Just got round to thinking about this a while back when one of my favourite managers - Saint Kloppo, was referred to as a clown by another poster. At which point I temporarily reared up in his defence I confess also that when I was a kid I was also a Liverpool fan - many Watford fans in those days had a second club - normally a London one, but I never had any attachment to one there. So I don't know why it was Liverpool (these were the days of Shankly). Later in the mid seventies I used the coincidence of studying in the North West to get to the ground quite a lot. I still follow their results closely now. In later years I spent a year watching Taunton Town - which rules out the possibility of being called a glory hunter ! Upon moving to the continent I first lived in Haarlem and did not fail to use the opportunity to watch Ajax Amsterdam whilst there - they are still my favourite European club, and I have the deepest respect for their philosophy of football. I have never developed an attachment for a German club, despite my user name, and if I prefer any German club it would be St. Pauli - but this is mostly for political reasons. Yes, politics can play a part in football allegiance - don't most lefties secretly want Celtic to beat Rangers. Or perhaps have an aversion to clubs with lots of racist fans such as Lazio or Chelsea. So, many of us have lived in different areas, and have maybe developed partial allegances to other clubs - or maybe have a soft spot for other clubs for some other reason eg. fan owned clubs, or cult clubs such as Clapton FC. So are there any Hornets out there with a 'second club', and if so which and why ? That way we can avoid treading on each others toes in future
I have five or six or more!! I started life as part of a Spurs family on my mum's side - proper season ticket holders some of them and visited White Hart Lane before the Vicarage. Then when I saw the light and was at school in Watford I became a Hornet. Loving statistics (yes, even then Cologne ) I followed each division so wanted a team for each. (I had one of those cardboard cut-out things from a comic where you could move your teams up and down the league ladders - most of you are too young to know what I am talking about. I had first and third so picked Portsmouth (my dad's team) in the second and had to find one in the fourth. How was I to know that picking the side next to local and where my school bus went on to in the morning was wrong. My bad. I had a Scottish team - Rangers from the era of Baxter. Later I gathered in Meadowbank Thistle (now Livingston) too as I felt sorry for them. They got into the league due to the new stadium and lost every game for about a hundred years. Living in Wales for a while and not having a Welsh team I supported my local Carmarthen. Now I wander along to non league Selsey where football is as I remember it from a bygone era.
I began watching West Brom in 1955...then Man Utd in 1963 and Oxford United in the mid-60s...the Hornets of course from 1983...and nowadays occasionally go to Eastleigh. These were all at the time local to where I was living so I watched in person not via TV/radio. Like many I picked a Scottish team without ever having seen a game north of the border, Hibernian in my case (for no reason other than possibility featuring on the cigarette cards we collected as kids), and always liked Accrington Stanley and Hamilton Academicals just for the names!
Thanks for this Cologne. A good idea. As for me my dad’s family came from Mansfield, my uncle Fred being a regular, and that was my first game (The Stags won 4-2 and my mother complained that both my brother and I ruined a pair of shoes by kicking the wall every time a ball was kicked). All I can remember was at half time a charity blanket was carried around and we threw pennies (1d) in for charity. Still look for Mansfield scores. Then came where I was born and lived for 20 years, Watford and Pat Jennings, Micky Walker, Stuart Scullion and Andy Rankin. Other mates from school and an odd neighbour or two went to Spurs and Arsenal, but never us. When I started work and moved to Croydon I had spells watching Chelsea and West Ham (went with mates from my darts team but I did like Trevor Brooking). When they played one another I was an iron. I've lost any thoughts for the hammers now. But Watford was always in my heart. I have always kept a look out for Berwick but the reason why is best left unsaid Now living in Spain second division (but perhaps next year La Liga) Cadiz CF is my local team. Fascinating so much range in who we have had flings with
Hmm! Each week I go to a friend's house to watch Wellington Pheonix lose. On the occasions that they play in Christchurch I go to the game. (The last time, l saw a young woman wearing a Watford shirt. Her dad came from St Albans.) When I lived in Stafford I sometimes went to see the Rangers. I went to Wembley to see them in the Trophy final. When I worked in Bermondsey I'd sometimes go to watch Fisher Athletic. Malcolm Allison was the manager there for a while when I went. He was way past his prime. I look for the results of RCD Mallorca because I watched them when I lived there. I have a soft spot for Huddersfield because my Grandfather, who introduced me to football, came from there. I can't really create a long term interest in a team from a place with which I have no connexion. Sometimes I will look for the results of a team that always seems to lose, like Fort William, but that 'attachment' never lasts once they start winning. Writing this makes me realise that I seem to support my local team. Not a bad ethos, if a bit tribal.
