A member of the public seems to have attached himself to the long blue line of Specialist Operations Police Officers.
I shot this at the UniBol stadium Bolton, before Bolton Wanderers played host to local team Wigan Athletic.
Less than 10 years ago this fixture was a Premier League match, yesterday in was a Division 1 fixture (3rd level).
It was a high risk game, requiring a large police presence with assistance from police horses and private sniffer dogs (sniffing spectators at turnstiles for drugs, pyrotechnics and alcohol). My mate and myself also thought we saw a couple of Police "Spotters" (undercover police officers searching out trouble makers)
Unfortunately there was trouble pre and post match and missiles, bottles and flares thrown onto the pitch.
I rarely leave the stadium early, but decided to leave 10 minutes early as Bolton were losing 4-0, thus avoiding the "aggro" on the streets.
It was an ugly throwback to the dark days of football hooliganism.
The police lady seems to be enjoying you taking her picture. She has that light smile on her face. Lovely shot of the troupe. The guy doesn't seem to mind them coming close to him. Sad about hooliganism, i had thought those ugly days were over. Sad also seeing your favourite team to fall so low when I remember them being one of the top teams in the UK.
What a shame that football cannot be enyed in the way we would all like to see it! I can't say like it was in the past because one of my few appearances at a Sunderland game in the 60's was to experience sharpened pennies used as missiles.
Was the trouble because they were local rivals Phil….can’t think of any other reason. Fools….it affects everyone when they can’t behave, look at the consequences from the Wembley match? Great capture & I see the extra recruit.
I enjoyed the recent series Ted Lasso on Apple TV about an American football coach recruited to coach English football. The series has a lot of heart, as they say.
At a time when the level of football hooliganism was very high, Desmond Morris made an in-depth study of the behaviours around the game, on and off the pitch and even in training sessions, apparently, and wrote a book on the subject (The Soccer Tribe). I wonder what he would have made of this return to violence at football matches? That this is happening at a time when a culture of knife carrying has grown up is very worrying, I think.
Thought provoking capture, Phil.
@dulciknit allison, thanks for your visit. I bought the book back in the day, not necessarily for the narrative (which I thought was a bit weak to be honest) but for the fact that it had some awesome football photographs. I think I gave it to charity several "clear outs" ago !!
October 25th, 2021
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Thought provoking capture, Phil.