One of the oldest football teams in England, Grimsby Town were formed in 1878, the same year as Manchester United and two years before the 2022-23 treble winning Manchester City.
For the League Two side, it was their own FA Cup run that season – that was the real highlight of what would otherwise appear to have been another season just drifting around the lower leagues.
However, as local Grimsby fan and photographer Richard McClean points out, and his pictures will prove, there is far more to supporting a football team than just winning.
Grimsby’s 2022-23 fairytale FA Cup run saw them smash Luton Town 3-0 in a replay at Blundell Park, beat Southampton 1-2 at St Mary’s, and were only stopped by high flying Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion, loosing 5-0 at the Amex.
The Mariners would became only the fifty fourth-tier team to reach the last eight of the FA Cup in the competitions entire history.
Richard McClean’s black and white photographs from Grimsby match days aren’t just about the glory.
Far from it, in fact.
They take in the true essence of what following a community based club like Grimsby Town throughout a season looks like.
Through thick and thin, come rain or shine supporters back their team – returning week after week – irrespective of what came before them or what may come after.
Talking with Lower Block, Richard discusses his photography, his inspiration and influences and what football and Grimsby Town mean to him.
Richard McClean: I’ve supported Grimsby Town since I was about 10 as they’re my local team. I tried a few of the big teams on for size when I was growing up but nothing seemed to fit.
I had a strictly religious upbringing so although I was football obsessed, I didn’t get to see the Mariners in the flesh until I went to University. A flatmate was a Bolton Wanderers season ticket holder so he took me to the Reebok for a First Division [now Championship] fixture on a bitterly cold Tuesday evening in his beat up Nissan Micra. They ended up being promoted to the Premier League that season whilst we battled against relegation. I think he wanted to show me ‘proper football’, but we drew 2-2 and I’m not sure I managed to keep the smug feeling from reaching my face!
LOWER BLOCK: Tell me a bit about this project. How did it come about and what was your inspiration for it?
RM: It came about accidentally… I’ve always had a variety of creative interests but during lockdown my younger brother Andy and I decided to actually do what we’d often spoken about and make a project out of our photography. We formed Seagull Swamp and made a couple of books from our photographs. I continued to focus on photography and later that year got a secondhand compact camera so I could carry a camera everywhere and use it in situations that didn’t work with the DSLR.
LB: What kit did you use for this project?
RM: Panasonic Lumix TZ100, it’s relatively inexpensive, has an EVF and fits in a pocket which I’ve found makes it ideal for football.
Shortly after getting the Lumix I went to London on a family trip and in memory of my late uncle Philip, who was a big fan of Charlton Athletic, went to a League One game against Cambridge United at The Valley with my son. The camera was no good for pictures of the game but the crowds and the murals caught my eye and I liked the way I could tell a story about the experience so I started taking it along to Grimsby games. It kind of snowballed from there. My son really got into going to the games, he asked me for a season ticket, we got promoted, then the 2022-23 FA Cup run happened.
My son, who was seven at the time, asked me for the season ticket after a 3-1 home defeat to Maidenhead United. Initially I was really proud of myself for being a great Grimsby Town dad but then I realised why he’d enjoyed the game so much. We’d been to the match with his U8 football team and he’d spent the whole game chatting, singing, eating sweets and banging on the corrugated iron walls of the Pontoon stand. The game wasn’t just about the result, there was more to football than just that.
LB: Any artists inspirations for your work?
RM: My dad was a keen photographer, my older brother Chris is a professional, so it was always around me growing up.
I wasn’t aware of anyone else doing anything similar when I first started taking pictures at matches but I quickly discovered loads of great football photographers such Sam Cornish, Mike Bayly, Lewis Guy and Andrea Ardolino among many others. I try to take a little bit from each one but mostly it’s the motivation to be braver and push harder to get the shots that really reflect the atmosphere of live football. I want to try to represent the view from the stands and that feeling of being amongst the crowd.
I like to have influences outside of football too, it can be fun trying to apply an approach from outside of football to the match day. For example there’s a great local photographer, Dan Baker, who continually works the same few hundred yards of Cleethorpes Promenade honing his craft. He aims to get three things into his photos: composition, colour [in b&w I substitute this with contrast] and a moment. I’m nowhere close to his ability but that aim and example of work ethic is often in the back of my mind when I’m shooting.
With photography, I love the fact you can say so much without saying anything at all but also that your work can mean different things to different people.
LB: Do you have a favourite photo from this series?
RM: My favourite is probably the one from the second goal at Luton away with the young lad celebrating and the guy flicking the V’s in the background. The layers and emotion were exactly what I’d been trying to capture all season and it marked a kind of turning point for me in terms of my ability with the camera which stood me in good stead for the rest of the season, particularly when it came to putting the zine together.
RM: There is nothing quite like standing with a few hundred or thousand people with whom you have a common identity and being united in laughter, anger, joy or song. The challenge of trying to bottle that moment, while remaining in it, really stretches me as a photographer.
RM: We’re lucky at Grimsby to have great owners who are putting the club back at the centre of the local community. Jason Stockwood, the current Chairman, speaks of how many of the civic institutions and industries which once formed the backbone to our lives have faded away over the last half century but football clubs remain and can be a place that draws people together whatever their background, politics or beliefs. Simple things like inviting local street food vendors to provide match day catering or providing free coding training for those looking for a career switch sit alongside broader structural changes but all form part of placing the club at the heart of the town’s renewal and the restoration of pride in our club.
Keep up with Richard on Instagram and Twitter.
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