Thetownend.com

So, after yet another piss poor excuse of a performance on Tuesday night I was talking with my girlfriend (who has no grasp whatsoever of how supporting a football works) when she asked me what I got out of watching Swindon. Bear in mind I've only been seeing her since the end of last November (In that time we've won the grand total of TWO games!)

My argument sounded pretty pathetic even to me and when she started to work out how much I spend in total on going to games I resorted with the: "You don't understand, it's more than a game!" approach.

The problem is that she genuinely wants to understand what I get out of spunking a large amount of cash on following a team that is shit. More than this, she wants to know why I continue with an activity that (By my own admission) usually leads to me being more miserable after it than I was before.

Has anybody else been in this situation and if so, did you present a better defence than me?

because all the endless games and seasons of drudgery make the occasional highs (like the leeds games last season) so, so, so much sweeter. it's a drug - you want to recapture the feeling of those times but the highs are only so good because you have watched so much shit previously

What Boeta said.  Watching a team that you feel a genuine affinity for, usually due to geographical reasons, means you are so much more connected to the results of the team.  Standing by a piss-poor excuse of team means then when the inevitable(!) highs do eventually come, the emotion is all the stronger, and you can laud it over all the Fair Weather Big Team supporters by stating you were actually there, through the highs and the lows.  You saw them at Oldham at home ('04(?)), where we'd lost seven games on the bounce despite having an extra man for the whole game, but then you screamed your lungs out at Mansfield at home next game and saw the team grind out an incredible 2-1 win.  That useless donkey Eric Sabin smashing in the winner, the winger come striker once compared to a world beater who would have looked better placed on an athletics track than on a football field.  The relief, the belief that the team might actually stay up.

Fast forward six years and you're at Charlton away, the team are down to ten men and losing, slipping out of the playoffs they'd over-achieved to reach.  You know deep down having watched the team that they haven't a hope, that grabbing wins from the jaws of adversity isn't their style.  Then Danny Ward grabs the unlikely equaliser, but you still think ultimately they're going to get pipped.  Somehow, the team survives to the penalty shoot-out, but no matter, Swindon never win on penalties.  And yet.....

It's not all about the football, it's nice to occasionally meet people before/after the game for a drink.
I also go with my old man so it's nice for me to spend a few hours with him in misery as we watch that shower of shit.

A couple of hours away from the fucking missus.

That's pretty much it at the moment to be honest.

I've had the same said to me but not by the mrs as shes a big town fan aswell, My mum questions why i waste my money watching that rubbish (her words)

I think you are right about it being a drug and this season i been asking the same question as to why i bother and then i think back to may at wembley before the game and remember what a great day it was before the game' watching a sea of red white travelling up the M4 and then in the pubs beforehand and realise this could happen again in the future.

It's about expectation and that winning feeling whether you are fighting promotion or relegation.

Plus it beats staying at home or being dragged around the shops.

While I agree with the above, it's not really an argument that she'd be receptive to!

i get nothing out of it anymore, hence why i've stopped going.

Because its my religion, thats it basically, its been there pretty much all my life and will be till the day I die, I have no control over it, it bit me and will not let go despite how shit everything is this season there is always one result that makes you think its all worth it (like the Lidls result last season and play offs etc) but its there and however much it pisses me off I still have it there with me ever fucking hour of every fucking day.

Thats what I tell the missus anyway and she fully understands that as you know Steve, mostly because she told you and Flash that Tuesday!

Due to our awful season I have decided to tear my season ticket up and become an Oxford fan

It's the anticipation on match day (even though I've been resigned to relegation since Southampton away, there's a little part of me that is quietly hanging on to the deluded belief that we will win every game until the end of the season and stay up.).

It's moments like the Charlton Play-off's, which give me a high that far outweighs the lows of shit seasons like this.

It's the mates that are my mates because of football, who I don't see enough of now, but who I know I will see at certain away games. And in fact, having those mates turn up on my front door on a saturday morning in September with no warning, having woken up with hangovers and decided that they needed to drive to Wiltshire from North London to come to the County Ground.

It's finding that the bar under the stand at Dagenham had Magners on tap.

