Thetownend.com

For the most part it's a shit life being a football fan - and I'm not talking specifically about STFC.

I suppose in some ways we've not had it too bad - some very good highs and memorable moments - but in the main it's averagely dull most of the time.

We see good players and managers come, then piss off at the drop of a hat for 'advancement of their career' leaving us just about where we were.

Forget about the money but we invest huge amounts of our emotional life in the club - and we know that those that take to the pitch don't really give a toss long-term.

Unlike them we can't transfer ourselves to another club - the only thing we can do is stop going until things improve.

I really don't know if the PdC era - if 2 years can be called an era - was really worth the shit we seem to be in now.

I know I moan and groan and call a pestilence down on those that appear to be in the process of screwing the club - even if with the best of intentions - but, at the end of the day, there I'll be come the first game of the new season convinced I'm witnessing the first act of a stupendously successful year.

What a self-deluded twat!!!

Call one of these numbers now!

08457 90 90 90* (UK)
1850 60 90 90* (ROI)

 :eek:

Wrist Slashers Anonymous perhaps??

You know what? You, me and everyone one who posts on this forum, from time to time post something that makes you think, you know what, that is spot on on. That paddy boy is spot on. Otherwise you post absolute shit!  ;)

Seriously I think you have posed an important question, alas the answers are all different, from everyone of us. I'm not sure what my answers are but I will be there in August like a lamb to the slaughter or a lemming delete whichever applies to you.

Other than my family I get more emotional highs and lows out of STFC than anything else in my sad life so lets go and do it again next season.

It gives you something you can stick to with pride (well most of the time) and you can learn quite a bit from learning it. Once addicted it is is hard to simply get rid of STFC from your heart. I know a lot of my mates who were out doing drugs, smoking, causing trouble who are now rarely in trouble out of school because of how big of a part STFC has come to their lives.

Guess i might as well be there come August (be a waste of another season ticket renewal otherwise ;) ) no matter who pulls on the shirt i will sit there and watch. I will cheer the majority of them on bar a few pricks a la Obika, Grella and people who don't want to be here. But a question i do have is if we had been liquidated like some rumours said, who would you be supporting if we did not form another team? some people have said Reading, other Supermarine

I'd probably lose interest in football if I was only neutral.

No one. I may go and watch my local league teams (currently Bournemouth and Southampton) but I don't think I'd get the same attachment or connection again. Swindon have been my team since I moved there in 1986 and went to my first ever game. I've had a child, a divorce, numerous moves and relationships,  deaths in the family,  changes of employment and the one thing that's remained constant is my support of the club. People, for lots of reasons, may stop going for a while,  but once you've been a part of it I don't think you ever really lose that affinity.  For better or worse, in sickness and in health.

Kerry Red... Kill yourself.

I remember the day after our play off win against Gillingham being the strangest thing.

It was such an emotional high to have won the playoffs. The game was brilliant and the atmosphere superb. When the final whistle went it was brilliant watching the payers come over dancing, singing and throwing their kit into the crowd. The party atmosphere continued as we left the ground and returned to our minibus.

The drive home continued to be superb, with a sea of red and white in London and us singing all the way home. I remember getting home and talking through the game with my parents and then going to bed and reliving it all again as I drifted off.

I woke up the next day on a continued high and couldn't wait to get into work to talk with my colleagues about it. But I felt utterly deflated, when they showed no interest whatsoever in talking about it, didn't see the importance of it, didn't know what the score was and hadn't realised that this was why I left early the previous day! After all, it was 'only Swindon'.

I came down to Earth with a massive bump, as I realised the only time I could rekindle that feeling would be at the first match of the following season. Noone else understood.

Thanks for your uplifting comment.

I shall treasure it!

 ;D

Boring.Not even a mention of a tear up with the pikeys.

Supermarine but would probably get a ST in the away end at the Scummers. Love Swindon, Hate Scummers.

I'm not a toughie - And I've never seen the point.

I have quite a few friends who support the usual Premier League suspects but very rarely bother to watch the Town and if they do are often disparaging about the football they see. As far as I am concerned it does not bother me as I have only ever supported two teams, Swindon and England. If heaven forbid the Town were ever to go under not too sure what I would do, probably just watch Supermarine or local Hellenic/Wilts games.

