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I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.

They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool, Villa and Spurs.

Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.

While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fan has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can it?

The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.

Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.

But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have no local connection to is both souless and sterile.

As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.

I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League side in the cup or escaping the abyss of non league football.

Totally agree. Grimsby Town are part of me and who I am.

I think Frank Skinner called it right when he said that you should put your finger on a map where you were born, and make ever increasing circles until you find your nearest football club, and that's your team.

I didn't choose to support Grimsby Town, Grimsby Town chose me!

Would you feel the same about them if they supported a lower league team they have no connection to?
I feel roughly the same. I think supporting the team is kind of a modern-day 'belong to a tribe'.Some people might have a stronger legitimate connection to a tribe,others less so.
My son was born in Kingston-on-Thames, but we moved back North when he was two years old, and he's lived in Beverley for most of his life. He supports Town (rather than the mud-rats) because his Dad does. Would that be a legitimate tribal connection?
What about his friend, who supports Man Utd because his Dad (who has no connection to Manchester) does? (They share a season ticket with another family, so do go to games regularly, if that makes a difference). Does he have a legitimate tribal connection? Would you say no, because his Dad doesn't?
I must admit, I tend to be sanctimonious about it, but it gets tricky when you start to unpick individual cases. Tricky, isn't it!

Quoted from wigworld

Would you feel the same about them if they supported a lower league team they have no connection to?
I feel roughly the same. I think supporting the team is kind of a modern-day 'belong to a tribe'.Some people might have a stronger legitimate connection to a tribe,others less so.
My son was born in Kingston-on-Thames, but we moved back North when he was two years old, and he's lived in Beverley for most of his life. He supports Town (rather than the mud-rats) because his Dad does. Would that be a legitimate tribal connection?
What about his friend, who supports Man Utd because his Dad (who has no connection to Manchester) does? (They share a season ticket with another family, so do go to games regularly, if that makes a difference). Does he have a legitimate tribal connection? Would you say no, because his Dad doesn't?
I must admit, I tend to be sanctimonious about it, but it gets tricky when you start to unpick individual cases. Tricky, isn't it!

Yep, completely agree with your valid points, it's not black and white, if you'll pardon the pun.

My cousin who was born and grew up in North London yet has always been die hard Town as our grandpa used to take us to games as kids, which I always thought (and still do) was class.

All I'm pretty sure about is that no plastic supporter could feel the high we felt Wembley 98 or 16, or the low of the Burton game etc that for me is what football is all about the passion.

Quoted from Withnail

I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.

They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool,. Villa and Spurs.

Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.

While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fans has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can

The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional cost of a trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.

Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.

But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have non local connection to is both souless and sterile.

As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.

I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League giant in the league or escaping the abyss of non league football.

Sign of the times
We will all be following Barca or Madrid instead of local small clubs in next 20 years.

Quoted from IlkleyMariner

Sign of the times
We will all be following Barca or Madrid instead of local small clubs in next 20 years.

Not me, it's Grimsby or no football.

Quoted from Withnail

I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.

They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool,. Villa and Spurs.

Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.

While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fans has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can it?

The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.

Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.

But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have non local connection to is both souless and sterile.

As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.

I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League giant in the cup or escaping the abyss of non league football.

But the extreme opposite is people choosing a non league team like Dulwich Hamlet as they are "Hip".
I dont mind anyone having an affinity to a team as long as they are loyal to it, doesnt really matter how that started, although there are large generational swings, in my lifetime Leeds and Chelsea from the 70's picked up glory support, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea again, Man City, Liverpool again....so there is always a swing to success but some people pick names, colours, maybe a player at a club .....they maybe shouldn't criticized for a choice of club...even though every Town supporter would say you should support your home town team.
Growing up a mate of mine was a Derby fan, they were well past their best by then and not an obvious choice....but his dad was a Derby fan so it was passed down.

If Town go down I'll still support them even if they're playing Ragarse Rovers

I really think we’ve got more important things to be debating at the minute. We’re facing non league again and the plastics won’t give a fook about us .

