This might seem pointless, but here goes.

I've supported Raith since i was 5, mainly due to my Dad taking me. But he was a Dundee Utd supporter, he decided to go because my Uncle used to play for Raith.

You'd think it would be him who would be my hero, but it wasn't. It was Murray McDermott, from then on i wanted to be a goalie (not very good) but you get the point.

What made you love your club.

My Dad has always been a Rover and a Kirkcaldy lad through and through, so was his Dad. He moved up to Aberdeen before he got married and before I was born, so he started taking me too games. A tried to be an Aberdeen fan, but he was having none of it.

Thank feck for that eh?!

Used to go to Reserve games with one of the guys who manned the turnstiles.

Once i was old enough i'd go to the 1st team games with mates.

My Dad is a Rovers fan. I loved football from a very, very young age (my Dad swears blind that 'Craig Brewster' was one of the first things I said) and always wanted to go along with my Dad, uncle and Grandad whenever they went to the match.

I always wonder what I did to my Dad that made him do this to me.

The major influence was geography. The club was in Kirkcaldy and so was I. Neither the club nor I could drive at the time.

A marriage of convenience.

large amounts of alcohol and various calls to the smaritans have kept the fire alive. just


seriously tho most of my family were celtic fans and my grandad was a die hard Dons fan, i got dragged to a couple of celtic games when i was 9/10 but then didnt really follow footie much after that and it was only a year or so later that i started to follow the Rovers (same year as the cup final win).

Think of it as making you the man you are, and having a pair of baw's and not supporting any of the OF. For me at school, you'd get the bullies grabbing you and saying "RANGERS or CELTIC". And if you said the Rovers you'd get a hiding, f**k that shit.

My mate and his dad used to go to games. I never really liked football, i was shite when i'd played it and never really took interest until the summer of 1998 with Scotland at the World cup. My mates dad offered to take me along to a game against Airdrie which ended up in a 1-1 draw. I didn't go back largely because nobody in my family had an interest in football. For my birthday i went to a 4-1 win over St Mirren with Craig Dargo scoring a hat-trick. Went to a few games at the end of that season but it wasn't until secondary school when Calderon was in charge that i went back. From then on i went to more and more games until Gordon Dalziel's first season in the 2nd division when i went to pretty much all the games.

When I was just a little boy I asked my mother "what should I be?". "Should I be Rovers, should I be Fife?" Here's what she said to me...

I'm noh yer maw!

Faether supported Rovers. I never really supported anyone until the Cup Final. I wasn't interested enough or old enough to attend but i was bought the full kit and scarf so i must have been indoctrinated with Rovers from then onwards. Never influenced me to support them but my Great Grandfather played for Rovers (then called Kirkclady United so i'm told) before he signed for Hearts.

Kirkcaldy United were a different team to Raith Rovers.
Although they have won nearly the same amount of trophies...

My dad, my granda, my uncle and my big cousin all used to go along. None of them except my cousin were realy Stranraer fans but went because it was there local team. After going a couple of times just got hooked on it, have got my dad more hooked on Stranraer over the last ten years he still says he supports Stirling Albion but I think it's ust a cover up.

Grandad and great grandad were the sterotypical Levenmouth miners born and bred. Worked down the pit with some of the players who were winning cups in the 30's, 40's. Grew up in Glenrothes myself but East Fife were the only team my dad was ever going to take me to see. Said I could follow whoever I wanted but he wouldn't be taking me to see any other teams as he'd be at Bayview Park on a Saturday. Thank Christ !! Of course everyone else at Primary/High school would wear their Rangers/Cetlic tops. So happy my old man managed to divert me from the bigotted two. Like everone else, you see the team in the colours of your scarf bang in a few goals and that's it.....smitten for life !!!

I'm pretty sure he'd have bought me a Rovers top if I'd opted for them (shudder) but he'd thankfully NEVER have got me an Old Firm top.

my uncle took me to the games, if it was up to my dad i would be a pars fan just now dosent bear to think about.

Is it just me, or is Pie and Bovril 2nd division forum overrun with Fifers?

