Farewell Fergie

May 20, 2013

On Sunday I was one of the lucky photographers asked to go and photograph the final match of Sir Alex Ferguson’s managerial career. Since the news broke that he was to step down, it hasn’t really sunk in that he won’t be in the dugout for United next season. He’s been in charge my entire lifetime and despite not liking Manchester United, it doesn’t feel right that David Moyes will take charge from July. Arriving ridiculously early I was surprised to see so many photographers there, despite it being a historic match. All the talk before hand was that the match itself was pointless…little did we know that the end result would go down in history, just like Sir Alex.

Manchester United raced into a 0-3 first half lead, with the match very much feeling like a testimonial, before West Brom managed to pull one back before half time. No-one could have predicted the second half we would see.

I managed to get the last available position infront of the away fans, so that I’d be in a position to get the main picture of the day of Sir Alex saying his final goodbye. Being so tight to the goal meant the 4th and 5th goal pictures made rubbish but the celebrations were ok so all was not lost. I can’t think of too many times in Sir Alex’s managerial reign where his side have given away a 2-5 lead, so it was quite a surprising sight to see them do it in his last game, with West Brom scoring 3 goals in the last 8 minutes.

Making sure I managed to get a few pictures of Paul Scholes, also in his last match as a player, I was trying to make sure I’d have a good view of Sir Alex when he came over to thank the fans. However this all changed when, with 1 minute of play left around 40-50 stewards and police formed a line infront of us on the goal line, to prevent the United fans storming the pitch. I try not to let men with bright jackets who think they have power get to me, but knowing this picture would be historic I wasn’t going to be told I couldn’t get in a position to make sure I had a chance of getting something good. I argued briefly with one idiot before just kneeling down and getting on with my job. Thankfully I was only blocked for a few frames and within a matter of seconds, Sir Alex had said his final goodbyes as manager of Manchester United. Still worried I had been blocked for a lot of the time, I quickly checked the back of the camera to see I had something – although not as good as if we’d been unrestricted by the yellow jacket brigade. Having managed to get stuff sent out early, it soon became clear a lot other photographers had been blocked more than me by more idiots further down the line, meaning I was more grateful for what I had managed to get. It still hasn’t sunk in how historic this match was…the fact it was the first 5-5 draw in Premier League history almost seems insignificant considering this was the last time we’ll see the greatest manager to grace the English game. It also being the final match of the Premier League season means I will be quiet for the next few weeks, but it won’t be long before we start the new season with all of the top 3 teams with new managers. It proves to be an exciting time and I for one can’t wait.

Europa League Final – Amsterdam

May 17, 2013

/ Kieran McManus

This week I have been in Amsterdam to cover the Europa League final between Benfica and Chelsea. The week started by travelling from Brighton to cover their play-off semi final 2nd leg and then from there I would drive on to Amsterdam. Following a long struggle getting out of the Brighton car park I got to my hotel around 1am and managed to get some sleep before meeting fellow BPi photographer Matt West who was travelling with me at 8.30am who had travelled down from the North with Matt, Simon and Chris. Having not driven abroad for 5 years I was a bit worried about remembering which way to go around a roundabout but having safely negotiated the Channel Tunnel it wasn’t long before we were in Belgium enjoying a freshly made panini at a motorway service station…much nicer than the crap I’m used to seeing at Hilton Park services on the M6.

We got to the stadium nice and early…collected accreditation and parking pass and then headed to the photographers room to catch up with those who had arrived early. Then it was time to start working by covering both teams training sessions. The main talking point was John Terry, who had suffered a serious looking leg injury at Aston Villa last Saturday and whether or not he’d be fit to take part. We were all a bit surprised to see him come out with his team mates to take part and he then did a light 5 minute session by himself before realising he wasn’t going to be fit and he disappeared back down to the changing rooms. Knowing this was a story I rushed back to the wire room and got a few pictures sent before coming out to cover the rest of the session. Not much else happened and before we knew it we were leaving the stadium at 10pm, looking for somewhere to eat with a few others. Unfortunately everywhere around the stadium had just stopped serving food and so we headed to our hotel in Utrecht, a 20 minute drive from Amsterdam, before looking for a McDonalds which we ate in the car (very romantic).

Next morning we enjoyed a buffet breakfast before once again heading to the stadium early to try and get good spots for the match. Thankfully we were reasonably early and had good tickets meaning we should get good spots. Then it was the wait until the match started…plenty of time shooting general views of the stadium and trying to find interesting looking fans outside. When it came to UEFA handing out positions we managed to get the spots we had hoped for and all we could do now is pray the action happened where we were. Both me and Matt were lucky enough to borrow a couple pieces of kit (including a 14mm which would come in handy later in the evening) so were well equipped come kick off time. As the teams came out I spotted UEFA president Michel Platini with Benfica legend Eusebio and Dutch legend Johan Cruyff and I managed to shoot them at a time when they were sharing a joke which made for quite a nice picture.

