RRFC2711 Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 come from three generations of Rovers supporters nearly the whole life of the club, remember taking my son and his Rangers daft pal (from Glasgow but his dad didnt take him) to a game and on the way back home he asked with child like innocence "who do youze really support" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulloch Gorum Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I grew up abroad and have never lived in Lanarkshire, but my dad's from Coatbridge (and his dad was from Airdrie). He raised us as Airdrie fans, there was never any question of that. All my friends who followed football were mostly Manchester United, Arsenal and Bayern Munich fans, but I never had any sense of Airdrie being a diddy club relative to theirs. It just meant that listening to James Alexander Gordon reading the results out on the World Service it took longer to get to Airdrieonians vs Clyde than it did Manchester United vs. Liverpool. I'm too young to remember most of the good times Airdrie fans have enjoyed, but I've seen plenty of games I wouldn't swap for anything - beating Hearts in the League Cup (especially sweet living in Edinburgh), a few derby wins over the Rovers, a cup defeat to Motherwell where even though we lost the atmosphere was just incredible, beating Dunfermline in the Cup when they were in the top flight (what a game that was)... But especially since apart from a few games here and there when we were visiting, I've obviously only really been going to games since we moved to Scotland, so travelling over the country, having these experiences - it was part of the process of settling in to a new country, which was nominally mine, but which I didn't know and wasn't really at home in. There was a lot of culture shock, and settling into Scotland and Scottish society was hard in many ways, but those Saturdays playing Brechin, Cowdenbeath, the Accies - those were bright spots in a pretty tough time. When Alan Gow would go on a run, or Wullie McLaren would skin a full-back every which way, or Paul Lovering would kick a winger up in the air... then it didn't matter that I had a funny accent, or didn't know the TV shows my friends grew up on, or wore clothes from church sales. And yeah, I might have got that to an extent if I'd decided to follow Hearts or Hibs, but that never occurred to me as an option. And I can't see my dad taking me to see them, anyway, so I'd have missed out on having those experiences with him, and with my brother. Also, the kit is just objectively brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theSilverFox Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I was born, raised and still live in Forfar, my old man, though a New Yorker, had lived here a long time and was a both a big supporter and one time member of the coaching staff, so as a wee boy had no choice but to go to matches with Dad. It didn't take long before I was hooked. I've had a season ticket every year since I was ten (a little over 40 years ago) and have witnessed many highs and lows. I wouldn't have it any other way. The Loons were a semi-permanent fixture at the bottom of the bottom division when I started but have seen them pipped to promotion to the Premier League by a point on the last day. I'be seen them reach the League Cup semi final in '78 taking, eventual winners, Rangers to extra time, reaching the '82 Scottish Cup semi final, again against Rangers, taking them to a replay after us being denied a stonewall penalty in the dying minutes of the first game. I've also seen them pumped by non league teams in the first round. All of the negatives are worth it for the highs of being league champions three times, runners up and promoted once and twice winning promotion through the play offs in latter years. Big wins against bigger teams, 5-1 against then Premier League St Mirren being an impressive one, and, of course, finally getting a victory against Rangers only a few years ago. I also remember as a boy it was normal to have a favourite big Scottish team and a favourite wee Scottish team but also a big and small English team. Mine were, and still are Forfar Athletic and Celtic. My big English team is still the Hammers, my wee team was Walsall because I collected football programmes from around the UK and discovered their goalie at the time had the same foreign surname as me (I didn't know anyone outside me, my sister and parents with that name). Despite the above mentioned allegiances, the Loons are, always have been and always will be my number one. My younger son has had a trial at a big club and is rumoured to being watched by another two but nothing would make me more proud (if he makes it as a professional footballer) to see him play for Forfar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulloch Gorum Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Good luck to your lad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip0402 Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I love Arbroath FC because no one like us and we don't care .......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steakngravy Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 There's more to football than the two fannies from Glasgow. I mean them of the left fit and them of the right fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamthebam Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Mate down the road was a Hibee so went along to some games at Easter Slope. One day when Hibs were away I went to Meadowbank to watch Thistle - they won 3-0 against Albion Rovers and it was cheaper than going to Easter Road. So Albion Rovers ruined my life, basically. The most stupid question "Why don't you support Livingston?" Well.... After Meadowbank's demise another mate got involved with City and they had a fairly entertaining team of ex-amateur nutters who were twatting everyone in the East of Scotland League Division 1 at the time. So glory hunting basically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambuslang Fifer Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Lived in Leven where my local team was infact East Fife but when i was like 5 or something i got free ticket at school to see a Dunfermline game and they got pumped (5-0 by Hearts) and thats when i had no clue about football and i didn't like the atmosphere etc compared to life at new bayview, my hometown club where i started going to games when i was actual in the supporters club and played football for the youths at the club in that time i was a mascot, ballboy and