End of season review filled with highs and lows and much in-between.
I would like to do something different this season with my review, and hope you enjoy my reflections along with some key moments captured with my camera throughout the campaign. Apologies for posting later during the summer as well. But hopefully you will enjoy my posts of our 2022-23 season.
Supporting West Ham has to be up there on the list of life’s great stressors. Along with births, deaths, moving house and getting a hair cut. Honestly you would not have imagined such a topsy turvy season that would see many of us at our wits end, pulling our hair out (so needing a hair cut) trying to understand why we struggled for long periods last season, balanced by the sheer elation of winning a major trophy for the first time in 43 years!
Did our historic victory in Prague on 7th June make up for all the lows of the season? For me, hell yeah! But looking back at the season that has ended it made me realise there have been some wonderful moments, some that may have passed us by in the elation of the final throws of a season that shows we really are massive wherever we go.
Looking through the photos of the season I realised how many games I actually missed this campaign. Life got in the way and I had to follow some of our games online, plus I didn’t manage to get back to the stadium for new season until the start of the group stages of the Europa Conference League against FCSB. And what a match after a torrid start to the season with just the 1-1 draw against Spurs in the Premier League providing a sliver of light. The lack of pre match pyrotechnics, the rain and of course the news of the passing of Her Majesty the Queen that day created a strange atmosphere but the performance on the pitch turned that around.
I always get a shiver of excitement walking to the London Stadium for a match as I hear the chants and singing of the fans reverberating around the ground. Somehow and evening of football under the lights always has something more special about it.
I’m no royalist and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the home crowd, the atmosphere had been strange without the usual pre-match light show. But this felt like an end of an era. Like many I had only known Her Majesty the Queen as head of state in my lifetime, it was quite moving in many ways.
You cannot put a value on European football on Thursday nights from the season, the atmosphere is always kicking and the crowd always get behind the team as they stand throughout the whole match. Those empty seats will be filled as we progress throughout the tournament.
This is often my view though and I find myself standing on tips toes or trying to catch some shots between between people – I always ask myself ‘Why are the tallest people always in front of me?’ The answer of course is that I’m short!
Antonio’s last minute goal topped a performance that raised the roof and gave succour to our Premier League struggles. Antonio frustrates in equal measure to the joy he gives us when he scores. His powerful run and chip over the FCSB keeper was the icing on the cake for a perfect start on the road to the ECL final in Prague. If only we had more of this from Antonio rather than the dead ends he often find himself in after a powerful run.
October was a great month for us in the Premier League and ECL with 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats and made us believe our season had definitely started at last. Scamacca and Bowen both scored to sink Wolves at the London Stadium and kick start our mini revival where even in defeat to Liverpool we believed our fortunes in the Premier League would start to turn around given our performances in Europe.
I know the London Stadium divides opinions but as a photographer it offers some wonderful views and compositions and these shots can be quite dramatic, especially if the sky provides a stunning backdrop.
Scamacca’s excellent goal against Wolves had us dreaming of what the season could hold for us with him up front. Well, maybe next season?
I love photographing the fans around me as they celebrate a goal and they’ve got used to me with my camera catching moments like these.
Games were coming thick and fast for the team and squad rotation was key to keep us in the running in the ECL but two wins against Anderlecht surely confirmed our status as favourites to go on and win the trophy.
Another Europa Conference League match under the lights at the London Stadium saw Benrahma and Bowen put us two up to see out the match, despite a late penalty for the visitors. It also saw incredible scenes of flares going off in the away end that looked as if the stadium was on fire. The away fans also threw flares over to the home crowd and the stadium was filled with smoke for large parts of the game.
Dramatic scenes that I’ve never seen before and I was worried someone would get hurt or the match would be stopped. I am always anxious about bringing my camera into the stadium – how do these people get flares into the ground?
Benrahma’s excellent freekick gave us the lead in a tense match that followed our 1-0 away victory against the visitors and left us sitting top of our group on 12 points with just two matches to play. As the smoke dispersed cleared fans filed out of the stadium dreaming of the knockout stages to come.
Our 7th match in October saw us run 2-0 victors against visiting Bournemouth, and despite the rain, fans spirits could not be dampened as the victory lifted the Hammers to 10th in the league. It seems that we do well in the evening kick offs, especially if its raining!
I quite like the light shows before games. The flames and music and lights get the crowd going and ready for the match ahead. A challenge to capture with my camera that seriously doesn’t like low light photography.
Benrahma again on the scoresheet with another excellent penalty after a rare VAR decision going our way confirming that Bournemouth’s Jordan Zemura handled the ball in the area. Earlier in the match the visitors temporary boss Gary O’Neil had been upset about a decision also going our way as Zouma’s headed goal was allowed to stand after a VAR check to see if Thilo Kehrer had handled the ball in the build up. The victory lifted the Hammers to 10th in the league.
Benrahma seems to be our penalty taker now and has scored some excellent goals for us this season and has benefited from extended run in the team.
I don’t live far from the ground and its nights like this that I enjoy staying behind to see if I can capture some natural shots of fans celebrating or enjoying seeing the players walk around and clap our support.
Surely from this position we would be able to continue our progress in the build up to the international break before players jet off to the Qatar World Cup 2022 and start to climb up the table and push towards the top 6?
Be safe everyone.
From the Stands 