I will be 65 next week. (Pm if you want to send a gift), & growing up just outside Rasen most kids of my era tended to “support” the team that won the first FA Cup Final they could remember. This was mainly due to the fact that this was more or less the only live game on tv in the early sixties, not even international matches were shown live, and hence had far more kudos than winning the league.

Anyway in 62 Spurs won and are to this day my Premiership team and I go with a couple of my kids two or three times a year. My affinity to Spurs led me to ask a mate if I could go with him and his dad to watch Town play Brighton in a night match, 1965, as I wanted to see Bobby Smith play. Anyway a night at the front of the Barrett Stand, floodlights, the smell of tobacco and a 3-0 town win meant from that night I was a town fan & have been going now for 56 years.

I could argue I still follow both teams but Kalala’s goal proved where my real loyalty lies and it’s town’s results that mean the most and me and the lad hardly miss a home match and normally have a season ticket, cried when we went out the league, cried when we came back and have a stock of new handkerchiefs ready for the end of this season but hoping they won’t be required.

I supported the WANDERERS for a long time :) :)

The big thing for me, whoever you support, is going to live football.

After several months of watching iFollow, I’ve realised that I wouldn’t really be a football fan if I couldn’t go to live games. It’s just dull; win, lose or draw, I find it hard to get over-emotional when watching it on the box! It’s a different story if you put me at a live game...

Simply put, I pity the arm chair supporters of this land... comfort or no comfort!

Quoted from golfer

I supported the WANDERERS for a long time :) :)

Royal Engineers all the way.

That is until the Casuals came along. Play up you chocolate and pinks*!

* nearly made a faux pas and said ‘blue’

Great question Withnail and great counter-questions Wigworld. I suppose if you choose a non-local club it comes down to authenticity of your reason. The non-Brummy who still supports Villa because they were champions 40 years ago but stuck with them through the thin years since, for example. Isn’t he just trying to lend some dignity to a childhood decision after the event?

My son has adopted Town/been adopted by Town despite being born in Kingston. I didn’t brainwash him honest. I’ve not really talked to him about why Town and not Chelsea (which 90% of local kids ‘support’), and not Wimbledon (I used to buy him his season tickets) who played in the town, and not Fulham, the next biggish club.

My daughters are ‘meh’ about the whole thing.

I was born 1/2 mile and lived about 7 miles from 'The old showground', Scunny's old ground to you young ones. When I was about 4 my dad loaded me and a stool onto a bus, a bus which he went on every other Saturday. He told he was taking me to watch a good football team.

After about a hour ( longer some times due to country A roads and bad weather) we arrived in this car/bus park along with what I thought was 20+ other bus's. A kind man lifted me over a turnstile, he too young to pay and eventually I was deposited behind the Osmond stand goal on a stool.

It was a fantastic experience, 17,000+ crowd (poor gate under 17,000) and 2 coppers in opposite corners. Pushing 70 I'm still supporting them and dad's up there watching down, he never waivered.

To me a true supporter never changes his team while the prawn sandwich brigade come and go. Some may now realise why I post what I see and want. Not for a green tick or to upset for a red cross but for the best for Town.

As a type of saying goes :-

You can take a supporter away from Blundell Park
But you can't take Town away from a supporter.

UTM

Everyone has a story of how they get into Football and why and it’s something I think is unique to each person in some way shape or form.
To me it’s like life in general and is about connection.
It’s care, passion and love. It’s anger and frustration. It’s about pride and embarrassment. Its punishment and reward, happiness and dislike, dedication and commitment. It’s entertainment, it’s remembering and forgetting and it’s the telling of stories, the humour and sadness.
It’s about values, tradition, family, community and ritual but above all else It’s in the belonging.
However you come across your own tie to a club, is less important to me, than having it.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Great question Withnail and great counter-questions Wigworld. I suppose if you choose a non-local club it comes down to authenticity of your reason. The non-Brummy who still supports Villa because they were champions 40 years ago but stuck with them through the thin years since, for example. Isn’t he just trying to lend some dignity to a childhood decision after the event?

