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    Your personal football project

    This is a bit nerdy but since the 1992-93 season kicked off I've kept a record of the football matches I've been to. It started as a list in a notepad. Then I put it in an Excel document, which I've kept updated on a semi regular basis.

    A long time ago Mrs Thistle bought me a "Book of Days". It's like a diary with all the dates of the year in, which you complete with birthdays, anniversaries, notable events etc. I had put a few in but it had then lain in a drawer untouched.

    Last season I started to go through the book, writing in the games I'd been to on a given day of each month, putting in the year, game and score. It's interesting to see the clustering - Boxing day is nearly full, I've been to a game on almost every day in August and September, June and July are predictably empty. I've seen the same fixture on the same day several years apart a couple of times.

    There's part of me that wants to complete the year. I've already got a New Years Eve fixture in mind to tick off another currently vacant day.

    Has anyone else done this or am I just a complete sad sack? What other projects have people embarked on just for their own amusement?

    #2
    As far as I can remember I've got about six or seven days left to do - end of June/ start of July and Christmas Day are the ones I'm missing.

    Seeing every Saturday club in Lancashire (taking in the largest possible definition of the county) play a home game is my long term goal. I'm just over halfway done. The main difficulties are likely to be keeping track of most of the clubs in Liverpool, half of whom seem to move to a new ground each season for no apparent reason, and being bothered enough to do the Blackburn Combination, which has about fifteen teams who play most of their games on the same playing fields (the one game I have seen there is the only game I've been to which had a five minute interruption because of the players failing to be able to catch a dog running round the pitch).

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      #3
      I tried starting my own club. Gave up after a few years, there just wasn't any point.

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        #4
        The Morrocan league has fixtures on December 25th, when that falls on a Friday to Sunday. Last year you could have watched a top of the table clash between Agadir and WAC Casablanca. Don't know if any flights would get you to Morocco from the UK over Xmas: there must be some.

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          #5
          An easier one for Christmas Day is the final of the Steel & Sons Cup in Northern Ireland.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Southport Zeb View Post
            An easier one for Christmas Day is the final of the Steel & Sons Cup in Northern Ireland
            Although note that if Xmas falls on a Sunday the game is the day before

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              #7
              Nothing like as structured as PT, but I’m gradually ticking off all the teams in the top 5 divisions, plus the Northern versions of non-league tiers 2 and 3. Not in terms of ground visits (I don’t have the time or money, particularly when I’m also trying to support Carlisle and follow Liverpool’s European exploits), but just actually seeing them play.

              I’m down to about 2 dozen out of those top 7 divisions, with Barnsley being the only league club I’ve never seen play. Have also made reasonable incursions into non league tiers 4 and 5 in the NW, which will be the logical next target once I’ve cleared the remainder in the higher leagues.

              Oh, and I’m still edging my way towards completing the 91, too.

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                #8
                My project is to complete my Football 78 Panini sticker album. Just three to go. After that I will think of something new to take care of the next 40 years.

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                  #9
                  The Football 78 or the World Cup one? Because I bought some random World Cup 74 and 78 stickers recently.

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                    #10
                    The club edition. I have the World Cup 78 one too, but I think that's about 60-70 stickers short. In further sad-sackery, I could list the missing ones with a view to a deal, even though it's beyond the scope of my current project.

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                      #11
                      I too have a spreadsheet of matches I've attended, but I'd never even thought of trying to attend a game on every date in the calendar. In fact I've never attended a single game in June, something which I had a chance to remedy this year, but having been to three games on the first day of the CONIFA tournament (on 31 May) I blew that by not going to another.

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                        #12
                        I record games attended by saving the match ticket (or programme if there isn't one) and then upload a picture to https://ingoldale.tumblr.com/ but this also includes tickets from gigs and museums. The tickets are filed away in a photo album and some of the programmes are saved too - mainly from grounds I haven't visited before, if no match ticket was issued or if it was a match of particular interest to me such as a derby or cup match.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                          This is a bit nerdy but since the 1992-93 season kicked off I've kept a record of the football matches I've been to. It started as a list in a notepad. Then I put it in an Excel document, which I've kept updated on a semi regular basis.

                          A long time ago Mrs Thistle bought me a "Book of Days". It's like a diary with all the dates of the year in, which you complete with birthdays, anniversaries, notable events etc. I had put a few in but it had then lain in a drawer untouched.

                          Last season I started to go through the book, writing in the games I'd been to on a given day of each month, putting in the year, game and score. It's interesting to see the clustering - Boxing day is nearly full, I've been to a game on almost every day in August and September, June and July are predictably empty. I've seen the same fixture on the same day several years apart a couple of times.

                          There's part of me that wants to complete the year. I've already got a New Years Eve fixture in mind to tick off another currently vacant day.

                          Has anyone else done this or am I just a complete sad sack? What other projects have people embarked on just for their own amusement?
                          You have the most patient and understanding missus out there PT.

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                            #14
                            I'm sure Mrs Thistle is a wonderful woman but she always seems to have him doing household chores or errands as far as I can ascertain.

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                              #15
                              Isn't that a good description of adult life though?

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by TonTon View Post
                                I tried starting my own club. Gave up after a few years, there just wasn't any point.
                                Still no further news on Ray Winstone playing you in the film, then?

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                  Still no further news on Ray Winstone playing you in the film, then?
                                  I think he's going to be just too old by the time it gets made.

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                                    #18
                                    meh, they said that about the cast of Grease.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                                      You have the most patient and understanding missus out there PT.
                                      Yep I'm pretty lucky. A week today is our 20th wedding anniversary.

                                      For the record she's just showed me her 'needs' list for the Sainsbury's Lego cards she's collecting.

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                                        #20
                                        haha, ye're well met so

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by imp View Post
                                          My project is to complete my Football 78 Panini sticker album. Just three to go. After that I will think of something new to take care of the next 40 years.
                                          I actually sent off for the missing Bristol City stickers in that album. I'm probably still paying my mother off now, even though she died 20-odd years ago. And even though my father threw the album out 20-odd years ago.

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                                            #22
                                            How to create your own frustration...

                                            Both the 22 and 29 September are empty days in my football attendance calendar. This would have been an ideal year to fill them in, but I'm going on holiday for a week, travelling on both Saturdays.

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                                              #23
                                              You could visit North America to fill in some of those summer dates.

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                                You could visit North America to fill in some of those summer dates.
                                                Or Ireland.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Actually one of my three June dates is Real Salt Lake v San Jose Earthquakes on 2008.

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