Many of my friends will know I am a lifelong Bolton Wanderers supporter
Tonight I made the short journey up the M1 to watch Bolton Wanderers Under 23 team ( they used to call them the reserve team back in the day) play Nottingham Forest U23 team at the Impact Arena, the home of Alfreton Town FC (Forest play their U23 games at Alfreton Town).
Prior to the match as the U23 players were warming up I met Tony Kelly.
This is the first time I have met Tony, but I have seen him play football on many occasions. Tony played over 100 games for the Wanderers in a three year spell in the early 1990's
Tony is now part of the coaching staff of the under 23 team and also takes part in many community based activities for the club.
Tony came over towards the goal to retrieve a ball near to where I was standing on the terraces.
"Tony who's the keeper you are warming up with, is it Will Jaaskelainen?"
I then had a little chat with Tony, about the keepers and after the chat asked for a quick photo. Tony was working, so I didn't want to take too much of his time up, so I managed about 5 shots (the photo shots , not football shots !!!) before he went back to train the players.
Tony had a long career as a footballer playing for several clubs, his longest spells being at Wigan, Shrewsbury and Bolton
He was a popular midfield player back in the day at Bolton, earning the nickname "Zico" after scoring a worldie following a skilful dribble against former club Wigan Athletic. He was part of a winning promotion team as the Wanderers climbed out of the third tier of English football in 1992-93
I edited this shot in Rawtherapee. I usually edit in Darktable, but overdid my colours and sharpening in Darktable. This Rawtherapee edit includes a Kodak T-Max 100 film emulation
Shot on my old Canon 450D with my nifty 50mm
Oh and the match saw a very young Wanderers U23 team run out with a 3-1 comfortable win.
FYI : Zico, was a Brasilian footballer, often considered one of the best players in football history not to have been on a World Cup winning squad. Tony's comparison with Zico was based on Tony's silky footwork and passing ability rather than his physique as it was often considered by some that Tony always carried a few extra Kg's of weight when playing :)
This picture is number 77 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
https://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
My own strangers can be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/57144254@N08/albums/72157657822400168