My son has adopted Town/been adopted by Town despite being born in Kingston. I didn’t brainwash him honest. I’ve not really talked to him about why Town and not Chelsea (which 90% of local kids ‘support’), and not Wimbledon (I used to buy him his season tickets) who played in the town, and not Fulham, the next biggish club.

My daughters are ‘meh’ about the whole thing.

Good points KM.

I think it's great that your lad follows Town, despite being born and brought up in Kingston.

I doff my hat, especially after you you got him season tickets for his local team and he avoided the temptation of Chelski.

I don't think I could bring myself to get my lad a season ticket for two of his local teams - Forest Green and Cheltenham. I'd consider getting him a season ticket at the other local club (Swindon) if he was desperate to go with his pals but only if I had a written guarantee that he'd always support the Mariners as his first team, regardless. 😎 Hopefully we'll be a more appealing prospect when he's old enough to take a real interest. UTM.

Using the frank skinner approach I would be a Liverpool supporter as my closest league team. Lucky escape. To Grimsby in 1958 to see Grimsby town. Remember Alan Barnett in goal.

Quoted from Withnail

I do a regular online quiz with some lads who all like football.

They're good lads but all grew up in a town without a professional football team (where I now live) so support various Premier League teams - Liverpool, Villa and Spurs.

Anyway...whenever they bang on about "their" teams my eyes glaze over and I zone out.

While the Villa fan would get to a couple of games a season (pre Covid) and the Spurs fan has use of a corporate season ticket, I just don't see them as authentic football fans. It's not jealousy (I don't think) or inverted snobbery. I just don't see how someone living in a different part of the country can have a deep and meaningful connection to a football club if there's no family/local link. Without this surely a club can't be part of your DNA, can it?

The other major difference is that I dread to think how much I've invested in following Town over the years. If you include travel, food, tickets, beers (obviously not compulsory) overnights...etc...it dwarfs the cost of the occasional trip to Villa Park, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, or in the case of the Liverpool fan, annual Sky Sports subscription.

Do you agree, or am I being sanctimonious twit? I appreciate there is an element of hypocrscy as were Town ever to find themselves in the top flight (yeah right) I'm sure I'd be all over the Prem.

But in conclusion, for me, supporting a non local Prem team who you have no local connection to is both souless and sterile.

As much as it pains me to see us second bottom in the football pyramid, I wouldn't swap it for being a plastic (insert big Prem team) fan.

I'm almost sure they pity me supporting Town but ironically I pity them more as they'll never know the euphoria of your local team giant killing a Premier League side in the cup or escaping the abyss of non league football.

It’s always a contentious debate however my feelings are, does it really matter?

I grew up 15 miles away from Grimsby, however within 15 miles of where I live now, I could support Chesterfield, Sheff Wed, Sheff Utd, Rotherham and Barnsley. When my children grow up, i would naturally want them to support Grimsby but by the cause of the debate they would have to support one of my local teams.

Ultimately, everyone has different reasons for the teams they support and whether you agree with that or not, it really shouldn’t matter. Get behind your team and stick with them through thick and thin.

Quoted from Withnail

Good points KM.

I think it's great that your lad follows Town, despite being born and brought up in Kingston.

I doff my hat, especially after you you got him season tickets for his local team and he avoided the temptation of Chelski.

I don't think I could bring myself to get my lad a season ticket for two of his local teams - Forest Green and Cheltenham. I'd consider getting him a season ticket at the other local club (Swindon) if he was desperate to go with his pals but only if I had a written guarantee that he'd always support the Mariners as his first team, regardless. 😎 Hopefully we'll be a more appealing prospect when he's old enough to take a real interest. UTM.

I can’t take credit for him supporting Town. Obviously I tried but didn’t want to push it as me and his mum got divorced, so I didn’t want to risk town in case he pushed back if you know what I mean.
But I did encourage the Wimbledon thing as being better than Chelsea. Luckily his best school mates also went to watch Wimbledon including one who’s dad was Oldham and one who’s dad was Charlton. Worst case scenario he would support a club that he couldn’t possibly be accused of being a glory hunter for.

