Im convinced.

[nozer]

That the game of football is now dead, just sat through the first hour of the Spurs v R/M "game" ,my word that was poor ,players over passing the ball enoughs enough im afraid ,after 50 years the modern game as no draw at all for me, the pastion for me im sad to say afraid is no longer there.

[pastpirate]

You did bettr than me. I didn't watch a second of it and didn't even know the result until this morning.
I have long since given up on caring about top football as it's just a bunch of twats that fall over as soon as anyone gets near them.
Have never seen a full prem/champions league game due to not giving a t*ss any more.
Football is not football any more (well not at the top- anyway.
love the conference games when they are shown as they are real men that battle for everything.
But the champions league is crap. Just a money make exersise.
Anyway what the hell are Spurs in it for. When have they ever been champions?
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[tcno10]

my view is that what most lower league fans watch ( myself inc as a sheff Weds fan )is not football - hoofball more like and footballers that cannot control the ball , technically shite , no real desire.
What the Champions lg & premiership is in my opinion is pure Football .
Sadly we are envious or quite often in denial.

[Auchinleckian]

tcno10 wrote:

my view is that what most lower league fans watch ( myself inc as a sheff Weds fan )is not football - hoofball more like and footballers that cannot control the ball , technically shite , no real desire. What the Champions lg & premiership is in my opinion is pure Football . Sadly we are envious or quite often in denial.

Have to disagree. I watch the most basest of games in the Scottish Juniors....basic stadia, players who might get paid if they play for a top team, but will nearly always show honest endeavour, and good basic grub.
Oh, and £5 to watch what I consider to be top quality football, played by folk who don't give or take an inch and don't fall over screaming "I've fractured my f***ing haircut!" when they're nearly tackled.
Compare that with the shite on offer in the Premiership, the hampions League, where millionaire ponces with their Gucci man bags and alice bands in their hair (they'd just get kicked to buggery if they ever stepped on a pitch in Auchinleck) seats at a millionaire's ransom an merchandise that squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezes every lasy penny out of the unsuspecting, compliant, fools.
You might take it from this that I am not a lover of the professional game in England at the highest level. Absolutely spot on. Denial? You're 'aving a larf.....

[kcs]

Totally agree with you John. Had the best season of football I can remember this season.

Nope, not Leeds but my local team that is Hythe Town, they play in the Kent League. 5 points clear with 4 games left.

£6 entry with a free programme, good food, players that put everything into everything!! Will probably get a season ticket next season, it will probably be the same cost as an Andrex (soft & expensive) Premier league game!!

Viva non-league football
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[Tynie Topics]

Auchinleckian wrote:

Have to disagree. I watch the most basest of games in the Scottish Juniors....basic stadia, players who might get paid if they play for a top team, but will nearly always show honest endeavour, and good basic grub. Oh, and £5 to watch what I consider to be top quality football, played by folk who don't give or take an inch and don't fall over screaming "I've fractured my f***ing haircut!" when they're nearly tackled.

Well my Junior team and your Junior team are as far apart as Barnet and Chelsea, but we're still in the same grade of football. I wish we had the riches, glamour and support of Talbot

I detest the way UEFA have manipulated the Champions League so the biggest/richest/best supported clubs reach the knockout stages and hoover up the vast majority of cash. It's a cartel, a big fat smelly cartel and is a monument to all that is wrong with football.

That said, there is no denying that the football on show is, on the whole, the purest form of the game and at times a joy to watch. I defy anyone who watches Barcelona not to marvel at the way they play the game. In Messi, you're witnessing quite possibly the best player ever to have played the game.

So aye, the Champions League stinks to high heaven, but I can't resist having a peek at it
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[tcno10]

kcs wrote:

Totally agree with you John. Had the best season of football I can remember this season. Nope, not Leeds but my local team that is Hythe Town, they play in the Kent League. 5 points clear with 4 games left. £6 entry with a free programme, good food, players that put everything into everything!! Will probably get a season ticket next season, it will probably be the same cost as an Andrex (soft & expensive) Premier league game!! Viva non-league football

so if Leeds get back to the big league , I presume you'll stay loyal to your local team .
If thats so , and your not from Yorkshire ...... why bother claim to be a Leeds fan in the first place.

[landorerocks]

i cant get enough of watching my team (swansea city) pure football

[Diamond Matt]

Recently did an article that links to this, with a player from the 1950's



“£10 hero shatters Arsenal”

Modern day football has been marred in controversy regarding goal-line technology and money involved in the game. However, a Northampton Town player from the famous FA Cup run of 1957/58 believes that ‘the football was better then.’

