to a field. I disturbed a woodpecker feeding on ants, but otherwise there was no other living creature up there. Still no whole-stadium view though as I reached the top of the field. At which point, I stopped dead in my tracks. In front of me was a herd of cows. Now, you might not be afraid of cows, but I most certainly am. A few years ago, I was walking along a footpath through a field full of cows when they suddenly took a dislike to me and my companions. The entire herd started running towards us, looking angry. We had no choice but to run as well. Either that or be trampled.

We reached the wall surrounding the field and just managed to climb over before the herd reached us. Cows? No thank you! As you can probably imagine, I'm very wary when out walking now, and if my route goes through a cow field, I'd rather turn back and retrace my steps. So, with one eye peeking warily behind me, I walked back down the hill, disturbing the woodpecker again.

The quirky/arty shot. Big speaker! Small speaker!

There was another path to the left of the spoil heap, so I tried this way instead. I found a small gap between the leaves here and took a picture, but I thought I could do better. There was no barbed wire next to this footpath, so glancing up at the steep, gravel-strewn hillside to my right, I thought I'd risk climbing up there.

It was slippery - very slippery. I'd put one foot down on a tree root, but the other foot would slip back down as there was no real purchase. Eventually though, I made it to the top. Treading very carefully, avoiding the badger sett holes, I tiptoed across the top of the spoil heap. There was my friend the woodpecker again - oh, if only I had wings like you! Someone else had been up there having a bonfire recently, but they were long gone. I was on my own in a potentially dangerous place, but my urge to take the perfect photo drove me on.

Ten more steps, and there it was...Paulton Rovers below me with the players doing their pre-match warm-ups on the pitch. I could see most of the pitch and the near and far ends, but not the stand on the right, which was obscured by a tree. Three steps to my left and I'd be able to see it. Trouble was, the steps were down and would end at the top of a nearly-sheer drop of fifty feet or so. Was it time to turn back and admit defeat? Of course not! Perched precariously at the top of the cliff, I took the photo reproduced below. Was it worth it? You can decide for yourself.

And here's the one I defied serious injury for. Was it worth it?

Winchester can consider themselves truly unfortunate not to come away from Paulton with at least a draw. They were unlucky with the early injuries, but then with wave after wave of attacks being repelled by the home defence in the second half, and a marginal offside decision denying them a 93rd minute equaliser, they would have lost that match maybe one in ten times. On most average days with average luck, they would have been in the hat for the Second Qualifying Round draw. Talking of which, here's how it turned out for the surviving Hampshire clubs:

Havant & Waterlooville v Merthyr Town;
Gosport Borough v Swindon Supermarine;
Cinderford Town v Basingstoke Town or Hartley Wintney;
Truro City v AFC Portchester.

Paulton Rovers will host Kidlington.

Ties to be played on Saturday 16th September.

Match reports can be found here (Paulton Rovers website) and here (Southern Daily Echo). I can't see any other photos elsewhere. So the HAH Facebook page will be the only place where the story of the day will be found (as soon as I have time to upload them).

If you're interested in football match photography, take a look at these sites to inspire you. They don't necessarily follow all the rules (rules are there to be broken, after all), but they're all exceptional at this lark:

Pitchside Photo
Darren Luke
Ben Webster
Onion Bag
David Bauckham

This list is not exhaustive.

There are also a few local club-based photographers who are also very good. Take a look at Ray Routledge's photos on Sholing's website, for example.

HAH will be back in three weeks for an FA Vase tie featuring a Wessex League club. See you then.

Banbury United v Winchester City

A jolly Puritan adorning Banbury United's corner flag. Don't be fooled by that welcoming smile, ye olde erectors of crosses, he's really a smiling assassin.

I don't know about you, but I'm always singing to myself. It could be anything - a current chart sensation, an oldie but goldie from the glam era, or an obscure punk B-side. There's usually a tune going on inside me somewhere. Right now? Today's happy tune is Days by The Kinks, a big hit in 1968 - you'll know it if you hear it.

My "tune" through much of last week was actually an old nursery rhyme - again, you'll probably know it:

Ride a cock horse
To Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady
Upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
She shall have music
Wherever she goes

I was heading for Banbury at the weekend, and I couldn't stop myself from humming this old rhyme, but it would have been the same if I'd been going to, say, Waterloo Station - I would have been crooning Waterloo Sunset to myself all week, no doubt.