seeing East fife promoted Four times between 2000s to current. Its the Area, the team, the wee atmosphere and those aways days that still got my internets for the club, My family apart from my brother are football daft for Dundee united but they only attend a few so was my decesed granddad who once came to a east fife match at the Albion grounds where he was suffered from atherist in his legs before he still climb those dreadful hill climb stairs at Cliftonhill and we won that day 2-0 but in July 2008 me and my maw moved away from Fife in general to a small place off the M74 and i still continue my love and interest as usual but i have my own family (well soon to have my third child) and shes a rangers fan and life at home is usually a rivary at times but thats football for you since they got relegated to league two they see teams like us and below them a threat reason why im still on my toad watching life at bayview where its fun and very much applies even though one home game at bayview is like watching an old firm game for her would need like £30 all in for that price as it works better for bus at also £15+ so can't grumble as it benefits me and always guaranteed to keep my seat two rows up than if you were to go to ibrox or that sister mob aswell find out your usual fortnight seat of seat 42 as a example seat taken i would be going ape sh*t well lifes rosey and i love the east of fife sorry East fife. Mean for me i would actual perfer East fife over the other 41 spfl clubs i have been to a Rangers vs Malmo, a Celtic vs Hamilton, a Airdrie vs Peterhead imo just no my cup of tea to be or in better terms f**k me not for me and i actually stay in the Glasgow area - i always like the Fife not because it was local to me once or because im a fifer not a wedgie but a team that i liked its been the same still to the day really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Stark(s Park) Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 I made this thread not knowing what the answer would be but reading all of the replies is amazing! I want to hear more!Big respect to every single one of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambuslang Fifer Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 3 minutes ago, Tony Stark(s Park) said: I made this thread not knowing what the answer would be but reading all of the replies is amazing! I want to hear more! Big respect to every single one of you! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I was brought up a Celtic fan but for some reason me and a few mates ended up getting asked to be ball boys at a midweek game against Clyde in 2005 at Links Park. Done that for a couple of seasons and just continued going to the games when I can since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brummo Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 32 minutes ago, The Chlamydia Kid said: My pet hate is diddy club supporters who assume moral superiority because they “support their local team”. My daughter’s local team is Motherwell. She is an Airdrie supporter. It’s a load of bollocks. Support who you want, why ever you want and let others do the same. Ha, ha, ha! Thought we had some SEVCO neds back posting here. Forgot some Airdrie fans were fond of their Union flag paraphernalia. Agree with your post though. There is no moral high ground about supporting a "local" team. I do think that actually attending games and contributing to a club that contributes to your community makes more sense to me but that's a personal choice. I also see why there's a real appeal to being in a packed stadium with tens of thousands of other fans, watching a higher standard of football. When I am back in the UK and Montrose aren't playing, I have occasionally gone to games at Pittodrie and really enjoyed the experience. What makes little sense to me is saying you support a team, when you do little more than watch them on telly. Everyone likes to support a winning team. All of us are "glory hunters" to an extent. There is definitely some merit in sticking by your team when times aren't so good. Montrose are in a bit of a purple patch just now, after years of misery and I'm really enjoying it. Crowds are growing but more than that, there is far greater involvement of the club in the community and positive connection with a wide spectrum of people. The first team is just part of the story. I know some big clubs also do a lot for their communities but while a child in the east end of Glasgow might reap benefits from money going to Celtic, a boy or girl supporting Celtic in Montrose, is going to get little return for any investment in their club. Growing community involvement with attendant improvements in the first team's performance can actually make supporting a local team, a more meaningful and attractive proposition, than a rather detached "big club" supporter experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cptn Hooch Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I was brought up in Rangers supporting family but I never wanted to go to Ibrox. However, there came a time when I wanted to go see live football and a family friend took me to a Livi game. Got my first season ticket there and then. Living in south lanarkshire means Livi are by no means my local team but I couldn't see me supporting anyone else. I had a mate at school who was a Celtic fan but started to go to livi games with me and denounced Celtic to become a Livi fan....only for him to start supporting Celtic again when Livi went through the Massone era. Then out of nowhere he contacted me saying he was supporting Livi again as he was fed up with the green brigade.....you guessed it...he's a Celtic fan again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilly Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I couldn't afford the bus fare to Ibrox as a youngster so ended up supporting my local by default. I have regretted it ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bernardblack Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Slightly off topic but it baffles me how fans of big teams don’t know how the playoffs work in the lower leagues. You’re supposed to be a football fan pal..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie McNaught Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Born and raised in Edinburgh but brainwashed by my old man to support the Rovers due to his family ties to Kirkcaldy. Will be my 50th year as a Rovers supporter next year and looking forward to another 30 years of misery interspersed with the occasional high. FTOF! