Local team / glory hunting, etc. and so on

[Rbon]

20 minutes ago, Gus Setsniffer said:

nice story, wait till bin bin salah bin buys the mackems in a few years, this thread with get bumped and you'll be a glory hunting b*****d.....

 

If Sunderland started winning cups and league i'd be too busy enjoying it to give a damn what anyone said. Actually at the moment if we won a game i'd be too busy enjoying it to care what anyone said. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by Rbon

[The Other Foot]

1 hour ago, Gus Setsniffer said:

nice story, wait till bin bin salah bin buys the mackems in a few years, this thread with get bumped and you'll be a glory hunting b*****d.....

 

You're a ***, aren't you?

[HibeeJibee]

3 hours ago, The Other Foot said:

It most certainly was! In the days when tickets to the football were a fraction of the price they are now, and the weekly trip to Easter Rd/Tynecastle was just part and parcel of the working man's Saturday (followed, of course, by the boozer). It wasn't as if you supported the other team - you still had a love for your own team, you just also had a love for the footballing experience in general. And there were, of course, skirmishes, but none of the "I hate them so much I'd prefer to sprinkle Jim Traynor's bunion shavings on my pasta than shake their hand" thing. Or at the very least, it wasn't as brash as it has been latterly. 

 

3 hours ago, Futureboy said:

A very small sample size of me and my mates, but I used to go to Dens with my mates when I was younger if United weren't playing or I couldn't get to an away game, just for the sake of watching a game of fitba. They also came to Tannadice with me sometimes if the situation was reversed. That was late 80's/early 90's. 

I'm not suggesting it didn't happen but I'm not convinced that a really substantial portion of each club's respective crowds did so?

Also in those days reserve football was high profile and it mirrored first team programs... e.g. Motherwell v Hibs at Fir Park in SFL could see Hibs v Motherwell at Easter Road in Reserve League... with teams playing their 2nd XI. Crowds were large. So even thousands of 'hard core' fans who didn't travel away were still watching their own club every week during 1950s & 1960s.

[The Other Foot]

1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

Also in those days reserve football was high profile and it mirrored first team programs... 

That was for the wummen and weans. The good old days, when the men were men and the women were men too. 

[Monkey Tennis]

6 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

conscious cases where clubs formed or rebranded - in an effort to pitch themself to wider areas... East Fife, East Stirlingshire (formerly Bainsford Britannia), Ross County, Nairn County. That is a conscious shot at glory hunters.

Surely that represents a conscious effort to attract those who see football teams as closely identified with a sense of place.  In other words, the good guys.

[The Great Stagsby]

9 hours ago, TheScarf said:

Not that I'm aware of, I know a lot of The Caley fans and I don't have knowledge of any of them supporting another Scottish club.  There's 2 lads in my office alone who support County and Rangers.  There will be a lot more too.  Just seems rather bizarre.

Interesting. I can only comment based on my own experience, but off the top of my head I can only think of one County fan I personally know who also supports Rangers, and one ICT fan who also supports Rangers. (None who support Celtic). Also worth noting I’m friends with a lot more County fans than ICT, so in the world through my eyes a higher ratio of ICT fans also support OF than County ones (but thankfully a fairly low number over all).

My “ICT & Rangers fan” mate is a real odd case - a perfectly reasonable and rounded kind of guy more generally, he clearly supports each team with just as much passion as the other, and always has (which I just can’t get my head round). However, whilst he’s more than happy to exchange banter / abuse with me re. the Highland rivalry, he avoids any Rangers chat at all with me, almost unwilling to openly admit to me his very obvious and well known support for them. But get him in a room with a couple of other Rangers fans I know (one from Lewis, the other from Thurso, ) and it’s clear for all the world to see.

[The Great Stagsby]

4 hours ago, Rbon said:

If Sunderland started winning cups and league i'd be too busy enjoying it to give a damn what anyone said. Actually at the moment if we won a game i'd be too busy enjoying it to care what anyone said. 

As a County fan, I know exactly how you

Spoiler

Nope, sorry - my bad!

 

[Rbon]

6 minutes ago, The Great Stagsby said:

As a County fan, I know exactly how you

  Reveal hidden contents

Nope, sorry - my bad!

 

Fair shout i might understand what winning a game feels like after Christmas.... I'm allowed to be optimistic?. 

[tamthebam]

8 hours ago, Torpar said:

Imagine choosing the football club you follow based on your interpretation on an old book...

