Why do you support the team you do?

i would definitely agree that the league needs more exposure - kids exposed to premiership only know the premiership

from a hurling heartland in east galway - but had family friends in the city years older than me - one of them had a galway united jersey - i thought it was a hurling jersey and was told it wasnt

as a kid this obsessed me to the point i got me old man (from mayo, no interest in soccer) to bring me to terryland

cant remember when it was but the pitch was going the other way and there was feck all at it - i was hooked

In terms of local team, Rovers could've been my local-est team as the 86 bus went from the top of our road past Milltown. My da brought me to a Rovers league game once when I was young but just cos they played in green and white didn't mean they were a patch on his beloved Belfast Celtic so he never bothered going back and seeing as there was no-one else to bring me, I was saved from a fate worse than death.

I kinda stumbled onto Pats as being my local team about ten years ago. I was renting a flat in Rialto at the time, used to go out for a wander every Sunday, just following my nose, would sometimes end up down in the Museum of Modern Art, sometimes walk along the canal, wherever.

Anyway, one Sunday in Jan 1997 I was just wandering along Emmet Road, heard crowd noises coming from behind the houses, got curious and went to investigate, lo and behold Pats were playing either UCD or Derry, can't remember, it finished 0-0 anyway.

Started going more regularly, then discovered that friends of friends were regulars so started going with them. Been hooked since.

Eirebhoy is a closet EL fan buy me beer or i will out you


Da brought me to pats many moons ago, still go now bring my damn weiner kids (which somehow costs the same as going to McD )


kdjac

Grew up in Galway, football obsessed but this was the 60s/70s and Galway didn't have a league team - remember seeing galway Utd(?) beaten 10-0 by a German U-16 team at terryland in the early 70s, though.
We moved to Athlone in '74 the year the town came second and made the UEFA cup - was completely hooked; as far as i was concerned this was easily as good as seeing Arsenal (my mother grew up in London and the Arse were her and her father's team) since I'd never seen Arsenal and knew no better.

We moved to Dublin in 75 and I never really established a Dublin team - though Bohs were the nearest - went to internationals in Dalyer though. Then Punk rock led me away from football for quite a while.......
.....its 2000 and for academic reasons I'm in Colchester. A similar exile - from Norway - Brings me along to see Col U; it all comes back in a flash, I remember again what football is really about (I'd been to a few prem. matches in the meantime - no real buzz) when i came back to Dublin, I decided to turn my vague affiliation to the Red and Black into reality, a time which coincided with an burgeoning interest in football on my Daughters behalf ....... and 5 years on we're still there (or at least i am - she's discovered music and had less patience with the Farrelly era that I) Like BD, I love that we're a members club and the fact that we're a real urban institution, pluralist and local at the same time. And i like being able to say 'we' and it meaning a bunch of people I know, a place I pass most days and not simply a shirt i bought off a club in a city hundreds of miles away.

Originally Posted by sonofstan

Like BD, I love that we're a members club and the fact that we're a real urban institution, pluralist and local at the same time. And i like being able to say 'we' and it meaning a bunch of people I know, a place I pass most days and not simply a shirt i bought off a club in a city hundreds of miles away.

Oh yeah!

Like BohsPartisan I'm from Navan, I still live here. Up until about 99/00 I barely knew this league existed and was a Man United 'fan' (I've been to Old Trafford once in '98). A lot of the Bohs squad, after training, used to come to the place where my Dad works (we both work there now) for their lunch and my dad go to know a good few of them. He'd come home a few evenings and tell me about how he was talking to whatever player. He especially got to know the keeper Wayne Russell who was a sub for a long while and at half-time he'd bring me and my mate out to take penalties on him when he was warming up with the subs.
My dad and uncle then went to their first Bohs match, a 0-0 draw against Waterford in Dalymount on apparently the coldest night ever. I went to the next one with them and unfotunately I cannot remember what team we played or what score it was.
The atmosphere after the Aberdeen match in Tolka was the first time I just thought, wow, this is unreal. I would've been about 11 or so. Since then the only team I really support is Bohs, and to me nothing beats just being in a football ground watching live football.

Kildare County are my local club, i live about a 15 min drive from the stadium, went to my 1st match when i was 12 after managing them in Championship Manager!

Lost 2-1 to Monaghan on that day (i think), went with 2 of my friends, they didnt ever delevop an intrest in the Eircom League. But I was, havent missed many home matchs since then.

i was born in waterford and lived in kilcohan park all my life next door to waterfords old ground, my first ever match was watching the blues take on manchester united in a friendly back in 1990 and ever since that day i have adopted both teams the blues and man u as my two fav teams,

i attended all of the blues home games last season and about 8 away games and have also been to old trafford 7 times this season with 2 more trips to come before the end of season.

