Supporting yer local

[SimonLichtie]

24 minutes ago, Marten said:

I lived in/near Derby for around 8 years before coming to Dundee! What part of Derby is he from?

And I recognise the 2nd bit in bold as well, it's about far more than just the football. When I go to football games with friends (when I lived in The Netherland & England and now in Scotland), we usually make a day out of it, properly visiting a city/town. Often the football is an unpleasant distraction of a nice day out. In Scotland I don't follow a particular team (not yet anyway), but I go to random games around the country. I'm doing "the 42", I'm on 37 now after moving in August 2017, not bad I think. I'm also going to non-league games (junior and senior) all over. It's a great way to actually see a country. I get to places I'd never go to otherwise and discover so much.  

I'm not actually too sure which part.... I really should listen to him more  I think he, or the family I still have down there, were towards Mickleover potentially..... Ashbourne Road rings a bell also!

By the sounds of it you're basically living in the city I do, doing what I would be doing if I didn't support Arbroath  If we ceased to exist I'd complete the rest of the 42 I've not visited/ Arbroath haven't played at in my time and then get onto the real fun stuff, all the east region juniors with regular trips to the outstanding social clubs of Downfield and Hill O Beath.

[Broken Algorithms]

The 42 is a great wee challenge btw. I've got 9 left now after getting to Montrose and Stranraer in the last year (Celtic, Killie, Motherwell, Caley , Clyde, Annan, Edinburgh City, Peterhead and Berwick left. I'll get to Edinburgh City in a couple of weeks time for an amateur game soon actually).

[Guest bernardblack]

This thread is wonderful. Good to see so many people loving their daft wee team so much as I do

[Marten]

54 minutes ago, SimonLichtie said:

I'm not actually too sure which part.... I really should listen to him more  I think he, or the family I still have down there, were towards Mickleover potentially..... Ashbourne Road rings a bell also!

By the sounds of it you're basically living in the city I do, doing what I would be doing if I didn't support Arbroath  If we ceased to exist I'd complete the rest of the 42 I've not visited/ Arbroath haven't played at in my time and then get onto the real fun stuff, all the east region juniors with regular trips to the outstanding social clubs of Downfield and Hill O Beath.

Haha, Ashbourne Road, I lived just off there. I spent far too many nights in some of the (great) pubs on/near that road. Small world and all that.  

I live in/near Lochee myself (I don't live in what's generally seen as Lochee by locals, but I live in the political council ward Lochee). When I finish the 42 I'll concentrate on the "real fun stuff" like you say. There are plenty of more places to go to outside the 42!

[Tony Stark(s Park)]

This thread is wonderful. Good to see so many people loving their daft wee team so much as I do

Been way better than expected.

Every single person who supports their team on these threads I have huge respect for. We all have banter and talk shite sometimes but at the end of the day there is some sort of mutual respect between us all.

[Loondave1]

This thread is wonderful. Good to see so many people loving their daft wee team so much as I do

I'm celebrating my 15th wedding anniversary with the trip to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup. Not told her yet, thought I would surprise her with a day in the hoose on her own.

[WSDR 88]

Pretty impressive, ive started keeping a wee note of where ive been, still got a fair few to go. A wee bit harder doing it just following your team but shit, fair respect to you my man! 

Just a side note on this matter, there’s an app on the iPhone called Scottish Away Days, and basically you can tick off the stadiums/clubs you’ve been too. And it maps it which is pretty cool as a visual. 27/42 for myself, following the Rovers. Although Pittodrie was ticked off for a pishy Scotland friendly way back ages ago.


As for this thread, it’s absolutely brilliant [emoji1319]

[nofixedability]

Growing up I was an armchair fan, nobody in my family went to games but I loved games  on TV, Aberdeen in Europe circa 1983 I guess made me a pseudo Don. 

When I was 12 my Dad died and just to get out of the house I convinced my mum to let me go into Forfar for her weekly shopping and I could nip up to watch Forfar. I was lucky as we were playing Dunfermline, there was a good crowd and won 1-0. I was hooked and it gave me something I was missing in my life at that time and from then on I could not get enough.

