How long have you supported your club?

[Meadow]

I may have asked this before but here goes. I was a late adopter of Wimbledon being in my middle 20s. I moved close to Plough Lane in 1987 and despite being a nominal QPR supporter since the mid 70s, attending matches at Plough Lane sealed it for me. I wasn't at the 1988 cup final because I had no clue as to how to get a ticket.

Motherhood and later single parenthood meant that my attendance at Selhurst was sporadic.

2002 was devastating. No right of appeal and we didn't abandon our club despite whatever the franchise apologists post.

6 promotions since reforming and one relegation that shouldn't have happened. I'm now 62 and feeling old.

Any franchise supporter who decides to respond will be blocked because I really can't deal with their bullshit.

 

[mozzavale]

I went my first Vale game around 86. There was an old Normid supermarket next to Vale (now Synectics). Mum n Dad always did the weekly shop on a Saturday. I saw people walking up to the ground with the big floodlights on, asked my Dad what was going on there. He jumped at the chance to get a few hours away from doing as he was told, put me 2 pairs of trousers on to keep me warm and off we went. I crawled under the turnstile, climbed up the slope to the only part of the ground with seats at the time (Railway Stand) and will never forget the feeling of first seeing the pitch, and the noise from the crowd. Completely hooked. That was 39 years ago. Since then I've seen us at our peak, and our lowest ebb.

 

[Son of Cod]

Got taken by old man when I was 6 to watch us lose 1-0 to Bolton in the 90/91 season so been a Town fan for 34 years. My second match was promotion to the second tier on the final day of that same season and then we spent one season between then and 2002/03 out of the second tier (which was a double Wembley winning season). 2003/04 onwards and we've gone completely the other way. Double dropped through the third tier and we've been here or in the NL ever since. I had a bit of a brief period for a few seasons around the turn of the millennium when I discovered girls and booze and Town slipped down the pecking order of priorities but otherwise they've been fairly consistent in my life.

 

[Gladders]

Since birth, you don't chose who you support!

 

[Cloudy]

My first game was Oct 1965 v Bournemouth & Boscombe United!

I’ve never had another team although went to QPR a few times around 1976/7 as I was living in the area. They were good to watch in that period but never came close to the passion you feel for your true club. I then played semi pro and senior football on Saturday afternoons but once that was over, I was back at Blundell Park with a season ticket, and travelling to a large number of away games. Hope to get a few more seasons in before my time is up

 

[GFC4EVA]

Went to my 1st Gills game in 1995 was hooked straight away, have missed about 5 home game since then excluding the covid season

 

[Meadow]

Since birth, you don't chose who you support!

Exactly. I chose QPR as a teenager because they were successful. Wimbledon chose me.

 

[GEORGE]

My first game was Oct 1965 v Bournemouth & Boscombe United!

I’ve never had another team although went to QPR a few times around 1976/7 as I was living in the area. They were good to watch in that period but never came close to the passion you feel for your true club. I then played semi pro and senior football on Saturday afternoons but once that was over, I was back at Blundell Park with a season ticket, and travelling to a large number of away games. Hope to get a few more seasons in before my time is up

They were known as Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

My first game was in 1972 so yeah I’m an old git

 

[kieran_vale]

First Vale game was end of the 90/91 season against Sheffield Wednesday who’d just won the League Cup. Largely kept going from that point on though there was about 18 months when we were supposedly fan owned I just couldn’t stomach it due to them running the club into the ground so was more a Soccer Saturday viewer during that time.

 

[クレイグ]

I started going to games when Lennie Lawrence was in charge, but I don't think I fell in love with football until Chris Kamara took over. A really good 5-6 years or so and then a lot of years of misery!

 

[SaddlerJonny]

My Granddad was a season ticker holder for donkeys years, but he passed way when I was 3 so was unable to pass the Walsall curse onto me as nobody else in the small family liked football.

Thankfully I found it myself when I was 7 or 8 in 03/04 doing some Saturday Soccer Schools at the Bescot - they did a thing where if there was a home game that afternoon you could pay 2 or 3 pound extra to get in under the clubs youth community scheme, and was hooked from there. I remember Paul Merson and his giant wet spot on his shirt vividly still. Got to be a ball boy a few times the next couple seasons until I was too old to do the Soccer Schools anymore.

My first away game was 2007 when we won the league at Swindon with a Dean Keates screamer - I was ten and that was the first and last bit of "success" I've experienced supporting us. I'm pushing 30 now! Been a season ticket holder since about 2008/2009 and will be for life.

 

[LS Bantam]

First game was a friendly against Man U in 95, then next game was beating Notts County in the 96 PO’s but didn’t start going every week until the following year when we stayed up in what’s now the Championship when we had Mark Schwarzer in goal and Chris Waddle in midfield. Two seasons after that we were automatically promoted to the Prem, then stayed up - all I knew was success, very different times!