What he does say that Town fans are the best he’s been among. H s been with Wimbledon, Fulham, Brizzle Rovers, Chelsea?, Sheffield u, Huddersfield and someone else, and Town are the best.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

What he does say that Town fans are the best he’s been among. H s been with Wimbledon, Fulham, Brizzle Rovers, Chelsea?, Sheffield u, Huddersfield and someone else, and Town are the best.

Followed up by "Dad I need some money..."? ;D

I've spent a fair bit of my adult life abroad and usually follow a local team wherever I am.  As much as I enjoy going to the games celebrating a win, it never comes as such a high as watching Town win.  Also, I feel the hurt more when the Mariners lose.  With my 'temporary' team It's more a shrug of the shoulders and then onto the next game.  Maybe that's a good think.  Less stress.

Somebody mention that it's not so exciting watching on the box.  he obviously didn't see me when Nathan Arnold scored his goal.  My girlfriend at the time couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.  I am sure the neighbours didn't either.  Most of the lads that go to Ho Chi Minh City matches follow their local side -Port Vale, Swindon, Crewe, Sunderland - You know, the glamorous places that grace our land. We even had a lad that supported Bognor!  He went to live in Bangkok and listened to Humberside when we played them in the cup. I do get immediately suspicious and judge (sometimes wrongly) when someone says they support Man U.  Only the other day, I met a United supporter but he grew up within a stone's throw of Old Trafford.  I suppose you can't really knock that.

So in answer to your question of who has the best deal, it depends on what type of person you are.  On one hand, it's a bit of a lottery depending on where you're born or which team you went to see live first.  On the other, it's about what you make of it.  For me personally, despite our cack position in the league, I think I got a great deal.  UTM!

I do think we all suffer a greater emotional investment in it, which is why I fear if we carry on not being allowed to go that habits will be broken, especially given the general crapness at the moment, people will become more and more disenfranchised as every week we don't go it's that bit further away.

I have a soft spot for Liverpool and since I went to University have paid more attention to their results and watched more games than I did previously, given I spent time with Liverpool fans as GTFC isn't very high on the average Uni footy fan's knowledge or interest list. However, I do feel a lot of them don't really understand what it's like to be a proper fan as it were. Some seemed genuinely perplexed at how I went whenever I could before March. The flip side of that is once you're committed, you're committed and as much as I wish I had no interest sometimes, I can't stop myself from getting frustrated or angry when it all goes wrong.

I wasn't born in Grimsby and have never lived there but I still feel an emotional connection to it.

I was a football mad kid, playing in the back alley and street every night after school and for hours and hours on Sidney Park at the weekends. Could see the floodlights from my house, so it was inevitable the two would merge at some point. Pocket money went on the Saturday Minors at the ABC cinema, so didn't have any money left to pay to get in, so sometimes we would scale the fence, sometimes we would go at half time covered in mud from the park. At 12 I got a paper job, and that led to selling the Sports Telegraph in the ground and we were let in BP in the second half to sell the papers. It was the 72 season, and well, need I say more. Spent more time watching than selling and soon gave up selling altogether. Been to almost every home game since. Can't understand why anyone would want to "support" a Prem team from afar, but each to their own.

ABC Minors! I remember that. Just.

Quoted from ginnywings

I was a football mad kid, playing in the back alley and street every night after school and for hours and hours on Sidney Park at the weekends. Could see the floodlights from my house, so it was inevitable the two would merge at some point. Pocket money went on the Saturday Minors at the ABC cinema, so didn't have any money left to pay to get in, so sometimes we would scale the fence, sometimes we would go at half time covered in mud from the park. At 12 I got a paper job, and that[/b] led to selling the Sports Telegraph in the ground and we were let in BP in the second half to sell the papers.[b] It was the 72 season, and well, need I say more. Spent more time watching than selling and soon gave up selling altogether. Been to almost every home game since. Can't understand why anyone would want to "support" a Prem team from afar, but each to their own.