 

I had missed the halcyon days of nearly making the Premier League, the cup semi-finals and being robbed by United in the cup but was there in time to see Craig Brewster's magnificence, consecutive full houses in the Cup against Celtic, the dark days of Hegarty, the joy Tommy Campbell brought in the form of Bingham/Mann/Morgan, beating QOTS 8-3 in the feature game on Sportscene, ousted from cups by more non-league sides than I care to mention, finishing 42 out of 42, Dick Campbell's years, beating Rangers in the League Cup and bottling more play-offs and championship challenges than I can probably remember (the supporters bus being an hour late after the 6-1 , eight man capitulation to Dunfermline or a drive home all the way from Alloa in absolute silence being particular 'lowlights').

 

Wouldn't change a moment of all those memories, wouldn't want to be an armchair Old Firm fan (there are more than enough up here) or an supporter of any team in England. I actually hate the big games that occasionally come around for us. The ground packed with people you don't know or do know and aren't there because of Forfar. I love midweek games against Albion Rovers or Berwick, with Champions League on TV where you know the people there are only there because they support the teams involved.

 

I think I've missed less than 5 home games since 1988. Would love to get to more away games but my circumstances limit me to just a few outside Angus per season that but had a great time in my youth on the supporters bus.

 

Lower league Scottish football is fucking great.

[Trackdaybob]

Great thread. 

[rockson]

8 hours ago, The Minertaur said:

Also Central Park is just beautiful. 

 

From the air, maybe.

[SilverWolfe]

Apologies for the length of this post, did not expect it to go to that length at all but couldn't stop once i got going.

Love the thread so far.

I am a 3rd generation Celtic fan and have a father who was a die hard home and away type when he was younger. Naturally, he started taking me along when i was about 5 (1989). My first 9 seasons going to Celtic just happened to coincide with Rangers winning 9 in a row and us finishing between 3rd and 5th for most of those years. While you hear the stories of the European Cup and our own 9 in a row, I genuinely didn't think we were a successful club and considered Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee United to be bigger than us at that time. I still remember the first time walking out at the current stadium after it was built and my legs nearly buckling, my whole body shaking and just being blown away by how amazing it felt and how we might actually win the league one day.

It seems to be a common theme on here that OF fans can't possibly feel the same way you do and that is quite disappointing to me tbh. One of the downsides of being an OF fan is your unsuccessful periods coincide with the other side being successful which just makes the bad times even worse. I would be surprised if anyone felt as good as we did when we beat St Johnstone to stop 10 in a row, or Larsson scoring away to Boavista to make the UEFA Cup final in 2003 or any of the high profile European wins. Equally I'm almost certain no-one could have felt as devastated when we lost to Porto and lost the league by a single goal in the same week as well as Scott McDonald and helicopter Sunday. I was in tears at each of those.

I done the years of having a season ticket and in my teens and early 20s travelled all over Scotland for away games as well as the odd jaunt abroad for European away matches. The long journeys, the pissed up banter, feeling like everyone is a part of something and dare I say the odd tune here and there. To most people that know me from back then they would think of Tony and immediately think of Celtic.

I am going to admit something for the first time on here and this is by far the worst part of being an OF fan. I was a major "bigot" as a teen/ early 20s. I use quotation marks there as i use the term bigot loosely. While I loved the IRA songs and was obsessed by Bobby Sands and his fellow hunger strikers, I didn't actually hate anyone, it was just so easy to get swept up in it all at that age. You kinda just don't understand what impact it has.

Everything then changed for me on 14th February 2009, as I sat in the hospital holding my new born daughter, completely and utterly loving something other than a football club for the first time in my life and I just stopped going to Celtic. I suddenly felt disgust and shame at my actions for all those years and made a decision that day that my kids would never wear those colours. In the passing years I felt myself hating the fans more and more but still loving the club for footballing reasons.

In 2012, really missing football, I started going along to random games. Went to Thistle a few times, St Mirren, Clydebank, Yoker and just didn't feel anything other than enjoying the games. Then on 17th March 2012, I decided to take in the Dumbarton v East Fife match. Found myself sitting next to a few guys from Norway ( i think) who were over for the game and were singing away and just having the time of their lives. East Fife were 3 up within half an hour and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. I felt something that day and enjoyed it immensely so starting going and was lucky enough to see Dumbarton promoted that season. I did have to sit in the Airdrie section for the home playoff game though which was eventful. Over the next few years I would pop down when i had a free Saturday and could afford it.

Stupidly allowed myself to be talked into going back to Celtic when Rodgers took over and spent 2 seasons with a season ticket. The second season I went to about 10 games in total and just couldn't handle being around the amount of utter fannies that attend there and quickly gave up the season ticket.