Local-boy Bobby Tebbutt, now 76, was an unknown to many before his exploits at the County Ground. He was signed by Cobblers manager Dave Smith for just £10 from Irchester United at the age of 21, following a number of successful trials.

The Cobblers had earned themselves an attractive third round draw with First Division side Arsenal in the FA Cup. On paper, they were a far superior side than the Northampton team, which Tebbutt was lurking on the fringes of - on the pitch, however, it was a totally different story.

Just three days prior to the clash with the Gunners, Alan Woan was struck down with food poisoning, resulting in the call up for Tebbutt.

“It was a chance I never expected,” said Tebbutt whilst reminiscing through an old scrapbook he had kept of his injury interrupted playing days. “I was nervous.”

It took Tebbutt just six minutes to open the scoring, in what was expected to be the biggest game he would ever play in.

“I don’t remember much about it. Everyone was around me and patting me on the back and my head,” Tebbutt said regarding ‘that goal’ in just his second game for the Cobblers first team.

Tebbutt admits that the celebrations after a goal doesn’t compare to that of the multi-million earning Premier League stars of today.

“We didn’t have all 11 players in a pile or sliding across on your knees. One of these days, somebody’s going to slide across the grass on their knees, there’s going to be something sticking out that ground and they’re going to do themselves a terrible injury. It will probably end their career. It will happen.”

Tebbutt, himself, knows full well the damage a career ending injury can have. At the age of 24, in a Division Four fixture against Walsall, an unfortunate challenge led to Tebbutt spending 16 months out of action with a broken leg. “It ended my professional career,” said Tebbutt, who revealed he has had four new hips, a new right knee, four heart attacks and five stents fitted. Some-what living up to his nickname of ‘Bionic Bob’.

Following his side’s 3-1 triumph against the Gunners, it would be hard to top that. However, Liverpool away was result of the fourth round draw.

Despite losing 3-1 at Anfield, Tebbutt admitted it was ‘one of the highlights of my career.’

“It had been snowing. They tried so hard to get the game on. We travelled to Southsea about a week before the game,” Tebbutt said as he pointed to a picture of the Northampton Team having a snowball fight with the manager. “You wouldn’t see that today.”

After his release from the Cobblers, Tebbutt stayed local and in 1963 was playing for Kettering Town. The Poppies proved to also be the home of another memorable FA Cup season for the Northamptonshire village boy.

“We were against Grantham. I got married at mid-day and then played football at 3 o’clock.”

Tebbutt’s wife of 47 years, Nancy, was sitting nearby and heard the topic in question. “I wasn’t happy, but I knew he wouldn’t listen to me,” she joked.

”She said I wasn’t going to play, but people talked her round,” Tebbutt said. “Most people that were at the wedding came and watched me in the afternoon.”

Tebbutt continued his exploits in the FA Cup by scoring the opening goal. Some say the FA Cup is losing its magic. With the effect it had on Bobby Tebbutt, it is hard to imagine anyone with a similar story who is a modern-day footballer.

[ToffeeDan]

I still get a buzz from watching Everton - at least at home games where my money is staying with my club - and, by and large, the quality of the football is good (and often the opponents are reasonably good too). I've lowered my sights a bit since the advent of the "Big Four" and now just enjoy our relatively decent football and higher level of the table. However I do know we were dire to watch for 10 years or more (pre-Moyes - excepting a small break under Royle) and appreciate that struggling teams can play poor football. But at the end of the day it's about the passion and wanting to see your team play well (as well as the players actually giving a toss - I think they mostly do at Goodison). Anyway when the time comes that I feel disheartened I'll walk away too I guess.

I do admire the philosophy of some teams - Man U/Arsenal mostly - that they believe in attacking football - trouble is the rest of the PL have to keep up with that and, in order to match them, by and large, they park the bus. It's rather sad that Spurs game was, apparently, so poor given that they had all but lost the game in the first leg - why not give the fans something exhilarating to watch rather than the limp "we've had a great run" excuse?

[sharrowblade]

What's with the 'Kudos' surrounding watching lower league football?

Is it some kind of status symbol?

Scottish Junior football is 'top quality football'! Good one!

[Posh1959]

tcno10 wrote:

my view is that what most lower league fans watch ( myself inc as a sheff Weds fan )is not football - hoofball more like and footballers that cannot control the ball , technically shite , no real desire. What the Champions lg & premiership is in my opinion is pure Football . Sadly we are envious or quite often in denial.

Speak for your own team Richard, but watching the Super Posh is as close to the real deal asyou can get apart from we dont know how to defend, all you have to do is look at how many goals we have sored and conceded.

