My 240+ mile round trip to watch my football (soccer) team play a 'home' match was a worthwhile trip today.
Bolton Wanderers beat Aston Villa 3-2 in a pulsating game at the Reebok stadium. When winning 2-1 Villa were awarded a penalty and an opportunity to go 3-1 up. However the penalty was saved and from that point on the crowd roared the Wanderes on and eventually they equalised to make the score 2-2 and with 2 minutes left the stadium errupted with delight as as an exquisite strike by Ivan Klasnic made the score 3-2 !!
As a picture this is not a brilliant shot (well not as good as Klasnic's shot ..ha ha). It's shot from my seat in the East Stand and is probably 50 metres from were the players are lined up. The lighting was pretty poor and because of the long zoom some of the whites are a bit blown out. I've given it a serious letterbox crop because there was a lot of redundant grass in the foreground
In the English Premier League, before the match starts, both sets of players line up and then shake each others hands as a sporting gesture. This shows both teams lining up before the start of the game.
Oh and Bolton Wanderers are the team in the white jerseys !
@kerristephens Thank you Kerri, Saturday afternoons are always tense when following your team. The Bolton player bending down touching his boots is USA soccer international Stuart Holden
Was a good win mfor your guys today... we played pants but also won (6 on the bouce) so "All is good" (to quote an excellent Indian film "Three Idiots"...)
I love sports...nice one. I love seeing matches/games in person. Is there a mascot on the field? Or somebody with a big head? LOL. I played soccer one summer when I was young, sandwiched in between my years and years of softball. Obviously, I went back to my first love - softball.
@seattle Constance, thanks for your support, it's difficult taking a picture in a stadium of 22 thousand people, because you cannot move around for a differfent angle of view, you tend to be stuck with where you are sat. Glad you used the magnifying glass to see some details
@meredithwb Thanks for your continued support it is much appreciated. You are correct about spotting a 'mascot'...the mascot is a 6 foot 6 inches lion !!! named Lofty. He patrols the pitch during the game trying to get the fans excited. On Saturday he took quite a bit of abuse from the Aston Villa fans who were singing songs about him not having a roar !!! (English Soccer fans have a culture of singing and chanting songs...some of them not very nice...but we won't go there !)
BTW: He has to change his jersey / shirt before the match starts from a white shirt to a blue shirt, because the referee sometimes mistakes him for a player !
@sleepdozer57 Peter thanks for your comments, at half time I thought the long drive was a waste of time, but the second half was really exiciting.. Big game next weekend against Birmingham's other football team !
@gill Gill thanks for your support and comments. As for the movement in the BWFC team..it's a good job they had the same movement during the game too as movement is a big part of the 'beautiful game'.
It's not much fun on the two hour drive home when you've lost , but yesterday's drive home was a good one :)
Thanks again
March 6th, 2011
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Anyway all things you want to know about 'Lofty the Lion can be found here ..
http://www.juniorwhites.co.uk/lofty-the-lion/
BTW: He has to change his jersey / shirt before the match starts from a white shirt to a blue shirt, because the referee sometimes mistakes him for a player !
It's not much fun on the two hour drive home when you've lost , but yesterday's drive home was a good one :)
Thanks again