The team you “could” have supported

[Ninety Per Cent]

Middlesborough, but they had just avoided going out of business and i wouldn't have been allowed to go to Ayresome Park anyway.

Moved to Brigg which is just up the road from Scunny 33 years ago. Best mate in school was a big Scunny fan. went on from there.

 

[HutchECFC]

It's a tough one to be honest.. My old man was always a United fan, but we didn't really bond over football, whereas my Grandad (mums side) is a Spurs fan, and always talked to him about football, so if he didn't take me to Exeter, I'd have probably ended up being Spurs.

 

[YEO YEO YEO]

Only Lincoln really.

Dad is a Lincoln fan going regularly in late 70s and 80s. I went to my first game in 1994 and then started going regularly with him aged 10 when last in League 1. Would always go see my grandad who lived near the ground and he was an avid fan too.

Being a teenager, started going with mates from 2001 onwards with the kid for a quid scheme. This coincided with the playoff run between 2003 and 2007. Then i was hooked. Similar to LukeImp, my first away game was that same Hull game and Bimson penalty.

I then lived abroad returning in 2016, nicely at the time the Cowleys took over. Been a season ticket holder since.

 

[Chris FGR]

Technically I could have supported Real Madrid. But I decided to support Forest Green instead, as you do.

 

[Son of Cod]

I got taken to my first Cambridge game just before my seventh birthday so it goes back 32 years for me now. But most people at my school “supported” Premier League sides and I got swept along a bit in my teens as it coincided with Keegan’s Newcastle side being so good. Then as I reached my late teens I realised how stupid it was following a side four hours drive away and really got back into Cambridge properly again when I got back from uni when I was 21.

Neither of my parents are from Cambridge. My dad is from Sussex originally and grew up as a Pompey fan but I’ve never had an affiliation there. He also went round the country going to Liverpool games and trie to get me on board but it never happened. I can’t stand them.

Also got taken to my first Town match a few months before my seventh birthday and that also goes back 32 years for me! Both our clubs getting promoted from the same division in that season too.

Grew up in a town bang smack in the middle of Grimsby/Cleethorpes, Hull and Scunny if you connected them all so I could have gone towards any of them had I not been taken to watch Town. Got a few best mates who are Hull so I'd probably have been going with them if that hadn't have happened.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Born and raised in Cambridge but my Mum and har parents are from North London (Gooners).

My grandad moved to Cambridge for work and my first ever game was against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup in 1991. At 7 years old I could barely see but was hooked ever since.

My family are all Arsenal supporters and my brother is a season ticket holder. I try to get to the odd game here and there and follow them from afar but could never give up my 'United' season ticket.

Thanks for that. Wanker.

 

[Stroud]

Thanks for that. Wanker.

Barrie, your reply intrigued me so I checked out the game result: -

I also noticed that you got your revenge two years later: - honours equal.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Barrie, your reply intrigued me so I checked out the game result: -
View attachment 17886
I also noticed that you got your revenge two years later: - honours equal.

Hardly honours equal, we were the side a division above on both occasions, the season we got pumped 4-0 we ended up winning promotion back to the top flight and beating Man Utd to win the League Cup so a humbling like that at the Abbey scars you.

 

[Laker]

Also got taken to my first Town match a few months before my seventh birthday and that also goes back 32 years for me! Both our clubs getting promoted from the same division in that season too.

Grew up in a town bang smack in the middle of Grimsby/Cleethorpes, Hull and Scunny if you connected them all so I could have gone towards any of them had I not been taken to watch Town. Got a few best mates who are Hull so I'd probably have been going with them if that hadn't have happened.

My first game was actually Cambridge v Grimsby at the Abbey in December 1990 in the 3rd division when we both went up. We went partly because the company my dad worked for sponsored Grimsby and we were given free tickets. Dublin scored a late goal in a 1-0 win. It then “bit” my dad and he started going regularly for the rest of the season. I went to the Saturday games and then had a season ticket thereafter,

I think I’ve probably seen Cambridge play Grimsby as much as anyone, we’ve generally followed each other around a fair bit!

 

[Laker]

Hardly honours equal, we were the side a division above on both occasions, the season we got pumped 4-0 we ended up winning promotion back to the top flight and beating Man Utd to win the League Cup so a humbling like that at the Abbey scars you.

I didn’t go to the FA Cup win sadly but I did go to the league cup game and I remember Chris Waddle being a class above. Actually it was so impressive that we were even down in London one weekend later that season and went to Chelsea v Sheffield Wednesday at Stamford Bridge to see that side. I don’t remember much of the game except I remember standing at the Shed End (probably my first experience of standing at a game) and Wednesday won 2-0. Wednesday fans were in the stand opposite (pre Matthew Harding). The Shed End was miles from the pitch and it was probably similar at the other end. I also remember we missed kick off as we only went on a spur of the moment thing in the days when you could pay on the gate. I got in for free and my parents were only £10 each.

Those were the days.

