What does it mean to support a club?

[Deareg]

supporting a team means, spending hours on end travelling all over the country to watch them play, spending the very last of your money on tickets to a match and then seeing your team get beat,standing for hours on end in the pissing freezing rain and seeing your team get hammered, the horror and despair of your team getting knocked out of the cup by a lower league team and then the joy and relief of hearing that your local rivals have gone out the same way on the same day, falling out with your mates, unrequited love, having your wife and kids wondering what kind of a header gets so worked up over a football match, this list is not exhaustive

 

[behemoth]

supporting a team means, spending hours on end travelling all over the country to watch them play, spending the very last of your money on tickets to a match and then seeing your team get beat,standing for hours on end in the pissing freezing rain and seeing your team get hammered, the horror and despair of your team getting knocked out of the cup by a lower league team and then the joy and relief of hearing that your local rivals have gone out the same way on the same day, falling out with your mates, unrequited love, having your wife and kids wondering what kind of a header gets so worked up over a football match, this list is not exhaustive

And then most grow up and realise it doesn't matter so much. Not every game is a matter of life and death (stupid phrase). If you go down (my team are non-league now), they will find their level and maybe come back up in the near future. And most importantly you realise that other things matter more, like having sex with girls, like getting qualified, like developing a career, like playing with your kids and not inflicting the same monomania that blighted your best years. I still support my team, just from a safe distance with a nostalgic glow.

 

[Deareg]

And then most grow up and realise it doesn't matter so much. Not every game is a matter of life and death (stupid phrase). If you go down (my team are non-league now), they will find their level and maybe come back up in the near future. And most importantly you realise that other things matter more, like having sex with girls, like getting qualified, like developing a career, like playing with your kids and not inflicting the same monomania that blighted your best years. I still support my team, just from a safe distance with a nostalgic glow.

plenty more manage all those things but still retain the same passion

 

[Flashman]

A local team for local people.

 

[StanSmith]

The reason I support Wolverhampton Wanderers? MMmmmmmm I remember going to see them for the very first time and I literally fell in love with the whole place (even though it was in a shocking state) and the atmosphere was amazing. It was the first place I felt accepted and I loved it, I honestly felt I was standing on the South Bank with 10,000 family members the buzz every time we went forward was stunning it was like the whole place was pushing forward together or holding its breath together when we were up against it.

And the more I looked into their history the more it pulled me into its spell just everything was perfect for me, but camaraderie also plays its part just going out and seeing another "Wolf" after a bad/good result and that knowing glance and knowing they are feeling what I am is mad.

A Football result shouldnt dictate how i feel but it does its on my mind until the next "hit" and if we win then all that shit I felt in the last week is wiped away and the sun comes out. Lose again and I know ive got to grow a thick skin, try and get over it while having the piss ripped out of me by people that simply dont know. Sometimes this has got me into a bit of trouble which is mental because normally im a fairly level headed bloke.

But its also found me friends, made friendships stronger and gave us a unity that maybe non-football fans would find hard to find elsewhere. Its so hard to explain.

Could I ever have found this at another club? Im not sure but I never want to find out to be honest.