Banbury's 13-year-old stand.

Details:
Banbury United FC (2) 2 v 1 (0) Winchester City FC
Evo-Stik Southern League South & West Division
Saturday 27th February 2016
Attendance: 589
Admission: £5 (usually £10)
Programme: £2 (superb - possibly the best non-league programme I've seen since starting HAH)
Colours: All red with yellow trimmings v Blue and black stripes / blue / blue
National Grid reference: SP4639 / SP4640

Twelve steps of shallow covered terracing behind the Town End goal.

Chanting this nursery rhyme over and over, I got to thinking what it all meant. I'm not of the internet generation - I don't just whip my phone out and tap in a keyword and find the information I want within seconds - that just doesn't occur to me. I'm of the generation that grew up with shelves and shelves of encyclopaedias - it would always take a while to find what I wanted (and I'd normally get distracted in my search and start reading about the hyrax or something else instead (the elephant's nearest relative, despite being teeny-tiny and looking like a miserable guinea pig, by the way) - whatever it was that I wanted to know would be instantly lost in a fog of useless facts from Volume 9: HA to IN).

Anyway, the bit that interested me in the nursery rhyme was the "cock horse". Was this an antiquated way of saying "stallion"? Maybe. Then a female horse in those days must have been a "hen horse", and similarly, a male dog would have been a "cock dog", a female squirrel a "hen squirrel", and so on? I never did get around to looking it up. The encyclopaedias have long since been put away in a cardboard box in the attic.

What I did find out during the week was that there really is a statue of a cock horse in Banbury, and it resides next to Banbury Cross, so we had to go and see it on Saturday. Sure enough, the brassy cock horse was there (bestraddled by a fine lady), across the road from Banbury Cross, which sits upon a roundabout. Apparently, according to the accompanying story board, there used to be several crosses in the town (including my favourite, the Bread Cross), but these were considered blasphemous by the town's Puritans in the 1600s, and were all pulled down. The current cross was re-erected in Victorian times (the cock horse is a very recent addition).

It was all very interesting. However, my photo of the scene was spoiled by a man dressed as Spiderman holding up a board advertising pizzas. Or perhaps he made it more interesting, I don't know.

The two teams line up for handshakes pre-kick-off.

This diversion was all very well, but I was in Banbury for a football match. It was a big one, between two sides that were on lengthy winning runs - Winchester City had won six league games in a row, but Banbury United had gone one better, with seven in a row. Unsurprisingly with records like that, they were the top two clubs in the Southern League's South & West Division going in to the match.

There was much talk beforehand about the two clubs' top scorers - Winchester's Warren Bentley had recently been scouted by the likes of Luton Town and Notts County - non-league's "next Jamie Vardy" is out there somewhere, and why shouldn't it be Bentley, who has scored 101 goals in the last season and a half? But never mind Jamie Vardy, remember that Charlie Austin also came to promininence via the Wessex League a few seasons ago, which is where Bentley scored so many goals last season, helping his club to promotion.

Banbury's Ricky Johnson has also been scoring for fun this season, including five hat-tricks. Is he the next non-league sensation? Rings on his fingers, the ball on his toes, he shall score goals wherever he goes... It would be interesting to compare the two hotshots side by side on the same pitch.

The game gets under way with old industrial buildings as a backdrop on the Power Park side.

I was looking forward to this one. Banbury had been trailing the match heavily on social media during the preceding week. They were offering half-price admission, hoping for a big crowd. Walking towards the ground along a narrow pavementless road at twenty to three, it was clear that the locals had taken heed, as car after car after car drove carefully past me towards the club car parks.

Banbury's Spencer Stadium (they were originally called Banbury Spencer) is situated at the conclusion of this bumpy road at the far end of the Power Park Industrial Estate. It is squashed between warehouses and factories on two sides, with the main London to Birmingham railway line fifty yards from the entrance on the east side (three-carriage Chiltern Rail and longer Virgin Cross Country trains chugged by every few minutes throughout the match, visible between the stand and the clubhouse). At the far end of the ground is open land, over which you can see the trains disappearing in to the distance, London-bound, with lorries and vans poking up above the vegetation beyond the train tracks, hurtling along the M40 towards Birmingham. Further away, the green-grey Chiltern Hills are visible, covered in copses and spinneys.

On the far side of the ground, there's a small patch of rough grass, which slides down in to the River Cherwell, thin, grey and cold, meandering aimlessly towards Oxford with its cargo of empty crisp packets.