I'd be very surprised to find anyone who doesn't have a 'second team' to be honest - perhaps unsurprisingly, I have four in Scotland alone as well as one in Australia. Even though they are no longer in the Scottish League, I still follow the fortunes of Gretna - mainly because I was born there. I occasionally go along to watch my local Highland League team - Deveronvale, a friend played for them for years & is currently assistant manager - and also because I like the way the game is played in the Highland League, end-to-end & fast and furious, if lacking in finesse. I'm spoilt for choice in the Scottish Premiership, in which I follow two teams - Ross County, because my grandparents are from that part of the country - and then the first team I ever watched, Hearts. In fact, this is the first football match I ever attended, along with 132,000 others - The 2006 Scottish Cup final was a memorable day for me - I didn't know whether to support Hearts or Gretna, so cheered for both. Got some strange looks in the pub that day. In 2004, I went to a match at Raydale Park in Gretna & went into the supporters club after the match for a drink. I met an old guy there who had an absolutely amazing memory for all things Gretna FC - he even remembered my father, who had played for them 55 years previously. A family move to Watford in 1962 brought me to Vicarage Road and, I suppose, my major love in football - even though I moved to the other side of the world around eight years later. That move brought me to my sixth team - currently known as Brisbane Roar, but back then called Hollandia. In the early 70's, the Aussie Football Federation brought in a rule forbidding club names to reflect ethnicity - so they changed to Brisbane Lions, Lions having been their nickname anyway. In the mid-90's, there was a bit of a legal stoush caused by the Aussie Rules team Brisbane Bears - they merged with a Melbourne club, Fitzroys, whose nickname was the Lions, so changed their name to Brisbane Lions. I don't to this day know how it was decided, but the Aussie Rules club kept the name Brisbane Lions & the football club had to change to Queensland Lions. They later changed to Queensland Roar, then again to the current Brisbane Roar, although I've no idea why. And then, of course, there are the teams I played for in Queensland...
Not in England now days, but I did take a blind friend to Reading for years - home and away including Mansfield and Wigan, two grounds I've not seen Watford play at. I must have been to Elm Park perhaps 30+ times. Udinese in Italy have replaced Fiorentina - but no matter as I never went to see them, though I've every intention of visiting our sister club. St. Pauli in Germany, having been to Hamburg twice on "exchange" trips. Hearts in Scotland - saw them at the Vic and at Partick Thistle, yet to visit Tynecastle. Lens in France - saw them 20 years ago last October I think, beating Rennes 2-0: "Allez les sang et or"! (I think that's right) Other than that, no. Watford are my local team.
I lied: "soft spot" for Alloa Athletic, Mansfield Town (my Mum's home town) Arsenal (Mrs H-F and I like how they play) QPR (born down the road) and Millwall (my grandfather's first team)
You may or may not have realised that the choice of which team to support in Hamburg is, for many people, a political choice Fez. If you are 'alternative' or left wing inclined you tend towards St. Pauli whereas anyone of hard right tendencies would tend more towards Hamburg SV. Pauli have group fan friendships with many other left wing fan groups such as Standard Liege, Calcio Livorno and also to Glasgow Celtic. The ultras from HSV have a fan friendship with Glasgow Rangers fan groups. Football can be much more political on the continent, particularly in Italy.