Your welcome to join in, me personally i'm on holiday this week.

Plus we're the biggest team in the league.

What, in height ?

I have absolutely no idea. My family were (and are) all OF fans although I know more about their shitey teams than they do. I've always identified myself as a Raith Rovers fan and I always will.

In stature.

As Lothar Matthias once said, "I've only heard of R*****S, C****C and RAITH ROVERS. Now you get it.

I'm one of the few to escape the clutches of the OF. I grew up in Glenrothes and my step-dad was a Rangers fans so he used to buy me the tops and take me to the odd game (funnily enough though my first ever game was a Rovers league cup tie at Stark's Park against Dundee United - around about 1988 I would imagine).

When I was about 12 I started to look out for the Rovers scores as they were the local team and were destroying the first division at the time (1992-93) and I really started to follow them in the 94-95 season (although I'm still gutted my mum wouldn't let me go to the cup final - what kind of mother doesn't let her 14 year old son go to glasgow on his own ). Since then I've been hooked and my children will be Rovers fans whatever sex they are and wherever I live at the time.

It actually really bothers me now that I was a glory hunter as a child.

My mother supports Ayr.

My grandad did commentary for the blind at the Recs. He was Alloa through and through. My first Alloa games were with him as my dad worked away from home.
We used to go into the old wooden stand at the Recs and I used to love it. Remember him taking me to an away cup tie at Aberdeen when we got beat but had a great time.
I loved my old grandad. Miss him lots.

It is in the blood! My Father and his father b4 him both followed the super Lichties. Strange thing is i didn't like football b4 i took up Subbuteo! My late pal, persuded me into going to a game and 26+ years later i still go! The smaller the club the more say the punter has! My voice isn't lost in the many of an OF game!

Born and bred a Lichtie, Arbroath tie I die..........

Lived in Stranraer all my life and my Grandpa started to take me to Stair Park since i was four Also over the years have came to relise that i would much rather support my local team than any OF gloryhunting pish

i did have a OF gloryhunting past when i was young but i tend not to talk about it

What, he really did say that? You mean I wasn't just making it up?

Anyway, in reply to the original question, My dad was a Rovers fan and I decided to follow. Before that, my grandad used to go and see Raith one week and East Fife the next. Thankfully he saw the light and shunned the Methil bunch though.

Don't worry about it. At least you've seen the light (sort of)

F**k the Pope and F**k the Queen - Follow your local team.

Someone who buys their kid an Old Firm top with no Glasgow ties other than religion (Pro-Catholic or Anti-Catholic) should be reported to childline

My dad took me to Glebe Park when I was about 4 and I've been going there for over 50 years now (and people wonder why I have grey hair !) I was a ballboy from primary school till I left Brechin - but always came back for games.

I took my own boys to games in their prams - the wife threatened divorce, but it look like a good deal to me. My friends threatened me with Childline when my kids wore their City shirts.

You gotta support your local team! - after all, there's always another wife out there.

Fellow Bairns fans might need to correct me as to the actual opponets, but i think it was home game 1979 (7), i think it was against Meadowbank Thistle we lost 2-1 with Geordie Watson the keeper sent off. My Gramps was from Cardiff and adopted the Bairns when he moved up at the end of WWII, took my paw to the game and then eventualy i got to go.

I was not alowed to return for some time after my first game as i kept wanting to go for a piss and felt sick from eating all the sweets Gran gave to me before we left.
Ended up following them all over the country in drunken haze in my late teens, then just watched them at home games as time went on. Gave up my season ticket at one point (John Lambie era) but fell back in love them a few years later.
Harder to watch the games over a few years as married with my own Bairns but still a season ticket holder and go with my old man for a few jars and a rant at the ref.

My wife can't see what all the fuss is about, but them again she is a Leeds lass who followed them at home for many years (mostly the successful one when they one the league in the early nineties).

P.S One of the sweets was " Sweet chewing tobacco" in a pouch ....feck me times have changed, no politically correct muppets in those days.