Always been a fan of the Rovers really but theres a lot of people in the town who would look out for their results and not actually bother going to the game and would have the attitude that the league is crap but still would call themselves Rovers fans. In fairness I used to be one of them myself. I remember when the Dublin Dons thing was around and I didnt think there was anything wrong with it , I was a Manchester United fan at the time and thought it would be great to have the Premiership in Ireland. As the years wore on the alliegience for Man United wore off , i suppose it was easier after secondary school where nearly everyone had an English team and i thought nnothing of it. I remember being delighted when they won the European Cup so to be honest I wouldnt disparage the club at all when they gave me all those memories and i still hope they win the title this year but its from a different perspective I am viewing it now.

I got into Longford Town when a few of the older section o lads and myself used to cycle out to matches in Mullogher every couple of sundays. We are still going to matches today. Sorbo the Greek was part of that gang.It was very difficult supporting them in those days. We were always losing and I didnt know the players. Loved the craic have being goin ever since.

My first away game was the 1999/00 season the bug has totally got hold of me since then. I have supported them seventeen years now!

proud moments getting promoted, stephen kenny, europe and the trophies we won!:

Like most here I grew up about 5 minutes walk from Ramblers ground, my uncle played for them and I remember my father bringing me to a game when I was 9 and I was hooked after that.

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Another point is when it comes to the likes of Cork, Sligo, Waterford, etc. they have a team representing the county most of them love. tbh most Dubs don't have the affinity with Dublin as others have with their county

Oh Jaysus Christ, you are actually saying i love my county. I cant speak for all of our fans but i can speak for me and my mates and tell you that i have no affinity and no loyalty to my county. it has nothing to do with me and the people who reside in it have nothing to do with me. and above all i am far from in love with it or them. I am from sligo town not out in the boglands, in my opinion a person from rural county sligo has more in common with a person from mayo than with people from sligo town. The closest thing it can be described as is all the 'culchies' that head up to dublin for the sales and the general annoyance with which dubs look on these 'outsiders'. that is how i look on people from outside sligo town, especially with people from sligo county who take half an hour before they make that dive onto the rampaging escalator in Quayside, or when they get to the top of the que in tesco and count out all their ****ing coppers as 10 people wait behind them in the que, or how the bog men spill there pints all over you with their big fat fingered farmer hands.

The joys of been a townie

They also should have their sandwiches and flasks confisicated before they enter the Showgrounds.

Originally Posted by Da Real Rover

Oh Jaysus Christ, you are actually saying i love my county. I cant speak for all of our fans but i can speak for me and my mates and tell you that i have no affinity and no loyalty to my county. it has nothing to do with me and the people who reside in it have nothing to do with me. and above all i am far from in love with it or them. I am from sligo town not out in the boglands, in my opinion a person from rural county sligo has more in common with a person from mayo than with people from sligo town. The closest thing it can be described as is all the 'culchies' that head up to dublin for the sales and the general annoyance with which dubs look on these 'outsiders'. that is how i look on people from outside sligo town, especially with people from sligo county who take half an hour before they make that dive onto the rampaging escalator in Quayside, or when they get to the top of the que in tesco and count out all their ****ing coppers as 10 people wait behind them in the que, or how the bog men spill there pints all over you with their big fat fingered farmer hands.

Ha ha thats funny , the way you are talking you would swear you are living in Manhattan or LA , not a small provincial town like Sligo. By the to any Dubliner you are one of those culchies.

Sligo Rovers has always been representative of the county and surrounding regions. There wouldnt be much of a club if just people living in the town attended games.

A friend of mine used to go to Terryland and I went with him a few times. We would never really watch the match. I was one of those kids who ran around the place drinking Fanta and then kicking the empty can around the place.

Then I really became really interested when Galway United got to the 1985 FAI Cup semi final versus Limerick City. The first leg was a draw in Tolka and the replay was held in Athlone. I asked my mother if I could go and she said to ask my Dad and he said to ask her so after a process of elimination, I got the half day of school and I was on a train with my mates to St Mel's for the all-or-nothing replay.

John Mannion scored the winner after extra time and I was truly hooked.

Went to the first match in the LOI in 1985 when i was 12.. Home Farm in the league Cup. Went to all the matches for a few years then moved away to college in Britain.. now back and living in Dublin so make more away games than home games.
Before that it was Liverpool on tv cos there was no local team to support

A bit off topic, but I miss going to see my team play so much that when I go back to university again in a few years, I'm tempted to move back.

My Dad and Uncle brought me to my first match in terryland in 1986 against Derry City and Ive had the bug ever since. Would also be a Man Utd fan, since all of my family (bar me) were born there and we still go back as often as possible even though every year that gets less and less.

Originally Posted by Soper

A bit off topic, but I miss going to see my team play so much that when I go back to university again in a few years, I'm tempted to move back.

Missus wants to move outside Dublin, 1st thing i thought off " **** that travel to pats games" so we ehh not moving ever. btw this not moving thing costing me a few hundred grand.

Dedication


kdjac