Having been born in Watford and taken to see them for the first time when I was a seven year old, and until I moved to France always lived within travelling distance of the Vic, there has never been another team that has really taken my affection in the way that the blues/hornets have. In the mid 1950s I would get on my push bike and go to see Luton who were a first division side as their games were programmed for home matches when Watford were away. To think I could prop my bike up without a lock and it would still be there after the game. Probably because of the years watching a second rate team with dubious owners struggling to get by until Elton came on the scene, I still feel for the fans who support clubs that have fallen on hard times. Met a director of Halifax who shared a common charity interest, and despite living in Wimbledon he went to every game home and away. Because of where a daughter lives in Glos. I have followed the fortunes of Forest Green Rovers. Just before I moved here I would make the occasional visit to Banbury Utd, a club that really struggles to survive, and currently are not certain that their home ground will be available as it is in the hands of property developers. Today I have a first team in France that I follow, usually on a Friday evening. Chateauroux is the nearest club of any standing to me and I was really pleased when last season they won what is the third tier and are doing quite well this season. They play their home games in a soulless concrete stadium that is usually two thirds empty, but I do join with the fans when moved to comment on their forum. Despite looking out for the results of several teams every time I open my wallet I see my Watford Fan ID card, and remember how things were when my paper round funded my trips to the Vic to watch any game there. I turned out some old programs and found reserve game ones that were little more than a duplicated sheet of paper folded in half. If there is anything I miss from England it is the walk along Vicarage Road.
Well aware of their left wing leanings from other Hornets do who go regularly. However I made my choice based mainly on kit as I couldn't stand HSV's mix and not match approach and I thought chocolate and white halves were cool! Plus they were totally unfashionable and Watford were just gaining promotion to the second tier so i made sense.
My mum and dad family come from north London so all the family was ether Lilly White or Red so in 1960/61 season i was taken to WHL to watch the derby .But i would go and watch my local side of Berkhampsted fc and support any English team .But liked Law Best and Chalton so always wanted Man U to do well .After winning the World Cup me and 2 mates said we would have to start supporting a league side they wanted to go to a big club in london as the train would go into Euston And buses to Luton was not that great i said it will be cheaper to try Watford .We only just missed out on going up that season and i was hooked
In Scotland, it's Hearts, purely because they were the opposition for Kenny Jackett's testimonial. My grandad was from Sunderland and used to tell me about watching the team with Raich Carter in it when he was a teenager. He did go to the Vic a few times after he moved south. When I was at Uni, I went to more rugby and ice hockey matches than football but I did see a match in possibly one of the hardest grounds in the UK to pronounce - Ynysangharad Park, home of Pontypridd Town. Just as we keep an eye on former Hornets, I keep an eye on how players from here are doing - the current 3 are Brett Pitman at Pompey, Peter Vincenti Jr. at Coventry and Kav Miley at Eastleigh. The last 2 seem to spend more time on the bench than the pitch.
I didn't realise Miley was at WFC. I saw him pay for Eastleigh early in the season. He looks a skilful player at National League level if a bit lightweight. I think he's been in the starting lineup more recently, coinciding with an improvement in the team's fortunes.
I don't really follow anyone other than Watford but keep an eye out for Barnet as they're very local to me now and Cork City which was my Nan and Grandad's team before they came to England.
Watford have over the years become my ' second club ' , more due to living in north wales rather than borehamwood where i went to school . Bangor City are my first team now, much more connected to supporters than all the premier league journeymen , as fans we never lose the emotional connection to clubs , but they can shift over time , i like standing at games , and changing ends at half time , i suppose the social aspect of non league is much better than anonymous premier league sitting in plastic seat nonsense ,, anyhow great win last night .6/1 bet 365 had horns at start of game !
I think you may have misread my post or I didn't make myself clear enough - Cav Miley is one of the 3 Jerseymen in the English pyramid system, and is at Eastleigh and was on the bench on Saturday. I meant that as we have the thread relating to our ex-players and staff, I keep a watch on how islanders involved in professional sport in the UK are doing - in other sports there is Matt Banahan at Bath and Beckie Herbert, who has played hockey for England.