I've been going to Swindon for over 25 years. There isn't any other hobby/leisure activity/type of entertainment/masochistic urge that has stayed with me this long. It's part of my identity, like it or not.

bang on.

plus, like ginginho said, it's some rare father and son time, which I hope will continue when/if I have a lad and he decides to continue the cycle of misery.

It makes the good times feel really good.

This is one hell of a trough compared to the peak of last year. But we're used to it and we'll go back for more next season in the hope of some more highs.

in years to come we'll laugh at going 25 games without a win, Paul Hart, Pericard and co.

Unless we do a bradford.

It lowers your need for blow jobs.

I like the girl who sings at the start of each half!  It has me feeling all positive before our useless tossers dash in all within minutes!

Our first is due in a couple of months and I've not decided whether to introduce him/her to Saturdays watching STFC or to point it towards a more successful team instead.

Do the highs outweigh the lows enough for me to inflict Swindon Town on my offspring?

Depends. The only other option for my offspring would be Reading. And I'd rather my son turn out to be a transexual with a penchant for shagging elephants than support those fuckers.

Just so everybody's clear. I regularly track the IP's of those who post about taking their children to Swindon games. About once a month I send a bulk list to the NSPCC.

My two little lads are both too young for football at the moment, but ever since they were born I have been hoping that we'll climb the leagues in the intervening years in the (possibly vain) hope that they will catch the Swindon bug from me.

But I'm also hampered by living outside the area.  Nearest clubs are Aldershot (who hardly count) and then, like you, Reading.  I'm getting nervous.  Time is running out.

I can only describe being a fan of Swindon as having a women that you will always love no matter how many rows you've had, no matter how many guys she's fucked behind you're back, despite giving you aids and numerous other STD's. You will always love her no matter what. Thats what it feels like, even when you just want to finish with her she just always manages to convince you to stay around by giving you one hell of a blowjob to win you over again. I hope thats made it clear.

Ha Ha. Spot on sir.  :D

For me it's a badge of honor. It's about when people ask you 'who do you support and proudly replying Swindon Town'...when they laugh and say they support Man U, Arsenal or Chelsea I instantly disregard there football knowledge and to some extent lower my opinion of that person.

It's about standing in the pissing rain with your old man and Grandad when you are young, leaving early on a Saturday to get to some arse ridden place before 1 so they can have a few pints and sober up in time to drive home and later in life saving all your wages so that you can buy them a pint for the first time and feeling like the dog's bollocks.

It's not about Eric Sabin, David Duke or Richard Dryden attempting to play football its about the club, the history and the eternal hope of the x amount of people who go every week expecting little and in most cases getting less, It's about getting the Adver throughout the summer to check for new signings and awaiting that big name and when he comes his arse is the size of the north stand and it turns out he is a money grabbing wanker.

I live outside England now, in the US, and do not wish to be at home any other time than at 3pm (or 10am as it is here) on a saturday afternoon listening on World to 'Baby I'm ready to gooo' and hearing the line ups makes me jealous of the thousands there and think about the seat next to my Dad and Gdad that I would be sat in - I went to a Red Bulls game recently and it was unspeakably crap - not because of the stadium, which is better than ours, not because of the players, who are better than ours, not because of the half time entertainment, which was definitely better than ours (sorry robinettes or U9 youth players, but because there is no history, no tradition and no old geezer banging on about 1969 for the hundredth weekend in a row.

It's like a kid from a council estate who grows up and makes it big. This is infinitely more gratifying than the kid who inherits millions from his family and drives a fancy car around.

One day we will do a Blackpool - and it will be immense!

I always like to innocently ask them which part of Manchester/London/Liverpool they are from, and then reply with an 'Oh, I see' when they inevitably aren't. Small victories.

nothing, its an addiction.

Good work.  I enjoyed that.

After 35 years it's a habit that I can never imagine breaking but the reasons others have given are bang on too...

I know of nothing that can give you the sort of high that Bodin's play off penalty or a last minute winner after being 2 down does, what else can make you jump up and down hugging a total stranger?

A few pints before is always nice   :pint:

Still something I can share with my old chap who is now in his seventies (I'm also now inflicting it on my daughter and son).

Swindon is my Town and however bizarre it may seem I'm proud of that.