Amongst all this unremarkable land sits the bright and cheerful Spencer Stadium, painted in the club colours of red and yellow.

Banbury United's Felipe Barcelos scores the opening goal.

It's a fine ground. To the left of the main entrance is a one-storey clubhouse building, which was heaving on Saturday - this was to be the highest crowd of the season so far in this division - higher than one of the matches in the Conference National league this weekend at 589. Walking around the ground, the far end is hard standing, but it is wide and gently sloping towards the pitch, such that the back of the slope is the equivalent of approximately two steps of terracing, so that fans at the back can see over those at the front.

Past the corner flag and up to the first dugout is a thin stretch of paving. Beyond the second dugout, twelve steps of uncovered crumbly terracing rises up, giving a good elevated view over the pitch. This terracing carries on round the corner, where the back six steps are covered by a bright red tin roof, held up by yellow steel posts, which reaches almost to the far side. Where the cover stops, there is a yellow tea hut. Around the final corner, past a rusty roller parked outside the club shop (not open on Saturday - souvenirs available in the clubhouse instead), you come to the seated stand, built in 2003 - another red structure, but this time with blue plastic seats.

Changing rooms, toilets and Puritans Radio all squeeze in to the space between the stand and the entrance, all glimmering brilliantly in their cheerful reds and yellows.

Surrounding the pitch are eight floodlight pylons - proper ones, bought from Oxford City's old White Horse Ground when it was demolished. Stood up straight, tall and handsome, they look down solemnly on proceedings with four large lamps on each pole making them look like wise, bespectacled stick insects.

Winchester City's impressive collection of flags.

The match was entertaining. Winchester started off the better team, but Banbury scored first, the speedy Felipe Barcelos nipping through a gap in City's defence to lift the ball over Brendan Norris in the Winchester goal, much to the delight of the masses of Banbury fans behind the goal.

Goal number two followed before half-time, and this time it was Johnson hammering home from a cross from the right - the original Puritans couldn't ban all crosses from Banbury, after all. Frustration for the twenty or so travelling Winchester fans, but at least they had half-time to look forward to, when they could spend some time arranging their many flags at the open end - up went the flags of Iceland, Liechtenstein, an unidentified American state flag, a Winchester-Burnley friendship banner, and so on.

No more goals for Banbury in the second half, despite plenty of chances. Amongst the regular sounds of diesel-powered trains passing by, there was plenty of crowd noise - proper crowd noise, as opposed to the usual collection of separate voices, making sounds at the same time, but also individually distinct. Every time Banbury attacked, there was a roar from the covered terrace, which must have been inspiring for their players. However, it was Winchester who scored the final goal with 15 minutes left. A cross from the right by Zach Glasspool skimmed off the top of Bentley's head and settled in the far corner of the net.

Despite plenty of pressure, City couldn't score an equaliser. At the end of the game, the packed terrace at the Town End stayed behind to salute their heroes - red and yellow scarves twirling around, fists pumping the air. It feels good to be top of the league.

One very happy Banbury player meets his family pitchside after the final whistle.

Hmmm, rereading the description of the Spencer Stadium's surrounds above, it looks like I might have had a downer on the town (the Cherwell with its cargo of crisp packets, etc). Far from it - Banbury is not unpleasant. If you enjoy shopping, it has a large mall; if you prefer smaller shops, there are plenty of those as well, hidden away in the mediaeval back alleys. If you like food and drink, there are many pubs and cafes. Could I recommend the town's speciality, the Banbury cake? It's like a warm mince pie, but made with puff pastry - delicious! And of course, if you like football, the Spencer Stadium is bright, cheerful and welcoming.

This was a relatively big match compared to some that I've covered, so there's plenty of other match reports and photos around. If you go to Banbury's website, for example, you can read a match report, follow a link to watch a seven minute video of the game, and admire some action photos.

I shall upload some more of my own photos to the HAH Facebook group page shortly.

Next up on HAH will be visits to the final three Wessex League grounds that I've yet to feature, starting on March 12th in Wiltshire. See you then.

They'll Be On Their Hands and Knees...

A hint of drizzle in the air as half-time hot dogs are served at HAH's most successful club, Team Solent.

They'll be on their hands and knees, begging me to come back next season once they know that I'm their lucky charm...

