England Team Is In The Dark Ages

After last nights dire performance against those giants of the world game the Republic Of Ireland Gary Linekar has been scathing of England declaring " it was a tactically regressive display from Roy Hodgson's side, describing it as "a step back to the dark ages of two lines of four".,

So why has the England team become one of the most tedious predictable and uninspiring sides in world football that if we are honest has not produced a side to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck since Euro 96,well look at the following list of names that may give a clue

Tony Currie
Rodney Marsh
Stan Bowles
Frank Worthington
Matthew Le Tissier
Glen Hoddle
Chris Waddle
Steve Mcmanamen

What do all these players of the last 30 years have in common,well 2 things firstly they were players of immense flair and secondly to varying degrees they were either underused or not used at all by their country.
Most countries would have build their teams around these players but England underused them with the usual excuse that their work rate was not good enough they were not team players etc etc,as a result England has more and more become a team of journeymen.
Look at the "Stars" of the last 15 years the so called Golden Generation and the 2 members of that group who have been idolised Steven Gerard and David Beckham,both of these are hard working players who will run all day and give their all for the team but rarely have they come up with the touch of inspiration that makes you gasp ,in fact the most skillful player of that group Paul Scholes was as with other marginalised and played out of position so often that in the end he gave up on his country.

So what has this to do with the current state of the team,well basically the "idols" of the last 15 years have not been the players of skill and flair but the hard workers the blood and guts true englishmen type of player and this is what has inspired the new generation.
So until we encourage the flair player again the maverick  who will inspire we will never produce  a Messi or Ronaldo a Hazard or a Mata and will continue to trundle along on the fringes of world football,and more importantly if we do produce one of these gems by luck more than judgement we must allow them to flourish and build the side around them not marginalise them as has happened so often in the past

Photography As A Business Is Tough

As anyone who reads my ramblings will know apart from the occasional wedding for friends and family my photography is purely a hobby,one that takes up a lot of my spare time but its not my source of income, well last saturday I had a small taste of what life would be like were it a business.

A friend of mine the excellent photographer Garry Griffiths of 353 Photography asked me to help him out with a double booking that he had,it wasn't a mammoth amount of work just photographing 2 Junior League finals in Rugby,just over 6 hours work.So off I trundled met Garry at the first match got the idea of what was required and settled down to do my 2 matches.

Now technically this was nothing that I hadn't done before Team shots, Ref and Captains,Action shots during the match and Presentation and Celebrations at the end, the difference is that always in the back of the mind is the thought that someone is paying for this and you can't afford to get it wrong ,in addition I didn't want to let Garry down.

Well it all got done and i think the shots were ok but I now have so much more respect for the pro's who earn their living at this level,mine was just one day and i felt the pressure what it must be like for those like Garry who do it day in and day out,it all looks very glamorous when you are pitchside at a Wembley final but its the nitty gritty of the daily grind that pays the bills.

So the odd occasion to help a mate is fine but as the day job well I'll leave that to the experts and stick to doing it for fun

To The Far North Of Our Islands

The companies most northerly customer is also as far north as you can get in this country that place being the Shetland Islands, can I say from the start that I am a big fan having been about 6 times now I love the scenery,the wildlife,the food and especially the people so this is a totally biased blog on my 3 days there this month.

Going this far north at this time of year also means lots of lovely light with the sun not setting until around 10.00 so its a leisurely meal after work and still chance to get out and get some photographs or at the other end of the day pickies before heading off to work even if thats an early start.

So really a chronological look in pictures through my few days

Tuesday April 30th arrived at the hotel unpacked and then had a stroll around Scalloway,not a long stroll because its a very small place but a pleasant location as is much of Shetland

Wednesday morning beautiful sunshine so a quick pull in above the town on the way to work to look at Scalloway from a different angle

Arrived at the office a few minutes early so as it's on the waterfront at Lerwick another chance to grab a few quick shots,in shot 3 the square object on the right is a Floating Hotel brought in to house the extra influx of oil workers at this time of year

In the evening it was a trip to the 2 adjoining islands of Trondra and Burra near Scalloway connected by single track bridges,some great scenery but the downside is that most of the roads are single track with passing places so the opportunity to stop and take shots are limited

Now Wednesday evening was a bit different,as anyone who reads my ramblings on a regular basis knows i do like to get to see local football whenever the chance presents itself  and luckily the Shetland League that is  Spring and Summer oriented for obvious reasons was just getting under way,I had a number of options but plumped for the interestingly named Spurs B playing their reserve league match against Scalloway B.The standard as you would expect with a small population to draw from is not great but what the players lacked in ability they more than made up for with enthusiasm and an almost pathological sense of good sportsmanship,the downside from my angle was that I had not come equipped for a howling wind and snow flurries so I chickened out at half time and missed Spurs third goal in their 3-0 win.

And so to Thursday and the journey home and sadly the massed ranks of Puffins and other Sea Birds that I have seen at Sumburgh Head near the airport in the past have not yet arrived so all I got was a few shots around the Sumburgh area before I flew out