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    #26
    Is there a Colchester / Ipswich rivalry?

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      #27
      That Pilkington nonsense is from the BBC's wretched weekly predictions with Lawro, which would be Exhibit A for the trial of ... well, football today or England today or the Beeb today, take your pick. It's either somebody promoting a movie ("Ha Ha! Hollywood star has never heard of Fulham! Let's make some Soccerballs Overtime jokes that were already unfunny 20 years ago!") or it's a UK celeb who's a "massive Arsenal fan" and wants to meet Thierry Henry. Everything about it screams "reader, we don't give a fuck".

      There's no allegiance to switch.

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        #28
        Originally posted by Sits View Post
        Great piece from Hot Orange there and also from BallochSonsFan. Confused about Alexandria though.

        I've always been an armchair fan; in childhood from Chelsea (everyone was) then Stoke (Geoff Hurst and Alan Hudson) then Ipswich (when Paul Mariner went there; good timing). Once Bobby Robson left I was like my Dad always appeared to be: teamless. Strange and rare in those who follow football.

        My interest in my "local" teams Reading and Maidenhead (to a lesser extent Wycombe) has only really taken shape since living in Australia if I'm honest. Maidenhead in particular are meaning more and more as time passes which is strange. Must be that I know the town, the ground and its surroundings so well.
        Its the next town over from Dumbarton and takes in the southern part of Loch Lomond.

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          #29
          Thanks that's my learning for today.

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            #30
            As a kid growing up in Leeds, I dabbled around the age of 8 with "supporting" (at a level so low I couldn't even be bothered to make the trip to the armchair) Arsenal. I've no idea why. Maybe I liked Charlie George's long hair because it was like a glam rock band member's look. In fact, I think I was supporting Arsenal when Leeds beat them in the 1972 Cup Final, but had joined my classmates in supporting the local giants in time to be on the losing side in the 1973 Cup Final too.

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              #31
              Originally posted by Sits View Post
              Is there a Colchester / Ipswich rivalry?
              A former good mate of mine was Colchester, and he reckoned that Ipswich were the one team Colchester hated, although Ipswich didn't give a hoot about Colchester.

              This was a man who had a year-long affair with my then-girlfriend, though, so he was probably lying.

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                #32
                I think that this is, if we hadn't done it before, the thread to decide the acceptable reasons for supporting clubs:

                The team of your birthplace (Leeds, in my case).
                Your home town i.e. where you mostly went to school.
                Your absolutely most local team at any moment in time.
                Your Dad's (or any older relatives') team.
                You like the colours of the kit (one of my favourite reasons).
                You like the name. (my mate who is Somerset born and bred supports Sheffield Wednesday due to this. As I point out to him, he could have ended supporting Abergavenny Thursdays.

                The best ever reason I have ever known for supporting a team was a mate who was born and grew up next to Highbury. His dad and whole family were Arsenal supporters and his dad took him to the shop to buy an Arsenal replica shirt. At the last minute, my mate had a fanatically contrary month and decide that he didn't want the red and white of Arsenal and, indeed, his family and pointed at the kit that he preferred instead. He had picked the, as some of us regard, beautiful Old Gold of Wolves. Thus he was wedded to Wolves for the whole time that Arsenal were one of most successful team in the top division.

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                  #33
                  My son picked:

                  Newcastle United - because when he was first old enough to be noticing football, it was England's Alan Shearer, by now at the Toon, who became his idol.

                  New England Patriots - because New England was the first (and to date only) place in the US he's visited. He was 6 at the time and the affinity wasn't spoiled by becoming violently ill on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard.

                  Now 27, he's stayed true to both these loyalties. It's probably fair to say one has been a more rewarding devotion.

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                    #34
                    As per Bored's "legit" reasons for supporting, I want Wrexham to do well because my Grandad was a fan. Obviously as long as they don't finish the season above Shrewsbury.

                    I support the San Diego Padres because the first baseball game I ever went to was Padres v Giants. I could have gone the other way but Barry Bonds was playing for the Giants just after the steroid scandal hit. And the Padres won. And it was in San Diego.

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                      #35
                      And my Highland League team is Forres Mechanics after seeing them while on holiday once. Plus their nickname is the Can-Cans.

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by Sits View Post
                        My son picked:

                        Newcastle United - because when he was first old enough to be noticing football, it was England's Alan Shearer, by now at the Toon, who became his idol.

                        New England Patriots - because New England was the first (and to date only) place in the US he's visited. He was 6 at the time and the affinity wasn't spoiled by becoming violently ill on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard.

                        Now 27, he's stayed true to both these loyalties. It's probably fair to say one has been a more rewarding devotion.
                        I’m amazed at people who can stick with these allegiances that were formed so randomly. I know a guy in my town who supports Everton - like, gets up every Saturday and really cares - just because when he visited England in college (or maybe it was high school) he saw their kit and really liked it. I think he’s been to Goodison Park once, but long after he’d started following them.



                        I supported the Capitals when I lived near DC, but the second I left, I felt nothing for them. As a kid, I rooted for whoever Gretzky played for until I started supporting the Leafs just because I liked Toronto the one time I visited, but none of those allegiances lasted or were heartfelt.

                        I now like the Lightning because my brother and nephew support them and live there.

                        I cared a lot about DC United when I lived there but now don’t have a strong MLS connection at all, though there are a few teams I wish more well than others.