 

 

"I support Peterhead because I read Porterhouse Bluetoon"

"I support St Johnstone because I read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Cold Comfort Farmers"

"I support the Loons because I read Forfar from the Madding Crowd"

"I support the Jambos because I read Hearts of Darkness"

"I support St Mirren because I read Women in Love Street"

"I support Dumbarton because I read Sons and Lovers"

"I support the Rovers because I read the Grapes of Raith"

"I support the Wasps because I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Alloa"

"I support Edinburgh City because I read 100 years of solitude...."

 

[IrishBhoy]

At the end of the day anyone can support whatever team they choose, no matter how far away from the stadium they live. However, because the majority of Old Firm fans in this country are educated to a very low level, they don’t see the irony in lording it over fans who do support a team in their local area, or even a team they have some tangible connection to. It’s very evident that domestic success means little to them, a Scottish Cup win for Celtic is celebrated with a few pints in the pub after the game and up the road. The bragging rights over Rangers fans mean much more than the trophy. But compare that to something like Ross County’s Scottish Cup win, or St Mirrens league cup, these were celebrated in a way that OF fans could only achieve if they won a European trophy, which is very unlikely to happen. 
 

A lot of OF fans also have the delusion that they didn’t just choose to support one of them, but were somehow chosen, and subsequently believe that the success of their team reflects on them as a person. They don’t seem to understand that they just chose a team to support (a coincidence that it happens to be one of the 2 biggest teams in the country), in the same way that I could say tomorrow I support Real Madrid and lord it over OF fans, but I wouldn’t do that because I don’t need to use my teams success as some sort of personality trait. 
 

It’s sometimes said in jest but I personally know OF supporters who think of themselves as superior to fans of St. Mirren, Hamilton, etc (basically any other team in Scotland actually), and are unable to see the stupidity of relating the success of the team they support to their own life, especially when they have done literally nothing to aide that success, but still carry the arrogance of someone who has. 
 

Ive been going to St Mirren games for a good few years now and if I meet someone for the first time will say I support St Mirren. Had a Rangers fan (from Motherwell) a few months back who, after meeting for the first time, told me it must be shite to go watch a team that never wins, in a stadium with hardly any fans. I did tell him that St Mirren have won a national trophy more recently than his team, and that St Mirren would have substantially more fans if half of Paisley didn’t ignore their own towns team and choose to support the more successful clubs 20 minutes up the road. Explained that when I go to watch a game of football I don’t need to do it in a stadium with 40,000 others so I can give myself a pat on the back because I support a ‘big’ team. Infact I could think of nothing worse than sitting in Ibrox or Parkhead amongst some of the mutants that go to their home games. I’ve been in the home end and the away end at both stadiums, and you don’t need to look far to see what sort of people you are associating yourself with. 

Edited December 5, 2020 by IrishBhoy

[The Mantis]

2 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

But compare that to something like Ross County’s Scottish Cup win,

Eh?
 

 

 

 

 

[IrishBhoy]

2 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

Eh?
 

 

 

 

 

Apologies, Ross Countys league cup win. 
 

Think I was getting it confused with Caley Thistle winning the Scottish Cup. 

[Highland Capital]

I've always maintained that a lot of, if not most OF fans (both Glasgow-based and further afield) couldn't hack supporting a smaller club.  Perhaps though for many it's the only winning they get in life, hence their over-reaction to any defeat.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Genuine question for the rangers fans now that all the dust from 2012 has settled, did you ever think there was a real chance you could spend along time bobbing about down the leagues , like what happened to leeds ?

[ZX1886]

Never really got my head around it. I look at all the work teams like Motherwell do in the local community and wonder why folk wouldn’t be proud of it and want to get behind the club. Instead when we play there are buses full of supporters leaving to watch the OF.

Not quite as bad as folk who despise the Scottish game and pretend to be passionate about some English mob...

[AJF]

40 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

Genuine question for the rangers fans now that all the dust from 2012 has settled, did you ever think there was a real chance you could spend along time bobbing about down the leagues , like what happened to leeds ?

Personally, I fully expected us to get promoted each year at the first time of asking given the astronomical resources we had available to us compared to our rivals at the time. Credit to Hearts in their first championship season as they really highlighted how far off it we were.

The fact that we were a basket case while McCoist was at the helm (still a legend - not all his fault) had me thinking that when we did get promoted to the premier league we’d maybe have a few seasons around mid table.