This is the first season where I've fully decided to follow Dumbarton. I still love Celtic as much as I did before and can't turn it off but i just cant bring myself to ever go back and especially don't want my kids anywhere near the whole thing.

I took my daughter along to Spartans earlier in the season and quickly noticed the difference supporting a wee club. Stevie Aitken said hello to her at the dugout during the game then when we went behind the goal for the second half, Jamie McGowan came over and spoke to her while he was warming up. She was so happy that the players wanted to talk to her and was slightly awestruck. I've since taken both my kids, daughter (9) and son (5) to see us lose 6-0 at St Mirren and have managed half a dozen home games so far this season. It's early days for us but im loving getting them involved in such a great wee club and looking forward to years of memories that we can share together.

As a wee final note, I'm starting to understand how it feels to support one of the wee teams, the importance of the communities and everyone pulling together to make sure the club survives, the fans volunteering their own time to get things done and just how much it feels like a big family pulling together. What i would say is that you can enjoy that without the need to compare it to supporting the OF. While it is different in some ways a lot of those fans love their clubs the same as you and do experience the highs and lows and all the emotions the same way you do.

[Tony Stark(s Park)]

Apologies for the length of this post, did not expect it to go to that length at all but couldn't stop once i got going.

Love the thread so far.

I am a 3rd generation Celtic fan and have a father who was a die hard home and away type when he was younger. Naturally, he started taking me along when i was about 5 (1989). My first 9 seasons going to Celtic just happened to coincide with Rangers winning 9 in a row and us finishing between 3rd and 5th for most of those years. While you hear the stories of the European Cup and our own 9 in a row, I genuinely didn't think we were a successful club and considered Rangers, Aberdeen and Dundee United to be bigger than us at that time. I still remember the first time walking out at the current stadium after it was built and my legs nearly buckling, my whole body shaking and just being blown away by how amazing it felt and how we might actually win the league one day.

It seems to be a common theme on here that OF fans can't possibly feel the same way you do and that is quite disappointing to me tbh. One of the downsides of being an OF fan is your unsuccessful periods coincide with the other side being successful which just makes the bad times even worse. I would be surprised if anyone felt as good as we did when we beat St Johnstone to stop 10 in a row, or Larsson scoring away to Boavista to make the UEFA Cup final in 2003 or any of the high profile European wins. Equally I'm almost certain no-one could have felt as devastated when we lost to Porto and lost the league by a single goal in the same week as well as Scott McDonald and helicopter Sunday. I was in tears at each of those.

I done the years of having a season ticket and in my teens and early 20s travelled all over Scotland for away games as well as the odd jaunt abroad for European away matches. The long journeys, the pissed up banter, feeling like everyone is a part of something and dare I say the odd tune here and there. To most people that know me from back then they would think of Tony and immediately think of Celtic.

I am going to admit something for the first time on here and this is by far the worst part of being an OF fan. I was a major "bigot" as a teen/ early 20s. I use quotation marks there as i use the term bigot loosely. While I loved the IRA songs and was obsessed by Bobby Sands and his fellow hunger strikers, I didn't actually hate anyone, it was just so easy to get swept up in it all at that age. You kinda just don't understand what impact it has.

Everything then changed for me on 14th February 2009, as I sat in the hospital holding my new born daughter, completely and utterly loving something other than a football club for the first time in my life and I just stopped going to Celtic. I suddenly felt disgust and shame at my actions for all those years and made a decision that day that my kids would never wear those colours. In the passing years I felt myself hating the fans more and more but still loving the club for footballing reasons.

In 2012, really missing football, I started going along to random games. Went to Thistle a few times, St Mirren, Clydebank, Yoker and just didn't feel anything other than enjoying the games. Then on 17th March 2012, I decided to take in the Dumbarton v East Fife match. Found myself sitting next to a few guys from Norway ( i think) who were over for the game and were singing away and just having the time of their lives. East Fife were 3 up within half an hour and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. I felt something that day and enjoyed it immensely so starting going and was lucky enough to see Dumbarton promoted that season. I did have to sit in the Airdrie section for the home playoff game though which was eventful. Over the next few years I would pop down when i had a free Saturday and could afford it.

Stupidly allowed myself to be talked into going back to Celtic when Rodgers took over and spent 2 seasons with a season ticket. The second season I went to about 10 games in total and just couldn't handle being around the amount of utter fannies that attend there and quickly gave up the season ticket.