Season ticket has been renewed so bring on league 2, Come on you reds!!!!

It is like taking drugs you know you should stop but you can't
Like the majority of people i can not wait until this season is over, however i will be waiting for the new fixtures to come out
And then i am back on the habit of STFC

And takes all your money and blows it on shit!

For me football has been a combination of many things; the times I went with my Dad, the time away from the missus, the beer and the laughs, time spent with fantastic people with the same interest. And then there's the hope - the hope, contrary to vast experience, that Swindon really can play like the 1970 Brazil team - you know they can it's only ever a matter of time, and then there's the fear that when they 'inevitable' do, it will be the one game that I'll miss.

Ultimately though, the question of 'why' is trying to rationalise what is in effect an irrational activity. My wife could spend ages pontificating about the merits of Manolo Blahnik shoes, and all she will see is a blank confused expression from me, inevitably followed by; "how much did they fucking cost?"

Shoes are like football they come in the category of either you get it or you don't.

It makes you feel part of something, the same group of people who all want the same thing, you dont get that very often.

Its habit,like when Zombies go to Shopping Malls.

It's good for young children to support a rubbish football team like ours. Builds character, instills pride in where you're from, it's generally quality time with your family and friends. I could go on. one of the only qualities I possess according to my girlfriends mum is outstanding (blind) loyalty and faith in the things I love and cherish! And that includes her daughter... So following stfc also scores you points with the in-laws!!

Feel a bit sad,got to say my passion for the Town has dwindled.....not sure about next season to be honest.
In days gone by i would get a sick feeling on match days,especially away games...exitement.
Been watching Swindon over thirty years....must have spent tens of thousands.

I am a Swindon lover...not just the footy team but i am strongly proud of where i was braught up and the people in the Town.....i get angry when people slag Swindon...come to realise that shows the feeling of passion i have for the place
Still have the passion for Swindon..............but for a while now my frustrations at the footy has had me wondering about the forthcoming season....oh well only time will tell.

feeling like every new season is the first

Without a doubt, this should be our club motto for the 21st Century.


Anyway... I essentially only support Swindon Town because my dad supported Swindon. It just so happens that it's my local team so I can be all snobby and elitist towards all of those Wiltshire natives who support Manchester United etc :)

I wouldn't swap Town for anyone.

Over the 20 years of actively following Swindon, my support has never dwindled. We are who we are. Can't let a shitty season get in the way of your love for a club. Makes those fleeting moments of joy so much better.

I dare say most of the people questioning their "love" of the club will be still going to games this time next season.

Because they were the local club. And once I saw my first live game I knew.

Does a Chelsea fan winning the league enjoy it more than a Swindon fan seeing his team win the league? Of course not.


The thing is this, it doesn't matter who your team is, what league they play in, how many support them and how successful they are. They fuck up your mood when they lose and they put a spring in your step when they win.

I tried to kid myself that I could walk away if I wanted to. I can't. I renewed today.

Me too.

I'll give you one moment that, to me, sums up being a Town fan.

The date is the 24th January 1998.  Having been dumped out of the FA Cup by Stevenage Borough, and having lost the last four without scoring, Town re-arrange a game against Bradford City for 4th Round day.  Stevenage entertain Newcastle in the 4th Round.

I travel up with a friend from Market Bosworth, neither of us sure why we are going, habit I guess.

In Bradford we see a few friends, each of us surprised to see the other, and none of us sure why we are there.  But there we are.

Bradford score.

The clock ticks on.

5 defeats in a row without a goal looks likely as we enter the 7th minute of injury time.

It was another wasted journey, another pointless match, how long will that hateful man remain our manager?

And then...Chris Hay hooks in a finish to equalise.  A great moment...going mental in the away end, jumping around like a loon, that's why we go, that's why we are at Valley Parade.

That is what being Town fan is, the little moments of heaven snatched when all appears lost.

Still a lot of games left in the season, still time for the season to get worse. If you cant handle it then best to ignore it.

In 1999/2000 we might have had a terrible run, but there were some good moments at the end of the season.

Looking forward to august. Im pretty sure Swindon fans will get rid of a fair bit of frustration first game, seeing as we wont have had a properly competitive game for so long.