Hi guys I read this interesting article on our ‘other’ forum - an observation by one of our lot who visited Cardiff. https://www.otib.co.uk/index.php?/topic/221603-it’s-not-just-bristol/ I must admit, I do get irritated by ‘plastic’ fans. There are loads here in Swindon. Anyway, I just thought you might be interested…..
Good morning. I agree it's irritating and unfortunately something we have to live with. As with most things these days, it's something that has got worse because of a media driven society. As young kids, many of us would have idolised some of the big names at the big clubs but not to the point where we forsake our own, local club. With all the money involved, there's not much we can do I guess other than continue to support our teams and wait for football to go pop.
Alas, as Clingo says, it's the way of the world nowadays. A media that hypes up the Premier League beyond all other clubs/leagues and perpetuating the myth that anything outside of that may as well not exist as it's clearly of inferior quality is dreadful... but kids (and many adults) get sucked into it, believing the Premier League is the be all and end all of football. Personally I prefer the Championship and even Leagues, 1, 2 and below to the plastic product driven Premier League hype... even when we were there I didn't really enjoy it (and not just because of the results). Don't get me wrong, I was able to enjoy seeing some of the players that I saw (Eden Hazard coming on for Chelsea and completing changing the game against us sticks in my mind probably most of all) but overall it doesn't make a blind bit of difference to me if we are playing Liverpool or Lincoln, Man City or Macclesfield, I'm there to support my team, not get sucked into gawping at the likes of Haaland & Co and thinking they are some kind of footballing gods that matter more than say Joe Ralls for instance. Us, you boys and even our own little cousins down the road generally have our hardcore of around 18k fans, a floating group of about 4-5k on top of that that will go to games if they have nothing better to do or things are going ok and then another 5k+ that will turn up for big games or when things are going REALLY well. (Ok, for the little cousins it's more like 16k with 2-3k floating fans just die to their capacity constraints). Many of these fans won't go to the lengths of buying the shirts and often,m even those that do often only wear them on match days. Regards the observations by the poster, the majority of our fans don't drink in town pre-game, preferring normally Canton or Grangetown for their beers given the location of the stadium. Unless any of us get sustained top flight success then it won't change, but of course, if we do get sustained top flight success then our clubs become just as plastic as Man Utd, Citeh, Chelsea or Liverpool.... it's a sorry catch-22 and, as you can probably tell, a massive bugbear for me...
Oh, I also hasten to add that I do have Sky and watch Premier League football but am equally happy watching non-league games and often try take in Exmouth Town's games when I'm down that way (the family have a holiday home there). Mrs Brizzle and i are off to London for the weekend this weekend and she actually suggested we could try take in a game whilst there. I started trawling the lower levels, national League and FA Cup qualifying games to see if there was anything within easy travel, much to her annoyance (she was expecting us to go to Spurs, Arsenal or similar!!)
I also find it amusing as to how fickle the plastics are. As you may know, I live in Gloucester which is a hotbed of dedicated rugby union fans but there are a significant number of plastics that "support" football clubs. Liverpool has always been the prominent shirt about town but that has fluctuated significantly in recent years. There's a number that once proudly wore the red of Liverpool now wearing the sky blue of citeh! There's a national League north team here which is a fairly good standard but the club isn't that well supported. And that's a shame, because the plastics are mainly armchair fans. They could still easily watch the money clubs on TV and still be able to get to see their local club Hey ho.
Other than football I think I've only been to Bristol twice. I saw a few football shirts most were for Rovers. As they say Life's a gas.
Blimey - What the fk is there to buy in Southmead (which from your description is where you must have been!!) Shopping for drugs? Or knocked-off car parts? On that side of the city there’s a danger that one of those blue few would try and pimp you his sister once he’d finished with her?
Sitting behind me and BfB at Saturday's game was a French guy, proudly wearing his CCFC shirt. He was from Brittany on holiday and wanted to take in a game. He supports a French third tier side, the name of which escapes me. None of this PSG stuff etc. Anyway we now have another Bluebird to spread the word in France. Keep a look out for him William.
I think the French guy said he was a biker. BT was trying to send him to a bikers' cafe somewhere or other. He told him that if he got there he was to ask for Jeff (running joke with me and BT) and say Martin (BT's Christian name) had sent him. I warned the guy that Jeff would probably give him a slap and tell him to feck off!!!
I have to admit I had to Google Jeff Galloway to see who he was. I can't say I remember him unfortunately although I clearly remember the 1972 Munich Olympics where he was part of the USA team. I had been ill in work and went home to be met with live coverage on the TV of the PLO massacre of Israeli athletes. Not something you can unsee once seen. The "Jeff" thing with me and BT is a long standing joke and is nothing to do with running. BT has trouble running his nose. Jeff was a mate of BT's who sadly passed away a few years ago. BT insists I knew him but I wouldn't have known him from a big, black dog.
I’m the same. Remember some things but forget more. My runs are now more ‘Jeffing’, run a bit and walk a bit. Funny enough some runners find they can go faster Jeffing . Not me! Oh and get BT some handkerchiefs for Christmas
