Everyone knew that the moment the final whistle went the crowd would go insane. The pitchside security had given up trying to control them. I waited, crouched behind the goal eager to capture the moment. The whistle went. One person made a jump for the barrier. Then another. Two more. Then a tsunami of fans poured onto the pitch. Grown men crying. People screaming with happiness. Euphoria took over the air as Middlesbrough celebrated.
I had been chosen by the Premier League to capture the feelings of the final match of the season. My brief was to watch the crowd and photograph them. It’s the strangest way to be in a stadium - you don’t know what’s happening on the pitch, but you do know the emotions of the people around you intimately. Every movement watched intensely, every goal a triumph, every miss a tragedy.
I finished the night standing on a seat overlooking a pitch covered in people, chants echoing around the stadium summing up what awaited them next season...
“WE. ARE. PREMIER LEAGUE. WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE.”
Labels: celebrate, fans, football, life, match, middlesborough, premier league