The Final Stretch

A football photographer’s season tends to operate in phases…   Pre-season – horrendously boring fixtures played out between teams full of first-team maybes often wearing unofficial kit in half-empty stadia; Early-season – time spent stocking up on as many players in as many new kits as possible, always interrupted by frustrating, unwelcome international breaks; Autumn…

When The Night Comes In

As we approach the end of the second half of the first half of the season, I’ve had a chance to look back at the highs and lows of the past few weeks’ football…  

FIFA World Cup | Finally…The Final

THURSDAY 12TH JULY  |  The journey back to the Cosmos was tainted with disappointment. A combination of mental and physical tiredness produced a deafening silence on the metro carriage – England’s defeat had knocked the wind out of our sails; even the most pessimistic of English football supporters had begun to believe this really was…

FIFA World Cup | The Dream Is Over

TUESDAY 10TH JULY  |  After a couple of days off that did me the world of good – time which would’ve been spent on the train, had that magical S7 flight not materialised – I was back in the mix. I kicked off the semi finals with a 7am train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg,…

FIFA World Cup | Dare To Dream

WEDNESDAY 4TH JULY  |  I got to bed at 3am, though the adrenaline running through my body wouldn’t subside; it was probably another half hour before I drifted off. I woke up at 11am, my phone buzzing away on the shiny wooden bedside table next to me. It was an email from Russian Trains, the…

FIFA World Cup | The Last 16

SATURDAY 30TH JUNE  |  My first match of the Last 16 knockout stage saw Uruguay take on Portugal in the southern resort of Adler, a town located just outside Sochi, some 1,600km south of the capital and just a stone’s throw from the Georgian border. After a relaxing day in Moscow, it was back to…

FIFA World Cup | Believe The Hype

WEDNESDAY 27TH JUNE  |  Chris had stumbled through the door to our hotel room at around 10am and slumped onto the bed. I was ready to get going…ships in the night, as I headed out no more than half an hour later. The Stadium Media Centres aren’t just a hive of activity on matchdays; they’re…

FIFA World Cup | The Long Slog

THURSDAY 21ST JUNE | I must’ve just dropped into the deep sleep stage when my alarm went off at 05:30, I found it impossible to drag myself out of bed. I felt rough…not like, Deeside Ramblers HC end-of-season do rough, but pretty rough. It wasn’t a hangover, I think my body had just had what…

FIFA World Cup | Week 1: Acclimatisation

THURSDAY 14TH JUNE | After a bowl of mandarin slices and couple of pancakes, we we met up with English colleague David before embarking on our journey across the city to the Luzhniki Stadium. After much deliberation over which station to alight from, we arrived shortly after midday, six hours ahead of kick-off; it was…

FIFA Confederations Cup (Week 3)

DAY 14 Today began with an early flight out of Moscow, as we returned to Kazan for the first of the two semi-finals. Portugal had been paired with Chile in what promised to be a fiery encounter between two of the biggest names in the tournament. We landed at 10:30 and headed straight to the…

FIFA Confederations Cup (Week 2)

DAY 8 We celebrated the end of our first week in Russia with an early flight to Kazan, the last remaining city we’re yet to visit. A 6am check-out from the hotel in Moscow allowed us enough time to make the 06:30 AeroExpress train back to Sheremetyevo Airport. Another smooth Aeroflot check-in later and we…

FIFA Confederations Cup (Week 1)

Visa sorted, documents filed, lenses checked, cameras cleaned, bags packed. On Wednesday evening, I prepared to leave the house to join up with colleagues Matt & Robbie (and, later, Chris) ahead of my trip to Russia for this year’s FIFA Confederations Cup. Having covered a number of tournaments over the last few years, I’ve become…