Thankfully I think they got the appointment of Warburton correct in the sense that he had us playing good football while we won the championship comfortably and had some big premiership scalps in the cup run so it set us up better for our first season back in the premiership compared to if we had gone up under McCoist in my opinion (it was still a shambles but we were nearer the top of the table than I previously feared we might have been).

So, to answer your question in simple terms, no, I never once expected we’d spend a significant amount of time in the lower leagues, but the way the club was run had me concerned that we’d be mid table for a considerable period.

[HibsFan]

18 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

A lot of OF fans also have the delusion that they didn’t just choose to support one of them, but were somehow chosen, and subsequently believe that the success of their team reflects on them as a person. They don’t seem to understand that they just chose a team to support (a coincidence that it happens to be one of the 2 biggest teams in the country), in the same way that I could say tomorrow I support Real Madrid and lord it over OF fans, but I wouldn’t do that because I don’t need to use my teams success as some sort of personality trait. 

It’s sometimes said in jest but I personally know OF supporters who think of themselves as superior to fans of St. Mirren, Hamilton, etc (basically any other team in Scotland actually), and are unable to see the stupidity of relating the success of the team they support to their own life, especially when they have done literally nothing to aide that success, but still carry the arrogance of someone who has. 

This covers two important points, particularly the living vicariously through a football team aspect which a lot of Old Firm fans seem to love doing.

And, as you correctly say, we could all decided tomorrow that we actually love ra bhoys/ra bears. It would mean as much as a good 50% of their 'connections'.

[AJF]

19 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

At the end of the day anyone can support whatever team they choose, no matter how far away from the stadium they live. However, because the majority of Old Firm fans in this country are educated to a very low level, they don’t see the irony in lording it over fans who do support a team in their local area, or even a team they have some tangible connection to. It’s very evident that domestic success means little to them, a Scottish Cup win for Celtic is celebrated with a few pints in the pub after the game and up the road. The bragging rights over Rangers fans mean much more than the trophy. But compare that to something like Ross County’s Scottish Cup win, or St Mirrens league cup, these were celebrated in a way that OF fans could only achieve if they won a European trophy, which is very unlikely to happen. 
 

A lot of OF fans also have the delusion that they didn’t just choose to support one of them, but were somehow chosen, and subsequently believe that the success of their team reflects on them as a person. They don’t seem to understand that they just chose a team to support (a coincidence that it happens to be one of the 2 biggest teams in the country), in the same way that I could say tomorrow I support Real Madrid and lord it over OF fans, but I wouldn’t do that because I don’t need to use my teams success as some sort of personality trait. 
 

It’s sometimes said in jest but I personally know OF supporters who think of themselves as superior to fans of St. Mirren, Hamilton, etc (basically any other team in Scotland actually), and are unable to see the stupidity of relating the success of the team they support to their own life, especially when they have done literally nothing to aide that success, but still carry the arrogance of someone who has. 
 

Ive been going to St Mirren games for a good few years now and if I meet someone for the first time will say I support St Mirren. Had a Rangers fan (from Motherwell) a few months back who, after meeting for the first time, told me it must be shite to go watch a team that never wins, in a stadium with hardly any fans. I did tell him that St Mirren have won a national trophy more recently than his team, and that St Mirren would have substantially more fans if half of Paisley didn’t ignore their own towns team and choose to support the more successful clubs 20 minutes up the road. Explained that when I go to watch a game of football I don’t need to do it in a stadium with 40,000 others so I can give myself a pat on the back because I support a ‘big’ team. Infact I could think of nothing worse than sitting in Ibrox or Parkhead amongst some of the mutants that go to their home games. I’ve been in the home end and the away end at both stadiums, and you don’t need to look far to see what sort of people you are associating yourself with. 

I think you raise a lot of good points. I think I’d also add a bit of balance in regards to the statement that a lot of OF fans think of themselves as superior fans, but the opposite can also be said.

This thread is a prime example and has multiple instances of some fans believing they are superior than OF fans.

Edited December 6, 2020 by AJF

[Aim Here]

2 minutes ago, AJF said:

This thread is a prime example and has multiple instances of some fans believing they are superior than OF fan

But ... isn't that true?

[AJF]

11 minutes ago, Aim Here said:

But ... isn't that true?

Haha, I feel it’s subjective. If you use stereotypes as the barometer of an OF fan, then probably yes.

But on the other hand, if you ask me, for example, if I think I am superior than the Hibs fan that threw a bottle at Barisic or the Killie fan that racially abused Morelos, then absolutely yes I do. But I realise they are not representative of those fan bases as a whole.