This is the first season where I've fully decided to follow Dumbarton. I still love Celtic as much as I did before and can't turn it off but i just cant bring myself to ever go back and especially don't want my kids anywhere near the whole thing.

I took my daughter along to Spartans earlier in the season and quickly noticed the difference supporting a wee club. Stevie Aitken said hello to her at the dugout during the game then when we went behind the goal for the second half, Jamie McGowan came over and spoke to her while he was warming up. She was so happy that the players wanted to talk to her and was slightly awestruck. I've since taken both my kids, daughter (9) and son (5) to see us lose 6-0 at St Mirren and have managed half a dozen home games so far this season. It's early days for us but im loving getting them involved in such a great wee club and looking forward to years of memories that we can share together.

As a wee final note, I'm starting to understand how it feels to support one of the wee teams, the importance of the communities and everyone pulling together to make sure the club survives, the fans volunteering their own time to get things done and just how much it feels like a big family pulling together. What i would say is that you can enjoy that without the need to compare it to supporting the OF. While it is different in some ways a lot of those fans love their clubs the same as you and do experience the highs and lows and all the emotions the same way you do.

This was an absolutely fantastic read from a different point of view! Hope your family have many good years supporting the wee teams.

[lichtgilphead]

2 hours ago, Broken Algorithms said:

The 42 is a great wee challenge btw. I've got 9 left now after getting to Montrose and Stranraer in the last year (Celtic, Killie, Motherwell, Caley , Clyde, Annan, Edinburgh City, Peterhead and Berwick left. I'll get to Edinburgh City in a couple of weeks time for an amateur game soon actually).

I only need Peterhead for the 42, but I'm aiming to see Arbroath at all of them. I've been to St Mirren, Killie & Aberdeen for games involving other teams, but hope to draw one of them away every time it's possible to get one of them in the cup.

[Chapelhall chap]

What a marvellous set of posts from so many areas. I have been attending Airdrie games really since the mid 60's when I used to get in to sell papers at half time since they carried horse racing results. Once sold quickly I could see the rest of the game. Have stuck with them through all the bad and good times but have paid my way in ever since. Still got to get to Elgin but can I count Ainslie Park  friendly in2017 against Spartans, for Edinburgh City before they move elsewhere? 

[theSilverFox]

One thing I'd like to add to the whole discussion is, from a Forfar point of view but I'm sure all supporters can relate to, is the amount of townsfolk who jump onto supporters' buses to see bigger teams and never set foot in Station Park unless "their" team is playing us in a friendly, testimonial or cup tie. Each Saturday I see locals heading off to see Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee or Dundee United, sadly totalling more than our average home gate. It's a free country so they can do as they please but imagine how much more even things would be if they all supported their hometown team and the investment that would bring to our team, maybe a more level playing field rather than the big teams having the lion's share of finances? 

[Gordon EF]

East Fife have never technically been my 'local' team. Born and brought up in Kirkcaldy and apart from a spell down south, spent all my adult life in Edinburgh. My dad's side of the family are from Methil though and my dad, grandad and great-grandad all supported East Fife. I can remember not really being that interested in football before my dad took me to my fist game. I had to check this but it was the 29th of August 1992, a 3-0 home defeat to Forfar... great stuff. Like a few folk have mentioned old Bayview and older grounds in general were a big part of the attraction. At that age, the game's never going to hold your attention all the way through, so being able to wander and explore the ground was fun. Climbing up things, running down behind the goal for corners. I must have been hooked straight away because I can remember asking my dad when the next game we could go to was. Weird things I remember from that season, a 1-1 draw with Stranraer in March must have been the first draw I was at because I still remember asking if we could go to the replay as well, like a total idiot.

Obviously, growing up in Kirkcaldy, in the early 90s, Raith were enjoying a great spell and like a lot of kids in the town, I was really excited when they got to the League Cup final and bugged my dad to get us tickets so we went with some Rovers supporting family friends. I kind of saw myself supporting both teams for a while and can still remember thinking that I had to decide to actually support one and not the other but it was always going to be East Fife.

The highs and lows supporting a diddy club are brilliant. And really, every team that isn't winning trophies all the time or constantly in one of the big leagues is a diddy club. There won't be one supporter on here that hasn't sat through at least one or two absolutely demoralising seasons. But the next time a promotion or title win or cup upset or something rolls along it just makes it all the better. Even take the games against the Rovers. If I hadn't gone along to defeat after defeat after defeat, there's no way the two wins we've had this season would have felt as good. It's one of the reasons I was so happy Montrose won L2 last season, not in a patronising way, but it's been such a long time since they've done something of note, it just made me happy to know just how fucking amazing it would be for the guys that have suffered over the years to have that day.

