Thetownend.com

I'm in the process of moving and need some room so these are for sale as a lot. Mid '90's to 2012/13, away and home, not every year mind.

I'd rather sell these to someone on here so make me an offer you fine, fine people.

(http://i.imgur.com/8QKy6XS.jpg?1)

How have you got a Lotto Kingswood one with the sponsor's logo still attached? Has it never been washed?

It's been washed a few times but inside out and on low.

You happy to sell individually and what size are they?

On a slightly different tact. I was in Southampton yesterday and driving within a mile or so of the ground I noticed the number of Saints fans wearing their shirts as they meandered home.

Later in the evening there were loads of fans still out in the pubs in their shirts, some of them retro, but it felt more of an occasion that their team was at home.

I never get that sense around Swindon on a match day of that collective feeling of supporting and having pride in your team. Sure people wear their shirts but if you walked through town centre on a Saturday afternoon or evening post game hardly anyone else would notice a game was on apart from more traffic.

I guess if you're a Saints fan and 7 in the PL is a lot easier to get excited and wear your shirt out in the evening than 15th in League 1 and they get 20k more than we do.

I wondered if we ever had that collective feeling that the whole town is behind their team. Probably in the 60's and for a brief period in our PL season. PdC sparked a bit of life again but that flame soon melted away.

Maybe that's what success would do, as a large town with no rivals in 30 miles should have more interest in the team. Anyway just a rambling thought on wearing football shirts.

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I've always got the feeling that half of Town's support comes from outside of Swindon anyway, so most of those people will be going home before having a pint

Club size aside, I'd say success results in pride which results in more replica shirts being sold.

When I lived in Plymouth, there were loads of Argyle polo and replica shirts on show as this was during their brisk climb to the Championship followed by some decent mid-table finishes. Returned to the city a few years later the Prem shirts were back in force (even my Argyle supporting friends at the time have returned to their first loves - Manchester United, Liverpool etc)

Only a minority of this forum have got something approaching pride in our team. Christ, fans on here saying something positive is a rarity. So to have a significant part of the town behind the club seems sadly unlikely in my opinion.

To be fair. I work in Bristol and the football conversation amongst the five a side players is about Man United or Liverpool and City or Rovers only get the occasional mention. I can't imagine the 'Morse' pubs of Oxford are littered with yellow shirts talking about their local team.

So it's not just a Swindon thing and maybe only regular success gets a town or city behind the local team. Look at Leicester atmosphere this season or somewhere like Burnley so it can happen.

Funny though, if you go into Bath or Gloucester on a rugby day and you know it and sense the occasion. Of course rugby isn't so tribal as football and 12-15 professional clubs rather than 92 or more.

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Posh makes a fair point about out of town fans, but for those of a younger age, it's pretty much impossible to imagine how closely linked the town and its football club were. I can only remember back to the 50's and 60's, so assume it was a continuation of the tradition.

The 70's saw the start of the fractures in the traditional model, but you couild still get a surge of the old days, in seasons like 78/79 and 79/80.

The Thatcherite 80's saw the closure of the Works and Vickers, although amazingly Pressed Steel, by then BL managed to struggle on in reduced form, which combined with hooliganism and poor sides, reduced the club to a hardcore of a couple of thousand diehards.

That all wasn't lost could be shown by the amazing scenes after the 93 PO win....however that's a long time ago now and we've had 20 odd years of neo-liberalist economics since, the thrust of which is to destroy localism and small scale endeavours to make the world fit for the corporate hegemony.

So now there will be more followers of Prem clubs in the town, Town fans being reduced to niche status.

Reg has even managed to blame Thatcher for the lack of people wearing Swindon shirts :D you have a special talent there.

I only wear my shirt on non football days (and I'm not usually in Swindon then.) It can just be hassle if you do.
I still wear it with pride though. I especially like it when people ask me what shirt it is or who I support (The Welsh United fans in particular - though they'll probably be Leicester next year.) I'm very proud to be a Swindon fan.

The real problem is real football fans are hard to come by these days. It's mostly just office banter boys who want some bragging rights around the water fountain so they support Man City/Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc. If they ever actually go to football it's once every two or three seasons really and they splash out on a half and half scarf and take their selfie stick. Cunts, the lot of them.

They're more likely to buy a shirt because it's one of the only ways they can show their alliegnece from their sofa or the inside of the pub in Swindon.

Whilst it is true there are many glory hunters about, it's not exactly a cheap hobby and people just genuinely can't afford to go every week. My office isn't too bad actually, we've got Swindon, Reading, Portsmouth, Wycombe, West Ham, QPR & a couple of Portugese lads that support Benfica. Not really many glory hunters here luckily!

They exist everywhere though and it's the same for most sports. I spent a lot of time in Pompey when they were Premier League and whilst you would see a lot of Portsmouth shirts there were just as many United / Chelsea / Arsenal. I live in Reading now and I do see a fair few Reading shirts about, but far more Premier league team shirts.