Premier turf

In the years I have been watching football, which I started at around beginning of the Premiership, I have stuck with the grassroots side of the game, and have never watched a game at a Premiership ground. The nearest I have come was watching Cambridge United when they were still in the Football League at Bloomfield Road, before Blackpool started to rise through the League.

This changed last week when I watched a game at Goodison Park, the home of Everton FC (not to be confused with Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar, Chile, the home of Everton FC). Local Sunday team Paddock FC had booked the pitch for their Hayward Transport Cup, and invited Prescot Cables to be their opponents.

Joe Gibiliru Jnr

If you mention Sunday football, many will think of 22 players at less than peak fitness, and this does indeed take place, but top Sunday sides are of a similar standard to the EvoStik League, not least as many non contract players also play for a Sunday side. Contract players are generally prohibited from doing so by their contracts, although that does not always stop them.

Our Chairman was able to include me in the touchline party to take some photos. I mentioned in a previous post that if it were possible to dig a pit from which to watch football, the quality of the pictures would repay the effort. In larger grounds, the front row of seats is set so the eye level of people sitting in them is at about the level of the players knees.

I was happy with the results, looking up to the play gives a greater sense of action than looking down or on the same level as is the case at most non League grounds.

Steven Tames

Fraser Ablett

The vantage point has one odd effect. I do not think the pitch sloped away to the sides, but when looking action on the other side of the pitch, it gave the impression that it did. The gentleman walking in front of the seats is at the same level as me, so my eye level is about 3' above the pitch, but we only see half of the ball above the level of the pitch.

Francis Foy

The match kicked off at 7.15, with the spectators and dugouts on the Goodison Road side, with the setting sun behind our backs, the stand blocking the sun at pitch level.

This presented an interesting lighting challenge, in the shape of seats - 10,478 of the shiny little things in the opposite stand, all reflecting light on to the pitch. It is not an issue at the grounds I normally visit, and not an issue when Everton are playing, as people will be sitting on most of them. In a pitch let like this, only a small part of the ground is in use, as opening any more will dramatically increase the required stewarding, and therefore the cost. Overall, they helped with the lighting, and provided a good contrasting background for some shots.

James McCulloch

However, they also meant some shots were strongly backlit, sometimes in just part of the frame, even after the usual lighting adjustments.

Stuart McMullan

I even stepped briefly on to the turf, as the people from Paddock asked me to take pictures of a couple of their players receiving awards for 10 years' service to the club.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.