For a short time in my life I supported Dundee Utd. The first footie match I ever went was at Tannadice in 1988 (it was a "lifted over the turnstile" job). To be fair, I was 6, living in Dundee and all my mates supported Dundee Utd!

I moved back to Kirkcaldy (well, Auchtertool) in 1989 and chose to support Raith, as they were my home team. My maternal grand-dad was a Rovers man his whole life (my old man supports Celtic, but has a soft spot for Raith), and sadly passed away before we won the Coca-Cola Cup.

I'm proud to be a Raith fan, and I'm not ashamed to wear my top out and about (in fact, I wore it on my first proper date with my wife, but that's another story!). I get slagged off by mates who all support SPL clubs, but as I point out - how many of the current SPL clubs have actually played in Europe in the last 11 years?

Ironically, my cousin was a Rangers fan when we were kids but he switched allegiances and usually goes to more Raith games than I do in a season now!

As with St Pauli, my dearly departed grandad's West Wemyss born and Buckhaven raised, worked down the Wellesley, Michael and Seafield and grew up supporting the Fife through all the cup wins.

He said to me one afternoon 'if yer bored, away down to Bayview to watch the fitba, and go and see East Fife'. I'd been supporting Aberdeen up till that point and was used to seeing Strachan, Weir et al, and had never really thought about it.

I got my first East Fife scarf the following week from the wonder store in Lower Methil and it's now firmly in the blood. Even though I'm in NZ, I will be buried with an East Fife scarf.

Became a Hampden ball-boy in 1982, mainly for the Scotland games and cup finals (used to be a Celtic fan) but got hooked on the QP and have never looked back..mainly due to a combination of alcohol abuse and insanity

As with most primary school kids i went home from school supporting One of the old firm, it usually changed every day depending on who chanted the loudest in the playground.

My faither decided he was having none of this and still insists (as do i) that scottish football would be much healthier if everyone supported their local team, he started taking me along to games when i was 5 or 6, if i pestered him enough he would let us stand behind the goals, if i remember correctly the 'home' end for the rovers in those days was where the North stand is now, though you were free to roam around.

I remember my saturdays seemed to consist of him telling me every 5 minutes "dont tell you're mum"

We'd be in the football arms before the game, id get as much coke as i could drink if i didnt tell my mum the actual number of pints he had, same after the game.

I mind once he wouldnt stand behind the goals with me and we were standing in the main stand just up from the dugout where the steps arent steep enough for an ankle biter lke me, i couldnt see nothing for pipe smoke and old mens tweed caps, so i wandered off to the south stand with my rovers scarve on, i couldnt understand why so many men were looking at me strangely, i realised my view was no better so iround, only to realise i didnt have a hope in hells chance of finding my dad, i was only 7 and scared stiff, luckily if there was 6,000 fans there my old man seemed to know everyone by first name so some old man reunited me with him after finding me crying outside the pie stand, again that was a serious "DO NOT EVER tell you're mum"

I remember being 11 it wasnt a matchday but Rovers had had some great results, talking to someone in the pub he said "aye, we'd beter watch out or we'll be in Europe next season" my old man and the stranger chuckled, i just remember thinking, "why the F**k do you have to embarass me so much with these statements" ( i was now old enough to realise that we were pish)

10 months later we were lining up alongside Bayern Munich, he never shuts up about predicting that, he now believes that his wild joke was a premonition.

26 now and not sure if i should thank him orleather him for making m a rovers fan.

I was the mascot when i was 10 against hamilton Accies cant remember much apart from the overwhelming smell of ralgex in the dressing room and my dad enjoying the Hospitality, we drew 1-1

Brilliant thread this.

Some of my first memories of being a bairn were watching my Dad playing football for the Gunners Club up the Gallatown Park. He saw how much I liked watching that level of football so took me to watch the mighty Raith against Aberdeen in the Skol Cup. That was me hooked even though we were beaten 2-1.
I used to stand on the floodlight pylon in the South stand when I was a wee one.

