“Deflated. Despondent. Encouraged. Depressed.” Football fan Sam McArdle has been on a roller coaster ride as a dedicated fan.
He experiences a gamut of emotions in his devotion to hometown club Newcastle United.
But his love of all things associated with the game has inspired him in a journey of discovery around the grounds of the north east and Scotland.
Originally from Durham but now living in Edinburgh, working on University admissions and recruitment, Sam McArdle has always found an escape in his football and photography.
“As a kid, football was a social thing,” he said. “You played it at lunch, and everyone basically spoke about it all the time. But I think moving to Scotland was the first time that I really started to notice and appreciate ‘football culture’ as I do now.
“For me, ‘footballing culture’ is about the iron girders and rain battered thin metal rooves. The wooden seats. The muddy puddle on the goal line HAS a certain smell. “You appreciate a Scotch pie so much more if you can see the steam coming off it while you stand on concrete terracing. Back to the wind, shielding it from the spray off the North Sea at Arbroath away.”
It was matchday back in the North East of England that opened a young McArdle’s eyes to the allure of a lifetime of devotion to a football club.
“Nothing compares to Newcastle on a matchday. The stadium is right in the city centre. So, at half two on a Saturday afternoon there’s only one place the entire city seems to be heading, and that’s St James Park.
“It’s a tide. Like someone has pulled the plug out of the bath and everything is flowing in one singular direction.
“Football has always had a part to play in the identity and success of a town. And this is never truer than in the working class North East. Often ignored, forgotten or intentionally disenfranchised. Stripped of it’s industry and disregarded in modern Britain.
“In a place like Newcastle, the club is more than a club. It’s an escape and a one club in one community thing. But I guess money changes everything, and Newcastle are now part of what you might call ‘modern football’ where clubs are not owned by a successful and well-meaning local window tycoon, but by states.
“As a fan of Newcastle, I feel protective, excited and elated even. Deflated, despondent, encouraged, depressed. Alienated, concerned and relieved. And a little dirty – like a one-night stand.”
His experiences in Scotland have given McArdle an appreciation of what it is like for clubs striving to keep afloat, at the same time providing a connection to football and its culture.
“As a fan of Newcastle, I feel protective, excited and elated even. Deflated, despondent, encouraged, depressed. Alienated, concerned and relieved. And a little dirty – like a one-night stand.”
Sam McArdle
“You find these places in Scotland far more than in England,” he said. “Crumbling stadiums that last filed for planning permission in order put up floodlights, not to build an executive lounge or micro-brewery.
“It literally needs to be all about the fans in a genuine sense if tickets sales are 99 per cent of your income. It’s the sum of all these wonderful football experiences all over Scotland that connect me to footballing culture.
“Once you see it – and live it, it has you for life and you will defend it to the death.”
He was seven when he went to his first big game, he recalls, a goalless draw at Carrow Road between Norwich and Crystal Palace. He and his father went with complimentary tickets, courtesy of his sister, who worked in events at the club.
“To me, Carrow Road looked like the biggest arena on the planet! I always think back to the Bobby Robson quote about seeing the pitch for the first time and falling in love. And I guess that must have happened to me.”
Sam McArdle
“Once you see it, and live it, it has you for life. You will defend it to the death”
That image has remained embedded in McArdle’s memory. Now it is photography that helps keep those moments alive.
“Being able to capture a particular moment in time is such a special thing,” he said.
“That I could go somewhere, capture a moment and spark someone else’s interest in that place is a really rewarding concept. Photography is a way of sharing and bringing new perspectives to stories or moments – and I’ve always loved telling stories.”
It was the architecture surrounding football that originally appealed: “How the beautiful game is housed'” as McArdle explains it, “and where we go to worship it.”
“If you look at my photos and the stuff I have done before (not about football) you’ll notice they are most often shots of empty but (to me) interesting spaces.
“An old stand here, or a broken road sign there. One of my first football projects was during lockdown where I went to stadiums at 3pm on a Saturday. The uncomfortable stillness, that never had a certain end.
“Football is a visual culture to me. You grow up watching it on TV. You put posters up in your room of your favourite players. From the moment you pull on your first football kit, you are interacting with it as a visual experience and allowing the design of football into your life.”
McArdle clearly has a love of all things football, right down to his infatuation with football kits and their design.
“I am unfortunately one of those sad people that collect kits’, he said.
“You appreciate a Scotch pie so much more if you can see the steam coming off it while you stand on concrete terracing. Back to the wind, shielding it from the spray off the North Sea at Arbroath away.”
Sam McArdle
“I will bore you for hours about the fact Adidas are bringing back the taping on the sleeves or point out the 40 differences between the authentic player versions or stadium versions. I’ll go on and on and on about an age before polyester or the glory years of 90s kit design. But to me, they are not just bit of clothing. They are historically significant bits of visual culture that tell a story.
“Being able to capture a particular moment in time is such a special thing. That I could go somewhere, capture a moment and spark someone else’s interest in that place is a really rewarding concept. Photography is a way of sharing and bringing new perspectives to stories or moments – and I’ve always loved telling stories.”
Sam McArdle
“If you put on some Brazilian team’s kit from 1987, you’re not just getting dressed. You’re wearing a shirt that was bought at the time and worn at the time by someone else interacting with the very same game you love.
“Separated by distance and language and time but connected by a shirt. And that’s a cool thought, I think.”
You can follow Sam and his exploits on his Stoppage Time Winner account on Instagram and Twitter.
If you enjoyed that, you may also like Won Over by Albion Rovers, where photographer Iain McLean gives up watching a top flight club to become a regular visitor to Albion Rover’s Cliftonhill Stadium home, documenting their fortunes for over 20 years.
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