Thetownend.com

... for Saturday.

Only a few days ago I really wasn't interested and was actually thinking maybe the 15 year infatuation was over - hadn't bothered with any pre-season games, still totally out of touch as I've had no internet for a month at work or home, no idea if we've signed anyone, sold anyone, any board news or any pre-season results on the basis I wasn't bothered...

But it hit me this morning. Fucking game on, love it. Counting the hours till Saturday.

Hope everyones well, new forums holding up well etc etc

We were doing fine until you came back.

Hello David, hope you are well young man!

Spot on Dave, can't wait for a few pre-season/match pints before Saturday's match and bingo - the 2008/09 has started.

I love the way in the back of your mind in the days before the season you always think, maybe this year is the year when everything falls into place.  I'd love it if we could start 2009 starting on top of L1.

Football followed by bingo - Is that a Scottish thing?

I'm still a right prick and everything :)

I'm really fucking excited, but i'm in Barcelona. And being honest i'd rather be in the CG on Saturday than drinking in 30' Barcelona sun. Me and a mate are gonna find a bar showing SSN, and just watch the scores come in over a few sherbets. :)

In Barcelona, that won't be a problem.

Very good OST.  Pissed up footie followed by pissed up bingo, that'd be more acceptable north of the border!

That's good then, we thought we'd have to find some scummy "Irish" bar and watch it with the cream of English Council estates.

Im quite like looking forward to it as well.i'm sure my mid season dip in interest will start creeping in by the Cheltenham game though.

Im still worrying whether I will need a coat

Haha ace.

Are you still fucking off to Uni or are you going to slum it in the real world?

 Have to admit that the thought of a new season doesn't quite grab me in the way it used to, back in the early/mid 80's, the season didn't kick off until the end of August. There was a proper long break, Euros etc being shorter.

 In 82, I cut short a holiday in Ireland, cycled across to Rosslare, for a night boat, to get back to see us play Port Vale, for a first ever game in Div 4.

 Not sure I'd bother now.

Yeah def off pal, Sept 27th. 2 and a half years is enough real world for me, fuck it, back to studenthood. Working in the building industry we're really suffering and I reckon I'd be in the firing line anyway so can't come soon enough. Finish Sept 18th then off for 5 days on the piss in Prague to celebrate.

Usually if you are really excited about the new season it means you have signed loads of players in the summer. And usually that means that you are about to find out that most of them are absolute crap. Best examples were Andy Kings 2005 side and Colin Todds effort in 2000, was well excited before both of them seasons.

Have to admit Im not excited about it. Now that all the off field excuses have gone were going to see what our squad is really made of and Im not really looking forward to the answer. Five of our last 8 seasons have been mid table in the 3rd tier and Im not excited about the prospect of another one. Cant see any signs that we might mount a cup challenge either. Please feel free to ignore my pessimism.

But I cant wait to have a skinful and shout abuse at the players. Getting up early for Cheltenham will be good as well.

I think that I'm more excited about the Saturday ritual than the game itself.

I really don't know what to expect of the side.

Up there, do you have to shout "HOOSE !" ?

Thats exactly what I'm thinking, which is then balanced out with STFC pessimism ie something will go badly wrong

I'm actually looking forward to Saturday now. My missus is away on her hen weekend so I'm going into town early to pick up the new shirt (if it's in on time) and then to the pub to get lashed up, watch the football, back to the pub, home with a takeaway and then pass out on the sofa :)

I'm just looking forward to the match, wont drink to after the game.

My Saturday 9 August 2008

Wake up 9 ish
breakfast, soccer am, get some old STFC videos out,
12 ish get Mrs to take me and mate down to Tap & Barrel,
couple of pints in there,
2.20 ish leave to ground (making more of an effort to get to the ground a bit early this season),
watch match,
after match go up mates for a few more drinks and a pizza,
then out up old town at night (to celebrate?).

Soccer AM doesn't start until 16th August. Sky only starts it when the Premiershit starts.

Really looking forward to Saturday too - get into the old routine of breakfast - paper - get ready - head for Merlin - watch Birmingham game in there (yes they are on this Saturday just like the old days when they seemed to be on before every Swindon game!) - head to CG - match - then home - get ready - celebrate/commisserate on night out down town!

YAY!

how gay

I too am looking forward to matchday. The hangover from Friday night slowly disappearing into pre-game drunkness (hopefully funded by poker winnings from said Friday), on to the game, then more beers.

It's what Saturdays were made for.

All of you are describing my Saturdays as they were 5 to 10 years ago.

Well I fear this is going to be the last hurrah for me, my last season as a "single" man, getting married next september so I won't be able to do the full day for much longer, as we'll be hopefully starting a family, not too long after that.  So I just hope it's a good season to remember!

Best of luck, JanAage.  As for the football, our recent arrival will not stop me coming to football (especially as both of my brothers have season tickets this year) but my games will definitely be fewer & further between.  Leeds at home could well be my first outing this season...going to lay the foundations for that soon, I think.

Thanks goodness for my barron womb letting me enjoy my hobbys to the full! 

