Is football shit

[DarloSTFC84]

Its not the length of the post its the post in your length!

Haha absolutely.

[Bogus Dave]

90% of you would be rosy if we were winning. The same topic comes up every single time we go on a losing run, and is never talked about when we're winning

[Honkytonk]

I'm struck by the ageing demographic at the CG.....maybe I just notice it being an old fart myself, but I do worry for the future of our great club.  

I toyed with the idea of getting a season ticket both last year and this and then decided against it. Part of the reason for that is that when I do go to home games I sit there frustrated as much by our fans as anything on the football pitch. I don't want to go and 'waste' a Saturday sitting in a mild rage fucked off by some cunt who has decided Rogers/BOO/Barry/Obika/Doughty/Norris is the worst player ever to grace a Swindon shirt and so spends 50-75% of the match either complaining about them, moaning at them when they have the ball, or taking a minor mistake or slip as the worst thing ever to grace a football pitch, whilst speaking loudly about how everything was better back in their day blah blah blah.

Some of the old cunts who go are just that. I'm not saying it's all of them, in the same way all the younger people who go are but it's pretty obvious some of the old rosy tinted tossers wouldn't be happy if we were playing in the Premiership and winning Champions League Matches. They'd doubtless find something to moan about.

TL:DR - I don't want to spend my weekends sat within earshot of some moany cunt who wouldn't be happy unless Don Rogers still played for us.

[@mwooly63]

90% of you would be rosy if we were winning. The same topic comes up every single time we go on a losing run, and is never talked about when we're winning

Any win at the moment just papers over the cracks. Defensive issues have been with us for a long time. For me the demise started in the play off season.
We coasted into them on the back of dismal form.
The drubbing by Preston was overdue and deserved and aside from the upturn when ling was appointed it's been much of the same.

Can understand Powers model but it's shit seeing teams with much smaller attendances put out competitive teams.

Can't be assed at the moment well at home anyway.

[Reg Smeeton]

I toyed with the idea of getting a season ticket both last year and this and then decided against it. Part of the reason for that is that when I do go to home games I sit there frustrated as much by our fans as anything on the football pitch. I don't want to go and 'waste' a Saturday sitting in a mild rage fucked off by some cunt who has decided Rogers/BOO/Barry/Obika/Doughty/Norris is the worst player ever to grace a Swindon shirt and so spends 50-75% of the match either complaining about them, moaning at them when they have the ball, or taking a minor mistake or slip as the worst thing ever to grace a football pitch, whilst speaking loudly about how everything was better back in their day blah blah blah.

Some of the old cunts who go are just that. I'm not saying it's all of them, in the same way all the younger people who go are but it's pretty obvious some of the old rosy tinted tossers wouldn't be happy if we were playing in the Premiership and winning Champions League Matches. They'd doubtless find something to moan about.

TL:DR - I don't want to spend my weekends sat within earshot of some moany cunt who wouldn't be happy unless Don Rogers still played for us.

At least the moany old cunts still go and thereby keep the club running.  Back in my youth the moany old cunts used to moan about The Don, because he didn't tackle, head the ball or roll around in mud. This was anathema to fellas who'd spent the week rivetting boilers, raking clinker out of King classes and pressing sub frames. You didn't argue with them.

[Ells]

I think the feelings of escapism and joy are prone to fade as you get older. not for everyone, but at some point some of us lose a bit of it.

the real tragedy is that one of the best players you've ever seen is Jermaine Defoe. Mind you I've only seen him live once, early on, and Sol Davis kept him quiet.

I did say one of.. I have seen Gareth Bale more than once, to be fair, who is quite good (although I draw the line at 750k personally.)

In terms of Swindon players though, the "greats" of my era are the averages of a previous one. Someone like Ritchie, for example, was a joy to watch in his prime and is clearly a talented man, but is probably not as good as someone like Hoddle/Rogers etc.

