Club loyalty

Born a stones throw from Dean Court and grew up in Christchurch. I wish I had an unblemished history of fandom but unfortunately I do not. My history is tainted.

My first kit was a Man U away shirt, no idea why, must have been 4 or 5. My first favourite player was Kevin Keegan, who I hated when he left Southampton for Newcastle when I was 6. So yeah my first football team was the Saints. I don't even think I knew there was a team in Bournemouth until December 1986 when I was 10 and attended my first game with my mum and dad. Mark Whitlock replaced the faded memory of Keegan. Never looked back from that point. Bournemouth til I die.
 
I’ve lived in the states a while now and took up following NYRB as something to do during the summer. It doesn’t clash with AFCB at all really. In fact if I do watch them I mostly spend the game thinking which players I need to tell Richard Hughes about
 
My kids were going to AFCB games from 18 months old so they’ve not had much choice.

They have been clearly told that Scummers, Manure and Tottenham are ‘leave the house’ teams if they want to support them in the future LOL
 
Its my home town, but my kids grew up around the country due to being in the Military.
My lad was a Man U fan for years thanks to external influence at moment of vulnerability, I was in the Falklands for 4 months. However, i persevered and continued to take them both whenever I could, any by the time he was late teens/early 20s, he saw the light and is well and truly switched. The daughter never wavoured.
With me moving back to home town over a decade ago, and he only just over an hour away, we now have STs together, and I see him more at football than any other time
 
I went to my first Coventry City game in August 1965. Not that I remember it because I was only a couple of months old, but apparently it was at home to Wolves (google is your friend and it was a 2-1 win).



Over the next five years I went to plenty of Sky Blues games both home and away (I wish my parents had the foresight to take a photo of me outside each ground as I’d have a much more extensive set of visited grounds than I do have), but I remember trips to Stoke’s old Victoria Ground and to Goodison.

From 71-82 I went to loads of games and have plenty of good memories.

On moving to Bournemouth in 1982 I still followed the Sky Blues until I finally went to Dean Court. I remember it well as it was the Middlesbrough game in the Division Three title winning year, March 1987.

After that my interest it the Sky Blues waned to be overtaken by the rollercoaster than was AFCB, regularly until Great Escape 2 after which season tickets were given up due to having to miss too many games.

So, my allegiance switched. Coventry was down to the parents, AFCB was my own choice.

Incidentally I've had to write this on my phone as chrome and IE on my PC still don't give me a reply box (and never gave since the forum upgrade).
And the adverts on here are driving me mad. So much bouncing around and unwanted videos. No wonder I don't bother to post much.
 
Where I grew up soccer (yes, we called it that) wasn't much of an option. You supported your school football (gaelic) team and your local club/county. If you had to pick a soccer team you picked:

- either rangers or celtic if you wanted to make a political statement.
- Man U / Arsenal / Liverpool if you were chasing glory

When I moved here I had no team and a line from the programme by Peter Philips stuck with me. He used to sign off with "Please remember to support your local football team" so I did.

My kids now are AFCB fans although they are still young enough that if it disappeared and was replaced by a rainbow unicorn they probably wouldn't care too much. I have converted about 5 or 6 other norn iron people to AFCB. Their only connection is that I live there but that's more of a connection than they have with anyone else.

I am also a hypocrite though and my kids don't (can't?!) support England despite being born here. Please remember to NOT support your national football team I suppose. There's no logic to my stance here and I know the argument is petty so no need to point it out. There's a whole other thread in that probably and it wouldn't end well. :throw:Just let me be bitter on my own.
 
Born in Bournemouth, went to first game in 1956. Used to skive off work when the midweek games were played at 3pm due to the 3 day week (miners on strike?). Don't get there any more due to illness, but still AFCB written on my heart.
:utc:
 
NornIron said:
Where I grew up soccer (yes, we called it that) wasn't much of an option. You supported your school football (gaelic) team and your local club/county. If you had to pick a soccer team you picked:

- either rangers or celtic if you wanted to make a political statement.
- Man U / Arsenal / Liverpool if you were chasing glory

When I moved here I had no team and a line from the programme by Peter Philips stuck with me. He used to sign off with "Please remember to support your local football team" so I did.

My kids now are AFCB fans although they are still young enough that if it disappeared and was replaced by a rainbow unicorn they probably wouldn't care too much. I have converted about 5 or 6 other norn iron people to AFCB. Their only connection is that I live there but that's more of a connection than they have with anyone else.

I am also a hypocrite though and my kids don't (can't?!) support England despite being born here. Please remember to NOT support your national football team I suppose. There's no logic to my stance here and I know the argument is petty so no need to point it out. There's a whole other thread in that probably and it wouldn't end well. :throw:Just let me be bitter on my own.
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Tbf it's pretty common for English born kids of Scots, Welsh, Irish parents to support their dad's team in my experience. Personally I have no issue with that as football is exactly the type of outlet to vent our pettiness as long as it doesn't get political... which as you say is definitely for another thread.

As has been pointed out though - you can't control who your kids support so expect to see their car pulling up in your drive festooned with plastic St George's flags in 20 years time. ;)
 
Well I've had brief flirtations with Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea & Manchester City (did I miss anyone?)….intermingled with Southampton of course

But I'm now the Berries biggest fan since they were invented in August 2015

Bournemouth til I d…......well until they get relegated obvs
 
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