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loondave1 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I had been to see the Loons on odd occasions with my dad SC ties etc etc early 70s but for reasons I cant remember rolled up for the first game of 77/78 season to see Raith Rovers pumped and the start of a momentous season that would see the club reborn from the ashes of the early 70s. League cup semi,bucket loads of media attention crowds 1000 + every home game. That was it for me,my home club cemented as my true love with the pain and joy that has resulted. I have attended plenty games as a neutral and enjoyed them but without a dog in the fight it's just not the same thing. Saw Hearts 0 1 defeat at Tynecastle to Killie recently and spent most of it raging at the Loons tanking 4 0 at Glebe Park same day... Saw both Dundee sides often in the early 80s and the three Edinburgh sides 80s/90s when I moved there. I do follow other clubs from afar Bristol Rovers and Bradford PA from the Championship North for reasons too complicated to mention but not much glory to be hunted there. My dad's nearly 91 now and he went to Station Park from roughly 1947 to 2015 so I have a tough act to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
++Ammo - Airdrie++ Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I grew up abroad and have never lived in Lanarkshire, but my dad's from Coatbridge (and his dad was from Airdrie). He raised us as Airdrie fans, there was never any question of that. All my friends who followed football were mostly Manchester United, Arsenal and Bayern Munich fans, but I never had any sense of Airdrie being a diddy club relative to theirs. It just meant that listening to James Alexander Gordon reading the results out on the World Service it took longer to get to Airdrieonians vs Clyde than it did Manchester United vs. Liverpool. I'm too young to remember most of the good times Airdrie fans have enjoyed, but I've seen plenty of games I wouldn't swap for anything - beating Hearts in the League Cup (especially sweet living in Edinburgh), a few derby wins over the Rovers, a cup defeat to Motherwell where even though we lost the atmosphere was just incredible, beating Dunfermline in the Cup when they were in the top flight (what a game that was)... But especially since apart from a few games here and there when we were visiting, I've obviously only really been going to games since we moved to Scotland, so travelling over the country, having these experiences - it was part of the process of settling in to a new country, which was nomincally mine, but which I didn't know and wasn't really at home in. There was a lot of culture shock, and settling into Scotland and Scottish society was hard in many ways, but those Saturdays playing Brechin, Cowdenbeath, the Accies - those were bright spots in a pretty tough time. When Alan Gow would go on a run, or Wullie McLaren would skin a full-back every which way, or Paul Lovering would kick a winger up in the air... then it didn't matter that I had a funny accent, or didn't know the TV shows my friends grew up on, or wore clothes from church sales. And yeah, I might have got that to an extent if I'd decided to follow Hearts or Hibs, but that never occurred to me as an option. And I can't see my dad taking me to see them, anyway, so I'd have missed out on having those experiences with him, and with my brother. Also, the kit is just objectively brilliant.I can relate to pretty much this, although I was fortunate (and only now I realise HOW fortunate) to have seen my wee team play in 2 Scottish cup finals and a league cup semi.My wife's brother (I refuse to call him brother in law) is a "bluenose" and has all the usual traits:"1690" in his email addressThe rangers bed sheet.King billy flagUnemployed/unemployableAnd his best (and only moment) ever in Ibrox....A pre season friendly with Chelsea.Its vermin like him that make me wish they 2 really would f*ck off to England. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marten Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I was born in The Netherlands, in a small town on the coast west of Rotterdam. My dad's side of the family is originally from the "Kralingen" area of the city. My dad was never into football, but the generation above him have been really involved with the local team Excelsior Rotterdam. My grandmother went there as a child and my great-uncle was a board member for many years between the 2 World Wars. My brother (who is quite a bit older than me) took me Feyenoord a handful of times when I was little, even though I enjoyed it, I never saw them as "my club". Then I went to college next to the Excelsior ground and I remembered my grandmother talking about Excelsior all the time. I went once when they had a game directly after a school day and that was it, hooked for the rest of my life. From that moment on I had a season ticket until I left the country. And in terms of supporting smaller sides, Dutch football is very comparable to Scottish football. It's dominated by the 3 largest clubs (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV) and many "football fans" all around the country support one of them rather than their local club. Especially as Excelsior are geographically the closest team to Feyenoord (there is only a river separating the 2 with Feyenoord being on the other bank of the river), I've had many people reacting surprised that I don't care about Feyenoord and I've often had people asking me "who do you really support?" when I said I support Excelsior. When we were shite (until just over a decade ago we were constantly around the foot of the Dutch lowest professional league, now we're a decent lower half top flight team) and watched by just a handful of people, I often encountered people who were shocked to find out there are actually people just supporting our club and not a bigger club as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedgeman83 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I was brought up supporting brechin by my dad who was born and raised there I have lived in carnoustie all my life and I work in Dundee. I have the brechin crest tattooed on my fore arm and every time some one spots it I get strange looks and get asked why I support a wee team and not a big local team like Dundee or United. Would rather support my wee team any time over any big club. You go to a game every week and you know most supporters there and it's a great atmosphere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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