I understand the falling out of love with it perspective. I expect by the time I'm 35 (looking 50 cos of all the stress) the buzz may well have gone for me too. It just hasn't yet.

[Batch]

aah I see. fwiw, if you got past Paolo being a cock/facist that time  was a high point watching town in recent seasons. Ritchie was a good part of that. we've had parkin, cox and Austin. they aren't miles away from shearer, white and fjortoft in bring memorable stfc players, albeit at a lower level.

I think I had a point somewhere, it's gone now

[Reg Smeeton]

aah I see. fwiw, if you got past Paolo being a cock/facist that time  was a high point watching town in recent seasons. Ritchie was a good part of that. we've had parkin, cox and Austin. they aren't miles away from shearer, white and fjortoft in bring memorable stfc players, albeit at a lower level.

I think I had a point somewhere, it's gone now

We have more or less always had some players worthy of being put into the pantheon of heroes, if not the rarer legend. I would put Nathan Thompson in the heroes category.

[Ells]

aah I see. fwiw, if you got past Paolo being a cock/facist that time  was a high point watching town in recent seasons. Ritchie was a good part of that. we've had parkin, cox and Austin. they aren't miles away from shearer, white and fjortoft in bring memorable stfc players, albeit at a lower level.

I think I had a point somewhere, it's gone now

I have inferred my own point

Which is that I think "legends" aren't immediately identified at the time. I unfortunately don't know how good Digby was, but I know there was often a "is Fods as good as Digby" debate at the time Wes was here, and I do think that time makes a difference. Perhaps because it sounds almost blasphemous to compare current players to those of the past, but I'm sure, as you say, there must be some that have been on a par. There's a romantic nostalgia I guess, coupled with the fact that if you say "Fjortoft was the best striker ever" in 2016 he's not suddenly going to go on a barren run and prove you wrong!

[Reg Smeeton]

I have inferred my own point

Which is that I think "legends" aren't immediately identified at the time. I unfortunately don't know how good Digby was, but I know there was often a "is Fods as good as Digby" debate at the time Wes was here, and I do think that time makes a difference. Perhaps because it sounds almost blasphemous to compare current players to those of the past, but I'm sure, as you say, there must be some that have been on a par. There's a romantic nostalgia I guess, coupled with the fact that if you say "Fjortoft was the best striker ever" in 2016 he's not suddenly going to go on a barren run and prove you wrong!

I prefer the division into legend and hero. So for example Fjortoft might make it to hero but not legend, a place reserved for very few.

[RobertT]

Hmm, I think Fjortoft may edge into Legend status even if it was short lived.  Football has always been shit.  The problem with all sports is that very few spectators manage to have any prolonged period of watching their teams be anything other than average to shit (outside of the USA where they balance the equation through the draft system, but even then you can't bank on the team sticking in your town).

I've watched Swindon play in the top league for what will surely be the one and only time for my generation.
England's football team seems destined to be average for many years to come.

Essentially, in footballing terms, I've seen the best I will see in my lifetime in all likelihood and it's the same for millions of fans across the country.  You simply cant get promoted every year, not without having plenty of relegations to balance it out.  It's just shit.

[Ells]

But surely being a player that Reg approves of is worthy of even a third category 

I've been a fan for 15 years, at a total guess, and I reckon I could go for:
Legend, very good, Average, Always tried hard, Drank too much beer, Shite.

So
Wesley, Ritchie, McNamee, McCormack, Michael Pook, Thomas Dossevi.

Solid system.

[RobertT]

Pook qualified for the last classification as well.

[Kinky Tom]

I prefer the division into legend and hero. So for example Fjortoft might make it to hero but not legend, a place reserved for very few.

If Mark Robinson can make the hall of fame then Fjortoft is most certainly a legend.

[Ells]

Pook qualified for the last classification as well.

Probably because of the former though.
He improved when he bulked up a bit, he might have been half decent if he kept it up I think. I don't think L2 would have been impossible.