On Monday we drove to Mansfield, to a retail park to visit Dunelm (a homeware store) in the Portland Retail Park. The Retail Park backs onto the Mansfield Town Football Club stadium.
I am a bit of a football geek and I do like stadiums too, so after we had finished shopping I decided to take some photos of the stadium. The main entrance to the club is built into the Ian Greaves stand and I started taking some photos of the stand.
There were three men outside the stadium and I saw one of them trying on some “Mansfield Town Face Masks”. I approached them and asked how much they had paid for the face masks. They told me they were £8-00 (that’s Eight pounds !!!!!!). I asked if they were supporters of the club (they were wearing Mansfield Town zipper jackets). They told me they all worked at the club.
We then had a chat about how Covid-19 was effecting life at the club . I asked them when the ground would be open for spectators, they told me they were hoping to hold some “test events” for some pre season friendly matches. I then told them I was a Bolton Wanderers fan and hopefully I would be able to watch my club play at Mansfield this coming season. Tom (one of the men) told me he thought it would be home supporters only when the government allows spectators into the stadium. I said I lived locally and might be able to blag my way in as a home fan. He said it was likely that spectators would be “season ticket holders only”. We then had a little chat about when Bolton played Mansfield in a pre season friendly back in July 2016.
I then introduced the concept of my Strangers project and asked the men for a photo. Tom and James said yes straight away bit the other man was loading his car with some items so declined.
I asked Tom and James to stand in front of the shutters of the Mansfield Town Merchandise stall. Their friend was telling them they looked like a boy band doing a photoshoot. Tom, is the head chef at the club and James is an assistant groundsman. Both jobs are important as Tom would be responsible for providing healthy diet options to the players and James would be working to ensure that the players can play the beautiful game on a lovely carpet of grass
I rattled off a few shots and when I checked them on the back of the camera I noticed a few were out of focus (I was shooting with a manual focus lens and adjusted my position slightly between shots without refocussing), so I asked Tom and James for a few more shots. I really like the look and feel of the photo I’ve posted and I quite like they are not in the centre of the frame as it makes the composition a bit more dynamic.
I can’t see the masks.....they were very sporting to let you take their photo, on the whole men hate having their photo taken. You found out lots of info!
Lovely capture of these two sporty types. They do give an indication about their connection with Mansfield football Club. Although I have friends - especially one - who were fans of Bolton Wanderers when I was younger, I have never heard of any Mansfield fan here.
@happypat thanks PAt, I was pleased how this photo came out
@casablanca they were indeed Casa' , football supporters have a easy connection between each other :)
@cocobella good spot corinne, it's a bit like a uniform :)
@marlboromaam cheers maggie, thanks for your support on all my pics