Like most of us I wouldn't simply pick another club to transfer my allegiance.
I'd probably take in the odd game at Cheltenham Town and maybe go to a few PL games at WBA or Villa. Maybe in time a connection would grow to another club but I think this is something you need to be brought up with.
Are there any here that have become STFC fans later in life?

If it were to happen I wouldn't follow any other team.

I would probably become an armchair fan, although as I hardly bother with Premier League games now I'm not sure that I would do that either.

I would probably spend my time going to watch more bike racing rather than pissing away thousands of pounds supporting a team I don't care about.

If I didn't support Swindon I'd probably have ended up supporting Yeovil, so that's reason enough for me.  :suicide:

Why do we do it? We feel like we belong to a group. Humans like belonging to groups. It's a thing. Look it up. I probably wouldn't want to know any of you cunts if we didn't support the same team, but as is we're stuck with each other.

There's a Mitchell and Webb Sketch (can't be arsed to find the video, but I've posted it before) where David Mitchell pretends to do Sky sports and basically just makes the point of how all football is pointless because it is virtually never-ending/makes no difference on life on the whole/resets at the end of the year. It's pretty fascinating how much time, money and effort we invest into our club, and how even through the shittiness of certain periods of history, we keep coming back. I suppose that's another reason we do it, because it's the chance to be part of history. "I was there at Wembley" or "I was there when we beat (Insert Team Here) "- it's for bragging rights and a sense of collective memory.

I support the club because I like shouting at my PC monitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusyO7J2inM

lazy fucker

Fuck off, I've got man flu. I'm dying here.

I couldnt support another team.
That said i have serious doubts about my commitment in the coming season....for the first time in 40 odd years i couldn't really get into it last year :hmmm:
I went to plenty....away as well but maybe you hit an age when other things seem more important.....money becomes an issue as well these days.....it is incredibly expensive to watch two or three matches a week.

I joined a Golf Society and at present seem to get a lot more enjoyment with that.....that said you will not get a more passionate person than me when it comes to Swindon Town.

Maybe a month or two off will rekindle the footy feeling.

In fact you wont get anyone more passionate than me when it comes to Swindon as a Town.

Why did I do it? Because I was young, lairy, only wanted to get pissed and be a teenage Danny Dyer... and Dad paid for it all.

Now, I get much more enjoyment out of many other pastimes. In short I grew out of it.

you're so mature.

Fell out of love with it about Xmas time, sold my ST.

Have not renewed and won't renew, don't intend to revisit any time soon either

Same as Leefer and DMR really, am enjoying other stuff much much more

My lack of interest correlates with how nearby I live. I miss it a lot more since I moved away. Doubt I'll ever buy a season ticket again.

Sad Fred...........did Paolo get your juices flowing again for a while......for all his bad points when he went i sort of had enough..

Without being patronising it is great reading all the comments on here from the younger fans....i relate to those days when i  felt exactly the same.

For the last season or so i have found that the crack with the lads before & after the game is becoming more enjoyable than the actual game. I also have so much going on away from the football that next season i don't know how much i am going to be able to go but i have renewed my season ticket. At the moment i could take it or leave it, next season isn't filling me with any hope.

If you really want the truth, it was him that turned me away.

I won't go into the finer points again, but I just felt that it was not all about STFC anymore and all about PDC

Heard some shit that I did not like behind the scenes and started to get a bit pissed off, I thought it would wear off but being the grumpy cunt I am the feeling just got worse.

Best decision I ever made

Why do we do it? Adrenaline, a sense of belonging, living vicariously through others, addiction.

My tipping point has been well documented. Paul Hart, despite popular (and idiotic) opinion it wasn't because we were shit and went down.

I can take being shit. I can take losing and I can take being relegated.

What I can't take is going down without a fight. Everything that season was defeatist from the start, selling Greer, selling Morrison, selling Austin, signing Benyon, holding onto Wilson too long and worst of all replacing him with Paul Hart.

Our team that season was far better than relegation. We had no ambition top to bottom. Stay up or die trying in my opinion. The attitude stunk, so if they couldn't be bothered why should I?

I didnt renew my season ticket.

Di Canio came and in my opinion was a breath of fresh air. He had drive, he had passion, he had desire and he lived for winning. He made sure the entire club lived by these rules, anyone who didn't was gone. Finally a manager not scared of player power.

