[Football] Stealing fans... from Barnet

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Always remember the late 90's games against Barnet. Skint vs Loaded.

 

[Dave the OAP]

When we lived in melksham, Wiltshire after coming back from South Africa, we went to see Southampton, Cardiff, Swindon, Bristol city and rovers but the only one we felt any affinity with at the time was Swindon...just up the road.

My dad found a better job in Crawley and used to go on a Monday morning and back Friday night and my parents decided to move. Dad didn’t fancy Crawley as a place to live, so they drew a 25 mile radius circle on a map and basically the only thing they wanted was to have a football team nearby. So it was a toss up between Brighton or Crystal Palace. They found a house at the back of Coulsden, which was a fab place, but it fell through so the next choice was a house in patcham, which they took.

So if that house hadn’t have fallen though, I would have been a palace fan.

 

[AmexRuislip]

My dad, a spuds supporter, took me to the Goldstone in 1976, have never looked back.
Used to travel on the footy special from Eastbourne, as my dad was BTP, who used to police the train to Hove.
All my old schoolmates followed Liverpool or QPR

 

[portlock seagull]

Locality or family ties are the only determining factors ie YOUR CLUB PICKS YOU! Nothing else is acceptable. You’re a fecking plastic otherwise.

End of thread. There’s nothing else to say or see here. Move along people. Move along.

 

[rusty redeyes]

Albion is a good middle name. It is timeless and also means Great Britain.

My daughter has Albion as her middle name, as does Jack whose Dad had the Albion gift shop and her and Jack were in same school year at Hove Park.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Locality or family ties are the only determining factors ie YOUR CLUB PICKS YOU! Nothing else is acceptable. You’re a fecking plastic otherwise.

End of thread. There’s nothing else to say or see here. Move along people. Move along.

Really

 

[Durlston]

So you're a Spurs fan.

No, Stat!

A plastic Gooner if my mate has a spare ticket but the cost is ridiculous for the whole day of beer, food etc.

 

[Sirnormangall]

I get all the stuff about local team or dad's team, but things were very different when I grep up in Portslade/Hove in the 60s and early 70s. Every lad interested in football in 1969/70 followed a division 1 team, even if they (we) went up the Albion (which many of us including me did). Who did I support? Leeds. As did my pals 'H' and 'Fritz'. Others followed Chelsea, Spuds, Liverpool....(not much ManU though - but they had fallen off their perch by 69 ).

That said, my son has lived only in Vancouver, London and Faversham, yet has accompanied me to several hundred BHA games. He has zero interest in any other club.

Meanwhile my little brother is still Leeds, my middle brother is still Chelsea (both since around 1970), and his son is bloody Arsenal, the weirdo - and they all live in Portslade or Sompting. I have taken them all to the Amex so they do take a bit of an interest (especially the middle brother). Family, eh?

Yes that was the way it was. Brighton was my team. - born and bred. But in the 60s and early 70s the thought that we might ever be in the top division was unthinkable. So me and most of my mates also supported a Div 1 team. In my case it was Don Revie’s Leeds and I never thought that my support of Leeds was being disloyal to Brighton.
I reckon that it’s your first experience of professional football that probably gets you hooked to a team. In my case ( probably the same for many of us) Dad took me to a match at the Goldstone, midweek under floodlights. As a five year old I’d never been to such an event before - late night out with Dad, 20k plus noisy crowd, we won, the roar of the crowd etc. Why wouldn’t I want to go again?....and again?!
Then he took me to Westham a couple of times a year from when I was 10 years old: Moore, Peters, Hurst and Greaves. A day out in London, 40k crowd. So I’ve always had a soft spot for The Hammers. But when we play Leeds and Westham, I’ll always support the Seagulls of course and for similar reasons so will my boys.

 

[Grassman]

I get all the stuff about local team or dad's team, but things were very different when I grep up in Portslade/Hove in the 60s and early 70s. Every lad interested in football in 1969/70 followed a division 1 team, even if they (we) went up the Albion (which many of us including me did). Who did I support? Leeds. As did my pals 'H' and 'Fritz'. Others followed Chelsea, Spuds, Liverpool....(not much ManU though - but they had fallen off their perch by 69 ).