The final part of HAH's summer stats series sees the top ten revealed. The top ten most successful clubs in the history of this blog. The undefeated heroes, the goals against columns with the most zeroes. It's the same deal as the previous three posts - a table of stats followed by individual results. Two points awarded for a win (although this rule didn't affect the top or bottom of the table at all).

The stadium of dreams / nightmares (delete as applicable...)

Firstly, the table:

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pts/Game
10.	Moneyfields	4	3	1	0	7	4	+3	7	1.75
9.	Eversley & California	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	2	2.00
8.	Fleetlands	1	1	0	0	4	3	+1	2	2.00
6=.	Andover Town	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	2	2.00
6=.	Southampton	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	2	2.00
5.	Folland Sports	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2	2	2.00
4.	Winchester City	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	2	2.00
3.	AFC Totton	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4	6	2.00
2.	Eastleigh	3	3	0	0	8	4	+4	6	2.00
1.	Team Solent	2	2	0	0	9	4	+5	4	2.00

The referee signals for an indirect free-kick at Eversley (& California).

And now for the individual records:

10. MONEYFIELDS
Sep 2011 v Gosport Borough (h) 2-1
Aug 2013 v Romsey Town (a) 1-0
Nov 2013 v Odd Down (Bath) (a) 3-2
Dec 2013 v Bitton (h) 1-1 (abandoned during extra-time due to players fighting)

9. EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA
Mar 2013 v Banstead Athletic (h) 2-1

8. FLEETLANDS
Oct 2014 v Overton United (h) 4-3

You may have noticed from the table that six of the top ten have only played one game with HAH in attendance, so that their overall positions could arguably be distorted, but then, who's to say that they wouldn't win again if I reported on them a second time? I have every intention of seeing most of these "single-game-so-far" clubs this coming season (if the fixtures work out in their favour). Perhaps Eversley & California will top the charts if I do these stats again next summer?

The Moneyfields game against Bitton saw the blog's highest number of single day visits when I reported on it in 2013 (around 300 views compared to the usual 50 or so for the first day of an average match report). Oh, and by the by, Fleetlands are the top Portsmouth area club...

Andover Town's box-like stand at the Portway.

6=. ANDOVER TOWN
Mar 2014 v New Milton Town (h) 2-0

6=. SOUTHAMPTON
Feb 2012 v Burnley (h) 2-0

5. FOLLAND SPORTS
Jan 2012 v Hayling United (h) 3-1

One match each for these three, and all at home, but they could only beat what was put in front of them, as the cliché goes. Andover Town are the top mid-county side, with the other clubs in the top six all coming from the Southampton area. Please don't gloat, Sotonians...

Like all true ultra groups, AFC Totton have their own version of the Union Jack.

4. WINCHESTER CITY
Aug 2012 v Alton Town (h) 3-0

3. AFC TOTTON
Jan 2011 v Sholing (h) 2-1
Apr 2011 v Gosport Borough (a) 1-0
Jan 2015 v Wimborne Town (a) 2-0

AFC Totton are the first of three sides with 100% records after more than one featured match on HAH. All the more impressive when you notice that two of their three victories were away from home. I intend to file a report from their new ground this season, but the fixtures will have to fall right at some point over next nine months for that to happen (see also: Hythe & Dibden).

Shivering in the November rain outside Eastleigh's Executive Suite last season.

2. EASTLEIGH
Jan 2011 v Havant & Waterlooville (h) 4-2
Apr 2014 v Basingstoke Town (h) 2-1
Nov 2014 v Lincoln City (h) 2-1

1. TEAM SOLENT
Nov 2011 v AFC Portchester (a) 5-4
Jan 2013 v Whitchurch United (h) 4-0

The team representing the students of Solent University in Southampton are HAH's most successful side! Not only that, but they play within walking distance of my house! Two wins, nine goals...If only the sun had shone at any point during their two featured matches! I recall heavy, gloomy, grey skies with a hint of drizzle both times. Never mind! Well done to them. Newly promoted to the Wessex League Premier Division this season, let's see if they can hold on to pole position this time next year...

The setting sun glows on a factory behind Moneyfields' ground in Portsmouth.

Okay, that's enough stats for one summer! I'll be back with my first match report of 2015/16 in mid-August. The current plan is to visit a North Berkshire League ground in Oxfordshire to watch an FA Cup tie between an Hellenic League side and a Hampshire-based club from the Combined Counties League. It will all make sense, I promise!