[kcs]

tcno10 wrote:

so if Leeds get back to the big league , I presume you'll stay loyal to your local team . If thats so , and your not from Yorkshire ...... why bother claim to be a Leeds fan in the first place.

Firstly, thanks for your patronising and sarcastic response/question.

I will try and answer your question....

I never once said I do not still follow Leeds or support them, I merely said I agreed with John regarding non-league football and have enjoyed this season the most, this happens to be following a non-league team.

Your correct in the fact that I am not from Yorkshire and do indeed live several hundred miles away from the city of the team I support. However, you don't necessarily know the rationale behind my team choice, I would hazard a guess that you didn't know I have family in the city.

In terms of supporting a local team, I do. Since 1989-90 season I went to approximately 20-30 games a season following the now defunct Ashford Town, this season I have followed another local team in Hythe Town. Does this stop me from supporting another team? NO.

I call myself a Leeds supporter because I am exactly that, nope I do not have a season ticket but go to as many games as the purse strings allow, not all of us can afford a season ticket at a league club, especially when the travel for a home game would cost at least the same as a match ticket if not more!
My nearest league team is about 40-50 miles from where I live, this is not a local team, therefore I don't think that supporting them is an argument. If anything they are/were rivals to Ashford Town.

If Leeds did happen to gain promotion I would still go and watch Hythe as much as I do now (employment permitting obviously), I would also go and watch (and continue to support) Leeds as much as I do now - this being between 5-8 games a season. I have been doing this since about 2001-02 season (my first year at uni), and actually went to more league one games a season than I did Premier League games (when Leeds were up there), I actually went to the most games in one season (for me) when Leeds were relegated from the Championship in 2006/07.

Hardly a big-time supporter, clearly supporting a team as much as I possibly could through thick and thin.

If I could afford it, I would go to more Leeds games, however I would go to as many Hythe Town games as I could also. Currently I go to more HTFC games due to the enjoyment I get from it and the cost.

I pose a question back to you, and to other forum members, should you live in the town/city of the team you support?
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[aye aye rhubarb pie]

great response kcs, spot on

[tcno10]

kcs wrote
I pose a question back to you, and to other forum members, should you live in the town/city of the team you support ?

Personally I think so , born , live and die supporting my team.

all this 2 team supporting mullarky was something I thought people grew out of ,
I know surfinjim and sharrowblade are closet Gers and Spurs fans but that is that - they are FANS not supporters or at least I think thats right .

However , if what you write is taken as being correct on here , the admin better change me from Sheffield Wednesday to Santos and Melchester Rovers.

ps. I dont have a sarcastic bone in my body.

[goonerboy]

it all depends what you want out of football. If you want endeavour and a bit of blood and thunder then that will happen more so in the lower leagues. If you want pace and touch and quality then that will be in the premier league.

I used to regularly watch my local non-league team (Croydon) in the 70s and 80s and it was great fun, a family atmosphere and cheap. Watching Arsenal is a totally different experience on all levels and greatly enjoyable from a different perspective. Having played at an OK level in my younger days, with the non-league matches it was a case of watching players perform at a level that I knew I could also likely perform. However watching Arsenal I am paying to watch something that I could never achieve.

Yes there are shite aspects about the premier league as pointed out but then watching some of the lower league matches and I can't say that it excites me to see players who spend half the time hoofing it or simply clattering into players. There are some quality players in lower leagues but their true ability level is often shown up for its limitations as so few excel at premier level.

IMO the joy of lower league teams is not the quality of the football but its the fact that it is your team, they are supported almost fully by local people and you feel a part of the club. With the premier teams even if you are a local you are diluted by the large number of non-locals and the fact that by and large premier clubs put their fans low down on the list of priorities.

Premier league and lower league are two different beasts and serve two different masters.

[manchesterunitedman1]

Well I have sat back and listened intently at all the comments so far, many good and interesting views, opinions and thoughts for sure.
Let me tell you where i sit with all of this debate:
I first went to see Manchester United in 1958, my Father took me to the first match after Munich-we sat in the main stand not that i can even remember anything other walking down Warwick Road and looking up at the ground and the floodlights and the 1000's and 1000's of people there, quite frightening when your only 7!. iN 1962 I went on my own and ever since that time have followed thrugh the good, bad and ugly times, the days when we would be beaten 7-2 at home by Sheffield Wednesday or get thumped on Boxing day 6-1 at Burnley or have heartache in the rain at Hillsborough in the Cup Semi-Final against West Ham, when Booby Moore said we could play United 10 times and they would beat us 10 times-but not today! to the joys of Wembley in 1968, to the sheer unbeleviable night in the Nou Camp when we were dead and almost buried, to the divine intervention in the rain in Moscow and so on and on and on, to seeing Georgie Best play in the Youth Cup to the King Denis Law, to the enfant terrible in Eric Cantona to all the players good, bad, brilliant and on other planets.

