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    And as for Kingstonian:

    Firstly, I do acknowledge that it was an awkward situation to buy another teams home ground. However:

    a) It is Chelsea that have evicted them, not Wimbledon.

    b) when Khoshla put Kingsmeadow up for sale, there is no doubt in my mind that any purchaser other than Wimbledon would have had Kingstonian playing there on far less preferential terms, and/or would have evicted them a long time ago.

    c) The number one stated aim for AFC Wimbledon from day one, above getting in to the football league, above anything else, was to find a home ground in the borough of Merton. What did Kingstonian do as a club/fanbase between 2004-2016 to plan for when this situation came around?

    d) As a goodwill gesture, Wimbledon are providing £1 million to Kingstonian for a new stadium.

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      I bought a Barry Town scarf today.

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        Originally posted by Aitch View Post
        Hmm thanks for the tip 3CR. Yes it seems to work a lot better in Chrome. So, anther allegiance switched.
        anther (botany): the part of a stamen that contains the pollen?

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          Yes, he's elected to stick his proboscis into a different flower these days.


          That came out a bit 'wronger'-sounding than I was intending.

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            Blimey. Am late to this, but for what it's worth, this issue of fans changing allegiances is the dirty secret of the public image of fandom; honoured as much in the breach as in the doing. There was some research a few years ago at Coventry where they did lots of surveys of season ticket holders, and the 'classic' fan - the person who's grown up in an area, was taken by their Dad or Granddad etc was a quite small minority. The reasons why people were Coventry season tickets was very varied and reflected all the obvious reasons. The biggest group though were people who now lived in Coventry and started watching the team because they liked watching football, and wanted to watch the highest level of football in the place where they lived.

            I empathise with that a lot. I see Lewes a lot more than any other club, because I live 20 minutes away on the bus. I've taken my girls to men's matches, and they like it, but they much prefer going to watch the women's team because they can see themselves in the players. They also like the lack of diving and the lower level of physicality which results in fewer breaks in play from free-kicks. I've never had an inkling to go to Brighton, whcih is 15 minutes nearer, because its much more expensive, and I retain a massive affection for Lewes because they're fan-owned.

            Before that, I used to watch AFC Wimbledon. I was home and away for a few years, then work thrust responsibilities on me which meant I just couldn't go to midweek games, and then I moved to Brighton, and weekends were the only time I got to experience life in the city aside from commuting to London every day. I felt too much to fuck off of a weekend, especially as I was newly-married.

            I was 'born' a Man United fan, if such a thing exists, coming from an Irish emigre family in North Manchester. But I had the misfortune to come of age in the middle of a hoolie years. As the only son of a family into whom i was adopted after years of trying to conceive, I was kept on a rather shorter lease than I'd have liked, and aside from someone who took me to occasional European matches using LMTB vouchers, never went to OT. I was distant and disengaged from the activity of watching the team in the stadium; a TV fan.

            I then hooked up with someone who was a Northampton Town fan at University, who was a regular home and awayer. Their role in the supporters trust movement matched my politics, and I started to make friends at Cobblers matches. After a time, I started to identify with them. Fast forward a few years, I'm in London, with not much money, but working now with fans from across the country. I don't know anyone in London much, but am working with Wimbledon fans fighting the MK move. I attend meetings of the campaign group because they're easy to get to, and before I know it, I'm socialising with them. When the MK move is given the go-ahead, I'm asked to help with some stuff in setting the club up. They ask for money to help give them some working capital, and I donate. I get a season ticket for this, and start going. I've always liked Wimbledon's grit in the pearl approach to being in the Premier League, the runt of the litter up-yours, you don't want us here, but we're here, so fuck you. The first Premier League match I attended was to see Wimbledon beaten by Blackburn in 1997, as it felt like the right team to watch at the nearest PL club to where I was at the time in Lancaster.

            I consider myself a Wimbledon fan who doesn't get to watch them except very rarely. My first port of call for watching would be Lewes because it's easy, because it's cheap, and becasue my girls prefer it. I've a complicated relationship to United. I like seeing them lose in the Premier League to 'lesser' teams, but if you put a gun to my head and said who would I rather win the league between them and City, I'd say United. But in true apostate fashion, I'd rather Liverpool win the league, because I really like Klopp, and am a sucker for a team being dragged somewhere by the sheer brilliance of a single player, be that Suarez under Rodgers, or Salah now. I became re-engaged in PL football when Leicester won the title, and watched their matches and cheered their results with gusto.

            I don't know what that makes me. But - and this could be simply wishful thinking - I think I'm not that unusual in making the choices about who to watch and who to 'root' for as the traditional narrative would have it. I'm sure many reading this would disagree, but I don't think I've gloryhunted. It's just complicated.

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              That was just great, NHH; a kind of Big Reveal. I feel it legitimises how I feel about my passage through the support of various teams due to what were essentially random circumstances.

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                I've been musing on this a bit the last few days. Next year it will be 25 years since I left Shrewsbury to go to Uni, and 25 years since I rocked up in Cardiff not knowing this was going to be where I lived for the rest of my life so far.

                This season I have seen almost all of Barry Town's home games and am already planning away trips next season in Europa qualifiers and the Scottish Cup if they can maintain their form and qualify for both competitions. FA Cup first round weekend I found myself caring more about Barry's result away at Connah's Quay than I did about how Shrewsbury fared against Classof92 City. (Obviously I wanted Shrewsbury to win, but I really wanted Barry to get a result against the Quay.)

                So, maybe a quarter of a century of being a fan in exile is long enough and it's time for me to just move on. If my family didn't still live in Shrewsbury I would have no reason to go back there ever and I'm sure the football connection would have disappeared long ago.

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                  Sounds like your gradual migration to Barry is like my one to Bath City - only more accelerated by the latter's actions. The family link thing is interesting. I realised, after the rebrand and subsequent exodus of pretty much all the people I used to go with, that it was those friends and the social occasions that were more important. Although I felt a link with Cardiff at the time, it was, I realise, pretty tenuous and perpetuated by the football. Although my family are broadly from Cardiff, I never lived there and what nostalgia I had of it was primarily from visits to my grandparents and extended family (which included trips to Ninian Park). It was quite funny that, when travelling away, any twinges of Welsh accent that I picked up and returned home with were more Cardiff than my original lighter Porthcawl accent. Similarly, after living in London the longest of anywhere, I have more connection with there and am almost as nostalgic when, say, talking to my QPR supporting mate as I was about Cardiff.

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