Once the nipper's a bit older you can take them with you and that's a win-win - kid loves the "Daddy's taking me with him" so some proper bonding/subtly imbuing them with a habit that will ruin their life, and the missus is grateful for you giving her some time off and doing the bonding with the kid thing. Erm, at least that's how it's supposed to work in theory. In my case, the daddy bonding stuff went well but I'm resigned to the conclusion that my missus will only be grateful when my life insurance cashes in :-)

NB You should also point out to the missus that in order for the bonding process to work properly, it's important that the child sees you regularly going to football BEFORE they're old enough to come with you. So then when they are old enough, they get the excitement of now being included in this secret mysterious daddy ritual they had previously been excluded from. So, obviously, in order for the bonding process to work to maximum effect, it is critical that she insists on you going to as many games as possible in order to selflessly lay the ground for future child bonding potential.

I never thought of it that way Pauld, but it is exactly what I did, my lad was eight when he first game to see Swindon, loved the first game so much on a Saturday that he came to a game on the Tuesday night against Oxford as well (we won 3-0 both games), he has been a Swindon nutter ever since.

Advice like that is priceless, Paul.  Many thanks!  (The little guy's first home game has already been pencilled in for the start of the 2012-13 season...by which time he may have grown in to the top his uncle bought him.

i dont see how having a child, or getting married has to stop football for the fellas.
if you live out of town then i'd understand,or if money is tight.but i'm sure the mrs and baby can cope for a couple of hours without the man of the house.maybe the all day piss ups would have to be cut down apon. but the football matches themselves i see no probs with attending.

Looking forward to it........hopefully a good gate too..8k would be good

It's the former...I've been out of town for nearly 10 years now.  First London, then Hampshire.  Football for me has almost always been a day out.  And I can't remember the last time I saw us play stone cold sober.

totally understandable then ardiles.

Arriba, I should have made myself a little clearer, I was referring to the few pints before the match aspect, when (or if - you never know) a little one's around don't think I'd get away with the drinking side to footie.  I'll still go to matches fella.

Like the advice though Paul, will keep that in mind!!

Yeah, I should have added as per your above that having a small child in tow does somewhat bugger up the whole "matchday day out" side of things. Strangely, five-year olds do not view going to the pub with Daddy and sipping on a Coke while he yaks with his mates as a great pre/post-match entertainment. Oh, and the half-time catering suddenly becomes a lot more important as it is apparently impossible for kids to watch a full game without frequent refuelling on chips and coke. But the sheer joy of taking your lad to football does make up for it. Largely.

   Its interesting how times change, I don't think I went to a game with my father until I was in my 20's.

   Football for the working man in the 50's 60's was something you went to with mates, you worked hard all week finished at lunchtime on a Saturday, then went for beers with your mates in traditional fashion.

   When you were old enough about 9/10 then, you went on your own, stood down the front maybe, and sometimes would see the old fella if switching between the TE and Bank at half time.

  Away games were good though because of different times I was 12 when starting to travel, going with a mate or two.

In fairness though Reg in your day, kids were still going up chimneys on Saturday afternoons so you wouldn't have been available to go to a game with your dad until you were in your 20s :-)

:blowup:

  My first away game was in the 70's at palace, with my old man and two of his mates, they parked up for a quick pint on the way home. 3 bloody hours sat in the car with a flat coke! Never did me any harm physically...mentally i still obviously have scars.

 :soapy tit wank:

I just know that if i was nine months preggers due any day and living an hours drive away from the nearest hospital my bloke would still bugger off to watch us play Boston away in the johnstones paint trophy reguardless.

Good lad :D Keep hold of him.

  My ex missus had the good sense to drop our first kid a few hours before a home game against the Gas....thus giving me time to sort out phoning family and stuff, making sure mother and baby were alright, before wetting the baby's head pre match....in typical STFC style we lost 2-1.

I'm beginning to get my unwanted nervous feeling for tomorrow. I'll be getting updates while I'm at work.

Not an important factor but have the squad even had their team photo and pen pics taken yet?

I'm going to counteract that feeling by getting completely bollocksed tonight, so if anyone see's someone slumped in a chair in a black away shirt coming out of paddington tomorrow morning, say hello quietly!

You going to the Tap tomorrow Sutton?  If so come and say hello mate, I'll be in the Hibs (hobo's) shirt!!

Pox's season has just kicked off - c'mon Barrow! My weekends are often reassured when I can say "well, at least Oxford lost"

ill probably fall asleep during the second half, due to having to get up at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning grrr

Yes should wander in about 1.30 providing eveything goes to plan.

Down to 10 men, and still 0-0... would be a lovely start to the weekend for them to get beaten by Barrow. I know we're not supposed to care now they're a pub team but anyway...

Yeah - C'mon Barrow!

1 - 0  Barrow hehe

Woohoo, so is that the first goal of the new season - scored against the pox.

Lovely stuff.

haha, make that 2-0.

Awesome. Please let this be the start of a perfect weekend!

Going down...

i bloody love football i do.  :D

2 - 0

Quote froman Oxford fan on their forum

" I've switched off. Can't take anymore."

3-0 :D

Didn't they just come up from non-non-league as well?  :-[

If only I'd known, I'd have switched on........

I'm planning to visit the Kassam in September. I'll be making sure I need a shit just as I arrive......

It's much better to fill her up to allow for a post season birth. 2nd July for me, smack bang in the middle of nothing 2000 - hence even the Euro 2000's were not worth caring about.

Fancy being beaten by a wheel barrow

 :eek: i was born then, are you my dad?

ahh, 2000, clearly not.