lovin it lovin it lovin it

[Benzel]

Thank OST I sometimes wonder how I stuck through it all, especially with everyone supporting, United, Scouse, Spurs et al. it would've been easy to drop the Town. But... I suppose it wasn't because I never did and never even flirted with the idea. It riled me no end listening to my mates taking the piss in their Spurs/United/Liverpool shirts. But I never get off their cases, nagging them to get down to a game. Especially this season! Having endured so much, I feel like I've fucking earned this!

[suttonred]

Probably why our attendances aren't as good as they should be. Nearly every town fan i know is late 20's upwards, being so crap we lost a generation to Sky glory hunting, hopefully we can start pulling those back now.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I think these Man U/Spurs/Chelsea/Liverpool 'fans' who chose their team out of a Panini sticker album have missed out big time. The reason I support the team (and probably most on here) is because it is part of me and makes me what I am. When me and my mates started going to away games in the mid 80's it was the first time (even though we wouldn't have admitted it at the time) that we had been anywhere without our parents and that wasn't a school trip. They were fantastic times - going up north for the first time to the 'badlands' of Burnden Park and the Victoria Ground and all the adventures that entailed - blown spark plugs on the way to Notts County, windsrcreen wipers packing up on the way to Swansea when it's pissing down, countless drunken antics - that stuff stays with you. I don't see too much of those guys these days but when I do it's like we last saw each other yesterday and a lot of that is down to those experiences we shared all those years ago. These 'arm chair' fans will never have that and for that reason I feel sorry for them.

[DiV]

I agree, I have alot of mates who are armchair fans.

They have always questioned why I do it. Why I didnt give up years ago but they dont get it, they dont understand it.

Southampton away was fucking mental - its an experience they will never have. Their loss.

[Talk Talk]

Southampton away was fucking mental - its an experience they will never have. Their loss.

Indeed. My best experience following Town.

Seeing as my first match was home against Port Vale - Iffy's first match in charge - apart from our L2 promotion (by the skin of our teeth, thank you Walsall), I have endured absolute dogshite until this season.

However, I have hung on in there and yes Iain, I am lovin it lovin it lovin it.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Indeed. My best experience following Town.

Seeing as my first match was home against Port Vale - Iffy's first match in charge - apart from our L2 promotion (by the skin of our teeth, thank you Walsall), I have endured absolute dogshite until this season.

However, I have hung on in there and yes Iain, I am lovin it lovin it lovin it.

I thought you'd been around since the days of Don Rodgers

[sonicyouth]

nah, he's a bandwagon jumper. the only problem is he doesn't know when to jump on the bandwagon...

[Ardiles]

There are several things I still find hard to believe this season and they are as follows:

• We are currently level on points with Charlton and 5 points from automatic promotion in a league which has been the hardest for years

Six months on, it's very easy to forget that there were a couple of things that almost all Town fans agreed on at the start of this season:

• As you say, the division is about as tough as it's ever been.  Leeds, Charlton and Norwich were expected to walk the division...and they sort of have.  But very few were expecting us to keep pace with them.  And we have.
• Wilson had done a fairly decent rebuilding job over the summer...but there was a missing piece of the jigsaw.  Incredible to think it, but most of us were concerned that we were missing fire power up front.  Wilson sorted that too.

The comparison with 2003/04 is interesting.  We're not there yet, but on balance I hope we get a chance to go a few steps further in the play offs this year.  Agree with all of the points made earlier about the importance of stability off the field (which was completely lacking back then.)  If we do make the play offs, the sad truth is that most of us will probably not be able to get tickets for the away leg of the semi final.  We organised a London pub meet for London-based Town fans who couldn't get tickets for the Brighton away game in 2004.  The word spread and 60+ showed up on the night.  This year, there is such a groundswell of optimism about the place that I'm sure we'll need a bigger venue.

[Jean-Francois is God]

Probably why our attendances aren't as good as they should be. Nearly every town fan i know is late 20's upwards, being so crap we lost a generation to Sky glory hunting, hopefully we can start pulling those back now.

Suttonred, whilst I do agree with you and the fact that we have lost supporters to generation Sky who would rather support the Arsenal & Manchester United teams from the comfort of their local pub/living room I do feel that there are still a fair few young(ish) supporters out there in their early-20's who do follow Town and take great pride in doing so.

Some people why I bother supporting little old Swindon however moments such as Leeds, Southampton and scoring a last minute equaliser against Norwich give such a simple answer.

We have introduced a new supporter to the Town End this season, before our friend was never interested in football (more a rugby man) to a great extent ('supported' Arsenal) however now since December loves his trips to Swindon and getting involved in the banter.  He bloody hates Leeds and is a right nutter!  If only we could get a few more along.

By the way, Jean-Francois is my hero.

[jayohaitchenn]

GET HER AT THEM WAKE THEM UP WILSON COME ON

The reds are going up, WITH BEEF, The reds are going up, WITH BEEF!

[Colin Todd]

Its true that armchair fans never get to expreience those rare moments of magic like Invincibles volley, Fallons overhead kick, Greers equaliser on saturday to a lesser extent.

The moments where in a big game something brilliant goes our way and everyone goes properly fucking nuts.  We've had to endure a fair ammount of depression to get moments like saturdays equaliser, time will tell weather in ends up being as important and Invinvbles goal for example.

You dont get that high if you dont go to games. fact.

[juddie]

agreed. I was shaking after the euqaliser on saturday, there's simply no other (legal) feeling like it. And then retelling it to my old man, who's missing it while on holiday in Oz. You don't get that at home.

Last Tuesday I had a meeting in London which overran, meaning I had to turn round en route to Southampton (traffic). I was excited we won, but can imagine how exciting it would have been to have been there. It just doesn;t compare. I can only imagine the feeling when Austin scored.

That feeling when you lose it, hug people you've never met before and fall over into the row/s in front - just doesn;t get any better.

And all these things we're achieving this season feel all the better because we've endured a decade of tripe. We've had the lows, now let the highs roll. I have a feeling Leeds away could eclipse the lot...