In hindsight, somewhere along the like Black, Wray and Di Canio failed to keep control on the finances which seems to be costing us now.

Even with being fully on board the Di Canio circus train I still didnt that feeling. I went back a few times but it was never the same for me.

Now that train is over I have lost the little enthusiasm that it rekindled. Honestly - the Brentford defeat did nothing to me where as I still fucking hate those Brighton cunts for 04.

Rightly or wrongly - a sustainable 'happy just to be here' club that wins some, loses some, draws some, gets a few decent players who get sold after a season who ultimately go no where (see Oldham) does nothing for me.

It's not about taking part, it's about winning. Maybe it's a simplistic view but football is still a sport and the object is to win.

Don't think I will be going back anytime soon.

The amount of people posting on this thread about losing the enthusiasm to go anymore kind've proves my point. You may not go, but you're still attached to the club: you still post on here (and in the football related forums, not just general discussion). You'll always have the attachment.

It's all the miseries reaching middle age.

People come in and out of supporting all the time....what I have noticed down the years, is that it's often the noisiest, seeminglymost ardent types who flake off first at the sign of something they don't like.

As much as I don't want to quote such a shite film as Football Factory - 'What else are you gonna do on a Saturday? Sit in your fuckin' armchair wankin' off to Pop Idols? Then try and avoid your wife's gaze as you struggle to come to terms with your sexless marriage? Then go and spunk your wages on kebabs, fruit machines and brasses? Fuck that for a laugh! I know what I'd rather do. Tottenham away, love it!'

I’m not missing it at all this off season.  Usually I’d almost be counting down the days until the first day of next season but I’m no hurry for the season to start at all.  It’s got nothing to do with anything happening off the pitch, there have been plenty of seasons where expectations on the pitch were limited that I’ve looked forward to.  I can only put it down to age.

I’ll still go to as many games next season as I always do and I’d imagine the excitement will come back when we are a couple weeks from the opening game.

My passion for football in general has waned a lot recently. I used to watch as many games as I could be it on the telly or at Swindon.

Be it the stupid amounts of money, the faux 'best league in the world' nonsense around English football, the players acting like kids on and off the field, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

However, my escape from this is down the County Ground at 3pm on a Saturday. Whether we are Championship, League 1 or 2, I still get the buzz from meeting my dad at the train station, discussing our line up over a few pints, the walk up to the ground, the first whistle etc. The buzz may not be as strong as before, but its still there.

2 season's ago when we lost away at Accrington I got in a real huff and had an argument with with girlfriend. From this moment on I realised that life is more important than 3 points on a saturday and I try and not get too down when we lose.

Put simply. I do it because I want to do it, I enjoy it, and would miss it if it wasn't there.

We beat them 2-0  ;)

Nuts, just done some research and it was when we lost 2-1 at Shrewsbury. I think we played well first half and diablolical second half.

:D Sorry to be so pedantic!

:) it was a good spot! I wasn't convinced it was Accrington but just chucked it in anyway!!

1) because I like to sing at the top of my voice and cant do that at home / work.
2) because it's better than Eastenders / Coronation street for drama.
3) Spend quality time with my son.

Shrewsbury or Accrington, I still find my mood affected by Saturday's result and if it's a bad result I have to manage the disappointment so as not to affect others. 

In spite of my best efforts, "I may not always like you, but I do love you." is something said to me on occasion and it pretty much sums up how I in turn feel about STFC and why I do it.

The DMR approach of growing up and moving on is absolutely correct. 

We all do that with most "leisure activities", even if we retain an interest in the activity or a connection with an old club with which we were once closely associated.

For me and others afflicted, STFC is more however, and I think the reason is because it starts in childhood and becomes hardwired.   Not sure if there is still something extra needed such as a yet to be discovered "Swindon Gene".

It is relatively rare to share experiences of the intensity of Wembley 69 or 93 or the PO semi final wins achieved at the Valley or Prenton Park with thousands only to find no one else knows about this, let alone cares.  For me, the intensity of these experiences is informed by the mundanity, failure and scandal even of much that precedes (and follows) them. 

Sh*t golf club, you join another.  Simple.  Not so STFC