That said, my son has lived only in Vancouver, London and Faversham, yet has accompanied me to several hundred BHA games. He has zero interest in any other club.

Meanwhile my little brother is still Leeds, my middle brother is still Chelsea (both since around 1970), and his son is bloody Arsenal, the weirdo - and they all live in Portslade or Sompting. I have taken them all to the Amex so they do take a bit of an interest (especially the middle brother). Family, eh?

I’m glad I’m a few years younger than you Harry. I was born in Portslade (as you know, near you in Foredown area) and only ever had eyes for one team - it was probably 74/75 that I was old enough to know about football, we weren’t any good for a few more years, so I was definitely ahead of the curve!

 

[portlock seagull]

Getting a bit confused here, you live in America or Russia?

More seriously, the "local club" thing is great but not always possible. First, some places have shit football. I'm from the worst footballing city in Sweden, the only 100k+ city that never had a team in the highest division and havent played in the second division since 1992 or 1993. The "local" option for me, if I wanted a decent club with decent football culture, was to cheer for Malmö FF, but my city got a rivalry with Malmö in a lot of other topics so it was never an option. Aside from the 7th tier club I played and coached in, there was no options - and I actually feel I missed out on something. I grasp the concept of wanting to cheer for a local club, so I understand the guy OP was referring to in a sense.

At the same time I feel its stupid to try to force something based on geography. Sure, it would be fantastic if I fell in love with the girl next door. But thats not how love works.

Boo hoo. Shit happens. Get on with it or take your chances with reincarnation. Support your local team. Thin and thin. Where do you think the Albion would be now if we’d all ****ed off during the war years? Mmm? eh? Chelsea, that’s right! It doesn’t bear thinking about becoming some dirty plastic turncoat. Now, tell us about FC Loganberry or whoever it is? There must be SOMETHING good about them?! Maybe we could all become honorary English members of their supporters club?

 

[Poojah]

Bringing up your kids away from where you grew up is a tricky one for me personally. I’m Grimsby born and bred, I’ve supported Grimsby Town from as early as I can remember in my life and I will do so until I die. For the record, I read this forum and post here ocassionally as it just happens to be a really good football forum, and in fact a really good forum in general for me (ooh, get you...).

My lad is nearly 6, was born in Leeds and will almost certainly grow up here in Leeds. The only connection he had to Grimsby is the fact that his grandparents live there and he occasionally comes back with me to see a game every now and then.

His first ever football match was a Grimsby Town game with me (his dad) and his grandad. Just as mine was. For my own, personal (and maybe slightly spiritual / sentimental) reasons, I always wanted that to be the case. But that’s as far as I’m going to push it.

One of the special things about supporting your home town team is the connection you have with everyone around you, be it in your own ground or some obscure town / city in the middle of nowhere. You might all come from different walks of life, but you all have that one thing in common - your place of birth / upbringing.

For me, that’s Grimsby. For him, it’s going to be Leeds. I find it tough to accept to be honest, but I think it’s the fair and right direction to nudge him in. I’d much rather that than him support some random elite team for no other reason than they’re successful or good on FIFA.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I get all the stuff about local team or dad's team, but things were very different when I grep up in Portslade/Hove in the 60s and early 70s. Every lad interested in football in 1969/70 followed a division 1 team, even if they (we) went up the Albion (which many of us including me did). Who did I support? Leeds. As did my pals 'H' and 'Fritz'. Others followed Chelsea, Spuds, Liverpool....(not much ManU though - but they had fallen off their perch by 69 ).

That said, my son has lived only in Vancouver, London and Faversham, yet has accompanied me to several hundred BHA games. He has zero interest in any other club.

Meanwhile my little brother is still Leeds, my middle brother is still Chelsea (both since around 1970), and his son is bloody Arsenal, the weirdo - and they all live in Portslade or Sompting. I have taken them all to the Amex so they do take a bit of an interest (especially the middle brother). Family, eh?

I'm a bit older than you, but also grew up in Portslade. My Dad took me to the Goldstone when I was 12/13 and I never looked back.
My second team was Brighton Tigers ice hockey, and I was heart broken when they had to disband in 65.

My ex was a Leeds fan, but my son became a Bradford fan, and my grandson is now a Huddersfield fan, so they support their local team.