 

[BarrieOwl]

I didn’t go to the FA Cup win sadly but I did go to the league cup game and I remember Chris Waddle being a class above. Actually it was so impressive that we were even down in London one weekend later that season and went to Chelsea v Sheffield Wednesday at Stamford Bridge to see that side. I don’t remember much of the game except I remember standing at the Shed End (probably my first experience of standing at a game) and Wednesday won 2-0. Wednesday fans were in the stand opposite (pre Matthew Harding). The Shed End was miles from the pitch and it was probably similar at the other end. I also remember we missed kick off as we only went on a spur of the moment thing in the days when you could pay on the gate. I got in for free and my parents were only £10 each.

Those were the days.

League Cup game? 98

 

[Laker]

League Cup game? 98

I did go to the home leg of that but I was actually talking about league cup in 92/93.

 

[BarrieOwl]

I did go to the home leg of that but I was actually talking about league cup in 92/93.

It was the FA Cup in 93, 3rd round game

 

[Laker]

It was the FA Cup in 93, 3rd round game

Ah I stand corrected.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Ah I stand corrected.

Season we reached both finals and lost em

 

[Meadow]

My dad was a lifelong Chelsea supporter but didn't set foot in Stamford Bridge after he met my mum - other priorities - so I had to find my own way. I was nominally a QPR supporter from my schooldays as you HAD to have a team even if you didn't like football. I chose QPR because they were a London team - essential - and successful at the time. Proves how old I am, Alan Pardew was in the year above me at Southfields School.

Onward a few years and I moved to Earlsfield not far from Plough Lane. I started going to the occasional Wimbledon match and loved it. The FA Cup win sealed it for me.

34+ years as a Wimbledon supporter - over half my life - and a rollercoaster. When the MK decision was made, I was heartbroken, but it took 3 or 4 months before I got on board the AFC Wimbledon train. When I finally attended a match, it was like I'd never been away and so much better than the soulless experience of Selhurst Park.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Technically I could have supported Real Madrid. But I decided to support Forest Green instead, as you do.

Surely Barcelona but there was a mix-up due to the badges?

 

[Chris FGR]

Couldn’t support them after they copied our badge

 

[FarehamPompey]

I live right on the PO and SO post code border, and my school was a 50/50 split of Pompey / Scum fans.

Also hate to admit it.. my first ever game was Southampton v Chelsea.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

As I was brought up in Arsenal Road I should, had I been born decades before, supported Woolwich Arsenal. However, they had buggered off to North London and changed their name by the time I came along. The closest pro side was Charlton, went a few times, but never grabbed me. Dad was a Millwall fan so we went to Cold Blow Lane a few times. Scary place and that was just the other home fans. Pretty sure I went to Palace a few times too. None of these had won the World Cup like the team I settled on. Argo was due to moving here much much later in life.

 

[Stroud]

I live right on the PO and SO post code border, and my school was a 50/50 split of Pompey / Scum fans.

A decade of so ago I know that there was much animosity between the two sets of fans but I was also led to believe it had mellowed after Soton helped Pompey out financially when they were at point of going out of business.
Most of the rest of us use the scum epitaph when referring to Man-U-Fing-nited

 

[Laker]

Nah, Boro are scum to us, always will be. I’m pretty sure they use the same term for us and I know Ipswich/Norwich use it for each other. Lower league fans generally dislike the likes of Man Utd but not to the point when we’d call them scum.

 

[Salvador]

Two teams I could've easily ended up supporting instead of Dale. Man City and Brighton. Up until a few years ago I used to get to at least a handful of Man City games a season, having started going when i was in my early teens. It was a bus away, cheap and premier league. Dale were the team I watched the most and identified with the most. But I definitley wanted to see City do well as well (well was a top half finish). As City got more succesful and the money came in i enjoyed it less and went less and less. The fanbase and expectations changed. I spent a bit of time living in walking distance of the Etihad but haven't been in years, apart from as an away fan with a Wolves supporting mate.
Half my family are from the Brighton area and they were my grandads team and my dads team til he moved up north when he was a kid. He decided to pick a local northern side and stuck with Dale thanks to school mates taking him. This was around the time Dale were relegated out of division 3 and then spent the best part of twenty years just trying to avoid non league. Madness. And with the last few years especially has made me ask why tf he didn't stick with Brighton!

All that said I'm glad i stuck with what was my local team growing up. Couldn't imagine owt else.

 

[Valeite]

I come from a mainly Vale supporting family, both sides from in and around Burslem, in fact my gran was born in Port Vale st. but my dad used to go to Stoke and took me there when they played Man U. George Best turned it on that day and after that. it was Vale first and United second for a while. I went to Stoke a few times more with my dad but never liked it as much as going the Vale with my grandad.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Talking of clubs you could ( or perhaps did ) support, isn’t that bin dipper carragher a blue nose ?

 

[Laker]

Talking of clubs you could ( or perhaps did ) support, isn’t that bin dipper carragher a blue nose ?

I don’t know about the gobber but Gerrard was pictured in an Everton kit as a kid, and I think McManaman and Owen were both Everton fans too?

 

[Si Robin]

Carragher, McManaman and Owen were all Toffees. Gerrard, despite the picture, was never an Everton fan.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Harry Maguire was a Wednesday fan

 

[Laker]

Harry Maguire was a Wednesday fan

So was Vardy wasn’t he?

 

[BarrieOwl]

So was Vardy wasn’t he?

Vardy still is.