Edit: Seen East Fife at 33 of the 42. Don't have Celtic, Hibs, Motherwell, Dundee, Dundee Utd, Ross County, Inverness, Partick or Edinburgh City.

[GoalForAirdrie]

Airdrie fan. Best story is about my uncle though. Once went to Raith Rovers away following Airdrie (must’ve been late 80s or early 90s) and he stopped by an old woman out in her front garden in Kirkcaldy after he got off the bus and he said to her “can you keep these cans of beer in your fridge” and she said “no bother son” and took the cans off him. And then after the game, she was waiting for him in her front garden with the chilled cans of beer   

That’s what lower league footy is all about!

[philpy]

Been following Raith since my early teens. I live in East Lothian now, and dont get to much games as I work Saturdays. Ironically, the raith manager lives 5 minutes round the road!. I often pop down to watch musselburgh athletic when I get the chance, always a good game or two, and only 6 quid to get in. I've got the choice of 3 senior teams in the area (Hibs, hearts, and Edinburgh city), but if I can't make a rovers game I'll pop down to a mussy game If possible. It just wouldn't feel right going to watch another SPFL team!!

[Loonytoons]

My dad started taking my eldest to Station Park when he was 4 (season ticket if I recall correctly).  These weren't the best of years and by the time he was 7 we had been relegated to the Third Division then finished bottom of the pile the following season, grim stuff.

During that summer, we were up at the local sport centre swimming, the boy had just dried off and changed back into his Forfar top and a slightly older laddie was wearing a Celtic top.

"Your team's shite" was the succinct comment, a big grin right across his face.  My boy's face dropped, a wee tear starting to sprout from one eye.

"Dad, I don't want to support Forfar any more".

I leaned forward and whispered in his ear "Ask him how many Celtic games he's been too".

My lad did just that and I'll give the other boy a load of praise for his reply, a look of genuine surprise on his face "You go to the games!  That's brilliant, I've not been to any."

 

My boy has never questioned supporting Forfar since that day (well apart from the recent 4-0 cuffing from Brechin). 

 

[Broken Algorithms]

For myself, I'm another person where nobody in the house was really interested in attending finals. I was 5 when the 94 cup final was happening and I've got no recollection of it at all. Quite funny to see the East Fife fan earlier saying he actually got along to the game. My first game was a 1-1 draw with Airdrie during the 97/98 which I went along to with my mate from across the street, and his Dad, who were season ticket holders in the railway stand. I can't remember who scored for us (I'll need to check in "Always Next Season" which is a pretty incredible season-by-season breakdown of our history) but according to LondonHearts.com and their stats page, the game had a crowd of 3414 which seems pretty incredible given it struggled to break 1500 fans earlier this season. 

The following game was the one which got me hooked. I got tickets through the school to watch us play St Mirren later that season and we won 4-1 with Craig Dargo scoring a hat-trick. I remember in particular Guido Van De Kamp making a few really good saves, how happy were that the goals were flying in, and the smell of pipes from the stand. I'd only ever watched the occasional game on TV if Scotland were playing, so this was really good. I made it to a few more games that season. 

Around about 1999 my family moved house, and I didn't go to another game until about 2003/2004 season when I started going with one of my mates from school. This was time when we had the likes of Paquito and Ramon Pereira among others. Then the Anelka season came which was banter, but the season after under Dalziel I made it (rather unfortunately) to every home game.  McGlynn's first spell came about as I was turning 18, and my mate and I started getting to away games as well (the most ridiculous being Castle Douglas to watch us play Threave Rovers).

Since then there's been no turning back. Peak away days was reached when I went to Aberdeen on the supporters bus with no money (my mate who was meant to lend me almost missed his bus) for our midweek game where Gregory Tade scored the greatest ever thunderb*****d off the bar from 2 yards out. On the trip back down, I went to pass on the money to the supporters club but they didn't give a f**k about it! 

It's a ridiculous camaraderie when you follow a football team. I've met loads of great people through chatting with people at games, and a good handful of the Rovers fans who post on here who have all been top lads. When at University, I took along a few friends to different games and they all (somehow - probably through politeness) said that they enjoyed it, particularly the passion of the fans.