The first half proved to be a bit rubbish with Benfica definitely the better side, despite neither side having any clear cut chances. The game sparked to life on 59 minutes when Fernando Torres rounded the Benfica keeper to open the scoring, before Oscar Cardozo levelled 10 minutes later through a penalty. His celebrations were muted though as he bizarrely went down with cramp. With the game nicely poised and the two teams evenly matched, it looked as though we’d be in for a late night with extra time and potentially penalties, but with 1 minute of added time left, Branislav Ivanovic rose to head a dramatic winner and run straight into the corner where Matt was placed. Rather than shoot a cele in the opposite corner I focused on the Chelsea bench and managed to get a few frames of the injured John Terry celebrating with his team mates. I managed to get these sent instantly before on the final whistle capturing the reactions of the jubilant Chelsea players.

It was then time to head to the half way line to shoot the trophy presentation, where me and Matt had decided that he would shoot it on a 70-200 whilst I would shoot tighter on the 400. This proved to work quite well as he ended up with completely different pictures from only a few feet away. After 5 minutes of Chelsea players posing for photos they ran for the away supporters where all 120 accredited photographers rushed to follow them. Having been sternly told by the UEFA officials not to go on the pitch we all stayed behind the advertising boards where Matt had a good position so I held back incase any of the players broke from the bunch and thankfully I was in a great position when Frank Lampard jumped over to get closer to celebrate in front of the away fans, where the 14mm Canon loaned me came in handy. A few more players including John Terry and Fernando Torres also did this and as they were leaving the pitch I managed to get a nice frame of managerial god Rafa Benitez giving the thumbs up after he silenced his critics by winning yet another European trophy.

Knowing I had some decent stuff in the bag I rushed back to my laptop to wire what I had ASAP so that we had a good chance of competing with the big wire agencies who had techs sending their stuff. After making sure we’d sent all the relevant live images, it was 12.30am and time to start the long journey back to Bristol, this time with another passenger, my good friend Joe Meredith who had flown over the day of the game. We stopped for petrol just outside of Amsterdam where the petrol was considerably cheaper than over here and then it was the challenge of trying to stay awake for the journey home, which was made easier by the fact Joe was talking nonsense the whole way back. After a quick 30 minute nap, it was time to say goodbye to Matt who jumped back in with the others whilst waiting for the tunnel and before we knew it we were back on English soil and stuck in traffic on the M25. After a slight delay there we were on our way along the M4 and I dropped Joe off before arriving home at 11.40am, a mere 11 hours after leaving Amsterdam.

More of mine and Matt’s work from the final can be seen at www.backpageimages.com

Championship Weekend

May 1, 2013

/ Kieran McManus

Last weekend saw me covering 3 matches – Leicester City vs Watford and Cardiff City vs Bolton Wanderers in the Championship, and Reading vs Queens Park Rangers who are both soon to be in that very league. A long drive up to Leicester on Friday afternoon was made worse when 30 minutes in my radio and satnav went bust meaning a rather boring 2 1/2 hours in silence. Having arrived safely in Leicester I decided to cover automatic promotion chasers Watford and was rewarded when they raced into a 2-0 first half lead, the highlight being a Nathaniel Chalobah screamer from 30 yards. The second half proved to be a more drab affair and Watford won 2-1 to keep their promotion hopes alive and leave Leicester’s play off hopes in tatters.

Next morning it was up nice and early to head to Cardiff where the home side would be presented with the nPower Championship trophy following their match against play-off hopefuls Bolton Wanderers. Bolton took the lead but Cardiff hit back in the 2nd half with a Craig Noone free-kick, which he followed up by celebrating in my direction. Having edited and sent the best ones out it was time to get ready for the post-match celebrations. Us photographers were politely told that we had to stay in one position as the trophy was awarded and if anybody tried anything different they would be ejected. Our position to the left of the podium wasn’t great but as always, TV takes priority. Frustratingly we weren’t allowed on the pitch for the lap of honour but as the players returned to the changing rooms we managed to get owner Tan Sri Vincent Tan and manager Malky Mackay to pose with the trophy. In amongst all the celebrations I noticed Craig Bellamy had his daughter Lexie on his shoulders as he left the pitch and it made for quite a nice picture as she held his winners medal. It was a small consolation after not being able to follow the players around the pitch with the trophy.

Sunday brought a different set of emotions as both Reading and Queens Park Rangers both needing to win to keep their very slim chances of Premier League survival alive. As it turned out the match was a 0-0 bore draw, despite QPR creating the better chances and this meant both teams were relegated to the Championship. At the final whistle it was all about trying to find players and supporters looking dejected. Most didn’t react in the way you’d expect but one QPR fan in the stands couldn’t hide his emotions and I think it sums up the mood of many following a disappointing season for both teams.