How can you sell the sports telegraph before the results came in, did the sports telegraph come out earlier in the seventies, I can only remember getting the sports telegraph about 6pm.

Quoted from The Yard Dog

How can you sell the sports telegraph before the results came in, did the sports telegraph come out earlier in the seventies, I can only remember getting the sports telegraph about 6pm.

Good point, probably my mind playing tricks with my memory. I sold the Telegraph at the ground is all I remember. Didn't sell any anyway, as I was too busy watching the footy. The guy who dished out the papers used to say to me "you bring more back than I gave you to start with". ;D

Think we were then given the Sport Telegraph to deliver once we'd taken back the unsold ones to a little hut in Phelps Street.

My Dad once said to me "anyone can be a fan of a football club, but it takes more to be a supporter"

Obviously people have whatever reason for choosing their team, be it family affinity or where they grew up; but if you've never been to watch that team live I don't understand how you can feel properly connected to it.

It's not just the match, it's the smell, the roar, the people you talk to every week even though you don't know their name.

Just feel pretty blessed not to live in an area that has a plastic Premiership club. Proper football means players who earn a normal wage not those on £1million plus a year who aren’t very good.

It’s always an interesting conversation in Portugal when most Algarvians support Benfica or Sporting. Now there’s two local teams in Primeira Liga and no one knows who to support when the local teams are playing the Lisbon teams. I always want Portimonense to win yet most of the locals are supporting Benfica. They don’t like the word plastic either!

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Just feel pretty blessed not to live in an area that has a plastic Premiership club. Proper football means players who earn a normal wage not those on £1million plus a year who aren’t very good.

It’s always an interesting conversation in Portugal when most Algarvians support Benfica or Sporting. Now there’s two local teams in Primeira Liga and no one knows who to support when the local teams are playing the Lisbon teams. I always want Portimonense to win yet most of the locals are supporting Benfica. They don’t like the word plastic either!

Try ‘plástico’ 😆

I'm only 55 but been through thick and thin, home and away since i was about 8. Before i followed Leeds as loved Eddie Gray's silky skills. As you say its the live experience, i still am taken back to the Barrett stand when i smell tobacco and my youthful days. This is why games behind closed doors are so sad, but understand and can't wait to be back, especially on away days. Supporting your local club is an emotional connection that prem fans will never experience or understand. I shed tears away at Everton when Wilkie scored, at Liverpoolwhen Jevons scored, blubbed when nathan scored to get us back in the FL but also shed a tear and laughed at our fans antics and chants on many an away day and am proud to be a Mariner.
The difference is i'm not a fan but a supporter as its about supporting our team at difficult times like now because these poor times will not last for ever and things have to look up soon. I shudder to think how much i've spent following town, but do you know what, i wouldn't change a thing - GTFC is part of my DNA. UTM

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Just feel pretty blessed not to live in an area that has a plastic Premiership club. Proper football means players who earn a normal wage not those on £1million plus a year who aren’t very good.

Positives and downsides to play for for a local team such as Grimsby . Players are living the dream  but it comes with a lot of risk/hardship as well. Because of the money side being poor Ive spoken to players who have struggled after the game has finished/released or fall down the football pyramid whilst playing. Mortgage/children to support having to uproot family. Likewise some that are playing have to travel the breadth and width of the country for pay not much better than a normal salary. The irony of it is teachers and the like are better of as a job for life is there if they maintain the levels. Some footballers cant hack it and give it up early not wanting to travel long distances for a day or two at a time to just meet loved ones. Even those who are preparing for life after football whilst playing is tough . Studying whilst being  as a professional footballer is demanding. Tiredness/stress of playing can impact on studying .

You compare this to the likes of Real Madrid whose average basic salary last season was 11.5 million and that excludes sponsorship.  If these players dont squander that money their children will be set up for life and thats the crux of it all. Similarly its only in this country and possibly one or two more where teams third tier or below are full time. Even in Spain's 2nd tier system some clubs are part time from an article in the pro Real Madrid newspaper "Marca" a few years back.