 

[codaplenty]

I started watching Fleetwood in late 50's. I used to go to watch speedway racing at the ground circa 1955 which was a carry over from the second world war, believe it or not there were crowds of 6k to watch
Fleetwood always mid tableish in the 'old'
Lancashire Combination. Morecambe and Chorley were the top teams
1966 reached F A Cup 1st round played Rochdale at home 2-2, lost replay 5-0, it was my Grandma's funeral in the am
The thing is lads,when you start writing about your team, you realise how much you love them, through thick and thin eh !
80's I moved down South with my job, went to Wembley, I think 1984 to see us lose to Halesowen in the FA Vase final 3-1
We've gone bust, reformed under different names but wait for it, a convicted fraudster and thief 'rebuilt' the club and we are where we are today

 

[codaplenty]

My first game was Oct 1965 v Bournemouth & Boscombe United!

I’ve never had another team although went to QPR a few times around 1976/7 as I was living in the area. They were good to watch in that period but never came close to the passion you feel for your true club. I then played semi pro and senior football on Saturday afternoons but once that was over, I was back at Blundell Park with a season ticket, and travelling to a large number of away games. Hope to get a few more seasons in before my time is up

I sincerely hope you do as well mate

 

[Si Robin]

My first Cheltenham game was a friendly against a Man City XI in August 1994. I remember two things from the game - the first was a group of teenagers asking the keeper (Martyn Margetson I believe) if he was better than Tony Coton and the second was a City player effing and jeffing at the linesman about a bad challenge from a Cheltenham player. The only City player who went onto play regularly in the Premier League was Michael Brown.

My uncle then took me to a few games that season, and I was hooked then. Been a season ticket holder since 2002 when I'd just turned 18. I didn't have one in 10/11 because my son was born and I didn't know how many games I'd get to as a first time father, but I was straight back onto it for the 11/12 season.

 

[mozzavale]

Since birth, you don't chose who you support!

Obviously agree with this but it's not always the case. My old man wasn't into football, was in bands as a lad and never got into going Vale or Stoke, more into his music. Would go both every now and then but didn't support either. So my choice of club came from the simple fact I was intrigued as to what was going on where the floodlights were next to the supermarket.

Stoke were shit at the time. There was a weekend Vale had no game, had been losing for weeks, so I'd decided I wanted to go and see a decent club with massive crowds. Newcastle were at home on the telly, so I asked my Dad if we could start supporting them instead as Newcastle was close to where we lived. That was when I learnt the difference between Newcastle under Lyme and Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

[Dan Phillips]

My first ever Vale game was a 1-1 draw at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday August 17th 1996.

My first away game was a 1-1 draw at Birmingham City on Saturday April 11th 1998. Gareth Ainsworth scored.

Didn't start going away games properly (as in virtually every one) until the start of the 08/09 season after relegation to this division, with a league and cup double header at Luton Town (W 3-1) and Sheffield United (L 3-1) and haven't looked back since.

Didn't miss a game, H or A, in all competitions, between Saturday April 11th 2015 and Saturday 20th October 2018.

Took my then nearly 2 year old to a pre season friendly at Kidsgrove Athletic in 2018 to test the waters. Took him to his first game just after his 5th birthday - a 2-3 home defeat to Rochdale. His first 'away' game was promotion at Wembley. First season in League One, took him to his first league away game at MK Dons midweek during half term. Went a reasonable amount throughout the season. For the last few seasons, he's been to practically every non-midweek one that isn't during half term.

He's 8 and a half now and up to 69 grounds. Walsall will be his 70th. Long term plan is for us to both finish the 92 at the same time at the same ground.

 

[lordofthepies]

I've been an Alex fan all my life, because my big brother was, so I had no choice in the matter.

My first game was a 3-2 defeat at home to Scarborough in the 92/93 season.

 

[Millerbri]

My mother's maiden name was Miller and she was born in Masborough about a quarter of a mile from Millmoor, sI was always going to be a Miller myself.

I can't even remember my first match but I'm told I was 3 years old so that would be 1956-57.
Apparently, my dad, mum and me were regular visitors to Millmoor as a family from then on and though I can remember certain details, it's all a bit fuzzy if I'm honest.

My first season ticket was for my 11th birthday in 1964 and my birthday being in July it became my annual present each year on. Rotherham was then an established 2nd tier team and we had some great players at the time.

Barrie Lyons, Frank Casper, Albert Bennett and Ian Butler were all sold within a couple of seasons and by 1968 we were a spent force and relegated after 17 years in the 2nd division.

Since then we've had many bad times but also some relative success.

I didn't get to pick my team, neither did my dad or my mother or my son or now his daughter. It might not be glamourous but when you do get some success, it has a special feeling that I don't think can be had by anyone who selects a team because they are famous or successful.

Currently it's a tough watch but it's my tough watch so I'll be there on Saturday as usual, just like all of us in the lower leagues.