Supporting the supporters

On the way to Dulwich Hamlet's game against Worthing I posted about here, I photographed the game between the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Team and our hosts, the Worthing Supporters.

I had not planned to be at this game - I have been to see Dulwich games on the south coast over the last year, each time thinking this would be a good time to meet an old school friend after his son's football training in Redhill, only to find engineering works meaning I would not be able to manage that and get to the game. So, I was ready to arrange a meeting, until a quick check revealed ... er ... engineering works meaning I would not be able to manage that and get to the game.

So, it was time to take up the opportunity to attend a supporters' game, in a strictly non playing capacity. Our hosts had booked a pitch on a recreation ground on the outskirts of the town, with a most unusual arrangement of trees in the lane alongside.

The purpose of the Dulwich Supporters' Team is to promote Dulwich Hamlet, and promote friendship with other teams. So, it is open to all ages and abilities. A typical side will contain a couple of good young players, some good players well struck in years, and some making no claims to ability who enjoy turning out. The Supporters can even boast a player with a First Team appearance, Shaun Dooley having appeared in a pre season friendly back in the nineties.

Age is no barrier, from the youngest player on the day (although nowhere near the youngest to have turned out for the team), Callum Smith,

to the oldest, Mark Hutton.

I have taken pictures for a couple of games of this type when some of my colleagues organised them at work. I have found that if I take enough pictures, I can be confident of getting everyone doing something that looks good. After one of the work games, I showed a colleague a picture of what I thought was him scoring a goal (which he had done). It looked great, controlling the ball, the goalkeeper committing himself to go the wrong way, but he remembered it differently, "Ah, that's the one the other end where I missed and fell flat on my arse".

Trying to get a couple of decent photos of everyone means I take a lot more pictures than I would at a club game. The game is a lot less predictable than a club game - a club has a pattern the manager will want to play, the players will train and play together two or three times a week. Even the regular players in the Supporters' Team only play together every few weeks, and players drop in and out as work, family and other circumstances dictate.

I needed to make sure I did not slip into "club photographer" mode and just concentrate on the Dulwich players, but to make sure I got some of the Worthing players as well.

The usual guideline I adopt for the size of the album goes out of the window, everyone will want to see themselves and their friends in action, so I went for publishing almost all the decent shots, whilst strictly maintaining the rule that the dodgy ones never see the light of day. I hope the players enjoyed the game as much as I enjoyed working on the photos.

The rest of the photos can be seen here.