If I had a boy who wanted to play professional football and had some ability I would advise him of the pitfalls. Many dont make it even in lower league football and the hardships are plenty. I would prefer it if he got a normal job and played football semi professional on the side if he was good enough.  But if the passion/sacrifice  is there then he should go for it.

I've told this story before but it has relevance so here we go again.
Back in the 2000s we used to go for a meal at my sisters restaurant in Cleethorpes after home games. One night we got talking to another of the regular customers. It turned out he came up to home matches from his home on the South coast. We assumed that he was from Grimsby and had moved away. It turned out that he had no link to the town at all.
What happened was that as a schoolboy in North London just after the war his school were given a load of free tickets to the last Arsenal game of the season. All his mates supported Arsenal so trying to be a bit different he said he would support the team Arsenal were playing who just happened to be Grimsby Town. Town lost 8-0 (our last game in the top flight but he was hooked and that was how we found him sat in a Cleethorpes restaurant nearly sixty years later. He stopped coming when we went non-league but given that by time he must have been in his 70s perhaps it was the journey not the fortunes of the team.

Quoted from barralad

I've told this story before but it has relevance so here we go again.
Back in the 2000s we used to go for a meal at my sisters restaurant in Cleethorpes after home games. One night we got talking to another of the regular customers. It turned out he came up to home matches from his home on the South coast. We assumed that he was from Grimsby and had moved away. It turned out that he had no link to the town at all.
What happened was that as a schoolboy in North London just after the war his school were given a load of free tickets to the last Arsenal game of the season. All his mates supported Arsenal so trying to be a bit different he said he would support the team Arsenal were playing who just happened to be Grimsby Town. Town lost 8-0 (our last game in the top flight but he was hooked and that was how we found him sat in a Cleethorpes restaurant nearly sixty years later. He stopped coming when we went non-league but given that by time he must have been in his 70s perhaps it was the journey not the fortunes of the team.

8-0! Even worse than this by Barnestoneworth United. 'Eight bloody one, and four of them were from back passes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9KXrRUZqtw

Quoted from A.l.f.

I'm only 55 but been through thick and thin, home and away since i was about 8. Before i followed Leeds as loved Eddie Gray's silky skills. As you say its the live experience, i still am taken back to the Barrett stand when i smell tobacco and my youthful days. This is why games behind closed doors are so sad, but understand and can't wait to be back, especially on away days. Supporting your local club is an emotional connection that prem fans will never experience or understand. I shed tears away at Everton when Wilkie scored, at Liverpoolwhen Jevons scored, blubbed when nathan scored to get us back in the FL but also shed a tear and laughed at our fans antics and chants on many an away day and am proud to be a Mariner.
The difference is i'm not a fan but a supporter as its about supporting our team at difficult times like now because these poor times will not last for ever and things have to look up soon. I shudder to think how much i've spent following town, but do you know what, i wouldn't change a thing - GTFC is part of my DNA. UTM

Well said A.L.F.

Being an exile you live with missing a lot of that around home games.

I can’t fathom out how people get excited about a team that in truth they have no genuine link to other than watching on the TV.

That said, whilst there are thousands of Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea fans that could be described as ‘plastic’, those clubs do have fans that are genuine, local and it is their team. It’s not our fault or theirs that that team has been or is successful.

What is interesting is that those genuine supporters of those teams often have a very different view of their club than the plastic. Plastics often rose to the bait when you goad them, they spend hours justifying their support and then swallow all the bullshit, but all the bullshit and talk about a young lad in the u23s to present as being all knowing.

I know a long time ST at both Utd and Chelsea and they’re very much look town fans. The Utd fan especially. He wasn’t against mourinho, more the ownership. He doesn’t think the sun shines out of the clubs bottom and he’s as cynical as the next football fan. He lives for away games and naturally, he genuinely cherishes those moments of success like it’s the last.

I do know a Spurs fan though who came to our play off win and he said he’d never seen a set of fans so excited, happy and delirious when Arnold’s goal went in...he said it felt like everyone was loving it at equal levels.