As a man once sang:

I don't know why I love you,
I don't know why I care

I suppose geography had a lot to do with it. My father used to take me to Tannadice as a kid and that experience watching some of the greatest European nights, Scottish Football ever had to offer got me really hooked on the game.

My father was from Ayr so when we moved to Ayr one of the first things he did was take me to Somerset. There was a crossover period when I went to watch both, but I really knew I was hooked on Ayr when I went to my first Ayrshire Derby in 1986. I had never witnessed passion like it and from then on it was Ayr that was the only united for me. I think I was at four more DU games after that(Three Scottish Cup Finals, and the UEFA cup final - Me a Glory Hunter!!!) and only because it was free fo me to go.
Living 'Dahn Saff' for a few years was a bit of a giggle when the Englanders would ask you who do you support...Rangers or Celtic? To which I would reply Neither-Ayr United.
There was only ever two reactions...Who the f**k are they? or Oh I've heard of them, usually said with a look on their faces that said they were thinking, Who the f**ck are they!!!

As for the OF believe it or not at School in Dundee there was only one OF supporter, and he was from New Zealand!!! Everyone else was an Arab or a Dee. How the times have changed for the worse.

The only thing in life that I have regretted is that I never lived in Kirkcaldy as a kid. Perhaps if I had done I would now support the biggest team in the league.

You can gloryhunt...you'll just never be truely accepted.

Damn, Damn, Damn

born and breed in phd
old ground was a stones throw from where i lived
have been a ballboy helped lay oot the kit as i got on the team bus to away highland league games
had family that played in the hl
went to a few aberdeen games when i was young in the 80s to see what all the fuss was about,didnt like it and couldnt wait to return to the recreation park with my dad and his mates as i got to go into the pub with them for juice and crisps afore the game
fooking great times

You'll just have to settle with being the biggest club in the 2nd division next season. Providing Clyde get relegated and Cowdenbeath stay down.

Me and two of my pals went to Hampden when we were in 1st year at school one Saturday when we were bored. Neither of them have been back since, and I've rarely missed a game since.

Nice try

Cheers!

Cheers mate (I think).

It's really nice to have a thread where we don't all slag each other off (other than the tongue in cheek friendly stuff) and are united by the fact that we are all true supporters of our team, will follow them to the end of the earth to watch a friendly against a pub team and have nothing but contempt for those who choose to "support" the OF.

I've always said to my brother in law I'd much rather he took my nephews to East End Park with him than let them support an OF team.

It's that sort of reaction that probably keeps me going back to Ayr to be honest. This idea that you have to be one way or the other pisses me off no end.

Worse is when people say, "Ayr United? They're a Hun/Tim team aren't they?"

I was brought up in Ayr and taken to the games by my Dad as a youngster. Moved to Glasgow in my early teens, probably what eventually made me dig my heels in and refuse to allude to one or the other.

Stayed close to Ibrox stadium once upon a time which really sealed the deal, I wanted nothing to do with the OF thus defaulted to my team and have had a season ticket for over 10yrs.

Spot on. That's what it's all about.

I'm sure nobody really does wonder though. That's actually very common with people of a certain age!

My Grandad was a huge Raith fan, he took my dad when he was a kid, my dad took me when I was a kid. My first game was in the mid 70's, by the early 80's my dad stopped going but I just carried on, went to my first away game at 11 (got beat 2-1 at Partick).

Even when I was away in the RAF for a few years I'd always make sure I took my leave when I could get to a couple of games.

Likewise. Born and bread Lichtie, its Arbroath until the bitter end for me despite the fact my old man tried to get me to be an Arab.

Lived in Ayr all my life, my older sister started taking me to games in season 86/87, and she blamed me for us not going up that season, when all we needed was a draw at Stirling and got beat.

Thankfully i wasnt put off by that, and returned the following season, seeing almost every single game in our 2nd division chanpionship winning side of 87/88, been a regular at games ever since.

Can count the number of home games ive missed in one hand over the years. Used to goto all away games aswell, but only manage a few each season now due to spending too much cash on drowning my sorrows after home games