                        I actually was in DC - for work - the day of the Caps’ Cup parade, but I felt nothing except maybe some contempt for all those Johnny-Come-Lately fans. Because I was supporting them in the pre-Ovechkin era when they never sold-out or got much media attention. But mostly, I just wish the Bolts could win. My nephew is sports mad but has never seen one of “his teams” win a championship. He’s only 15, but still. It would be nice. And the Lightning are a good organization and I like their uniforms.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by Flynnie View Post
                          I tend to believe you can trade down but not up. So if you want go to from Liverpool to your local non-league club then grand, but going from Liverpool to Barcelona makes you an awful person who is bad.
                          This.

                          There’s just something really suspicious about a glory hunter.

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                            #38
                            Exactly. 'Age' is a huge giveaway for fans of certain BRCs...

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                              #39
                              Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                              Exactly. 'Age' is a huge giveaway for fans of certain BRCs...
                              Good point. No-one can accuse a Spurs fan under the age of 60 of being a glory hunter.

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                                #40
                                Exactly. We'd not won a trophy for three years when I started supporting the team.

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                                  #41
                                  I am a Grimsby supporter. I have never switched allegiance but I fervently supported other clubs as well whilst living abroad or away from home. When I first did this, with Hibs, at first I found it was just quite novel to enjoy a match without having a vested interest but as time went on I just found myself really wanting them to win. The same happened with Clermont Foot, St. Pats, Santutxu, Barakaldo, ASSE and even PSG when I was in Paris before the Qatari money arrived. They were all teams local to me and selected primarily on that basis. I still look out for their results and want them to win.

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                                    #42
                                    When my son was at junior school, all the boys in his class bar one supported Ajax. The one exception supported Feyenoord. Glory hunters the lot of them, none of them had ever been to a game and all were too young to stay up and watch a school-night game. Something evidently had to be done, so we started going to Utrecht, the nearest professional club. My son has since transferred his allegiance to girls and all-night clubbing (which is understandable enough), even though he still has a season ticket. (He films the youth teams on a Saturday for the video analyst). I’m too old for illegal raves, so I’ve stuck with Utrecht.

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                                      #43
                                      A kid at school became a Nottingham Forest supporter in 1978. Bristol Rovers were no longer good enough for him (which I would normally understand, but not in this case). He got a Nottingham Forest shirt for Christmas 1978. In the first week of January 1979, he got his head kicked in for wearing it at football practice. I wasn't involved in the head-kicking-in, but I did nothing to stop it.

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                                        #44
                                        Originally posted by Flynnie View Post
                                        I tend to believe you can trade down but not up. So if you want go to from Liverpool to your local non-league club then grand, but going from Liverpool to Barcelona makes you an awful person who is bad.
                                        I used to follow Everton, when it was fashionable to have an English team as a 'backup', but changed to Arsenal when they signed Charlie Nicholas, and he was a mate of my brother.

                                        I used to like Ajax, but then I met a cute Dutch guy who was an ex-Sparta player, so my Ajax affiliation lasted as long as it took me to get into his underwear. (Possibly TMI, sorry.)

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                                          #45
                                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                          And my Highland League team is Forres Mechanics after seeing them while on holiday once. Plus their nickname is the Can-Cans.
                                          The things I learn on otf! The nickname, not your holiday plans.

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                                            #46
                                            Having spent 2/3s of my life away from Liverpool I still couldn't support any other side. I do keep an eye on any other teams I've followed whilst living in the area such as Plymouth, Woking, Chertsey, Tranmere, Slough and in Scotland I closely follow Celtic, Albion Rovers, Dundee United and Motherwell.

                                            I'm pretty neutral where the Juniors are concerned I'm just happy to see a good game at that level.

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                                              #47
                                              Hold on, we are starting to move into second team territory now which is a whole other matter. I have teams in other countries and even in England that I have a fondness for but you can only have one team. You know which one this is if you imagine that, if they were to meet each other in a match, which one would you want to win? Even with my capriciousness, this has only even slightly got near to this twice for me. Decades after I had stopped following Leeds, they played Cardiff in a now-famous FA cup match when Leeds were at the top of the Premier League at Christmas. Even though, in reality, of course, I wanted Cardiff to win, it was still interesting to think that my current team were meeting my boyhood team - who I still had a residual fondness for (especially the players, badge, kit etc. contemporaneous to my supporting). As it happened, the build-up to and aftermath of the match completely soured my view of them and they really did become just another team then (although Sam Hammam acted like a cunt as well). Indeed, their fall to their current level started that day.

                                              The other time was when post-rebrand Cardiff turned up for a pre-season friendly at Bath City. Loads of people were assuming I would go but I didn't as I wasn't sure whether I wouldn't get my head kicked in by shouting anti-Cardiff abuse. For some reason, the only shirt at the offices at Bath City is that fucking red shirt, signed and framed. It may mysteriously get accidentally kicked and smashed one day. I went to see Cardiff play at Twerton Park years earlier, as it goes, but this was well before I had moved here and it was just another non-league ground to me. Odd, now I think about it.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
                                                I used to follow Everton, when it was fashionable to have an English team as a 'backup', but changed to Arsenal when they signed Charlie Nicholas, and he was a mate of my brother.

                                                I used to like Ajax, but then I met a cute Dutch guy who was an ex-Sparta player, so my Ajax affiliation lasted as long as it took me to get into his underwear. (Possibly TMI, sorry.)
                                                See all of these are perfectly valid reasons. That any adult can give, without triggering any opprobrium for changing sides. Though given your name, I shudder to think when this player played for Sparta.....

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                                                  #49
                                                  Played... fought at Thermopylae... potato tomato

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                                                    #50
                                                    hahaha.

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