That was a brief eulogy from me to me and you all could listen in, but today's game is different but i feel anyone who has only ever watched their team play at the top may say things aint never been as good-and for me that is how i feel. When i was a kid i went to United and City on alternate Saturdays but that dropped off after watching City in the Second Division in 1963-4 and i was one of those 8000 souls there that day versus Swindon Town yet listenening now there were 45,000 as everyone says they were there, it was dire stuff at Maine Road, so I went to see Bury play and and in the early 1960's they finished 3rd in the second division, good results, nice little ground, nice people but i was a United man and I knew it!, i could no longer spend my time going to see others and cheer them on, i was 12 years old and in love with Manchester United, I never knew much about Munich, my Dad was United and one day I asked him why when in his day City were the club-did he not support them?, he told me that in the 1930's he and his pals could sneak into Old Trafford as the fence was wonky and they got in for free and saved the penny they never had as they cycled to the ground, but could not get in Maine Road as there ground was more difficult to get over the wall!! hahah.

Today when you go to the game like against Chelsea the other night getting a drink at halt time the babble around me was mainly foreign, yes erhaps my club has many hangers on as they want to be part of the success, how many Chinese, Indian, Eastern Europeans, Scandinavians, Irish, Welsh, Scottish are gonna be beating a path to get down to a Championship or lower league side, it is simple maths really, people want to be entertained and buy all the junk souvenirs and be part of something big, whether it is in Manchester, London, Merseyside, The Midlands-everyone wants to cling onto some thing.

If you are Egyptian, or from Singapore or from New Zealand or Japan or wherever, the internet and satellite TV has made th dreams come true for everyone, Manchester United it is reported has 300 million fans world wide-probably untrue as it is more than likely higher, many other top clubs can sport such huge numbers Liverpool would have a good following worldwide and Real Madrid is numero una in Spanish speaking countries but should a fan be from the place where they live is a question that has no credibility, anyone can support everyone!.

On a final note if you asked me who i would support if i was not a United man then for me and taking into consideration all the years of fantastic players and great games and history i would have gone for Tottenham Hotspur as a second team, i do not look for their result but when watching them i always wish they win except when they play us!.

With the greatest of respect supporting is a little like collecting, some collectors will pay any price to obtain something they need, some will not! some will travel on a regular basis to watch the club they support from long distances and spend their time and their hard earned the way they choose too, there is no right or wrong, if you are born and bred in Lincoln[or wherever] go watch your local side?, but as many do they go to see Man U or Leeds Utd cannot blame them, those days have gone and gone forever. When you followed your local club in the 1940-1980's you knew no better to some degreee, there was no means of information, there was sports report at 5pm on a Saturday tea time and Match of the day at night. Once in 1965 United played a cup semi-final at Forest it was a second replay and the game was not on the radio or telly! and we had to wait until the ten o'clock news [at the end] to get the result, used to ring the Manchester Evening News for the scores but the line was jammed that night and they showed 20 seconds of the game with United on the attack and we all thought we were gonna score and the play went up the other end and Bremner headed it in with a minute to go and the game was over-miserable night-never slept!-who would want to go back to that ever again and with evolution comes choice and now we are back at the beginning!. www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterunitedman1/

[Auchinleckian]

...and the debate goes on and on. The cliches likewise. I live and breathe Auchinleck Talbot and make no apologies for doing so. The cost of a season ticket at Camp Beechwood is about half the price of a decently priced seat for a game at the Emirates nowadays.
If you follow a club that you saw before you ever saw them on the television then you're probably a "real" fan. You can't agonise over why you support your team, it's your lot, fate, kismet...it's just so.
Fate...I saw Auchinleck for the first time in 1991-92 when I went to watch them out of curiosity, after somebody told me about them in the pub. If they's told me about Cumnock - our deadliest local rivals - I'd probably have gone there and ended up supporting Cumnock instead, and forever having a chip on my shoulder about Auchinleck! But I was lucky.
Do I think watching the game at Auchinleck i any less aesthetically pleasing than watching Barca at Camp Nou? Having been lucky enough to have done both I can categorically say no, because anything eye catching on the pitch at Auchinleck is a joy to behold for me. Likewise it's the same for a Barca fan when watching Messi et al. The joy for me is that I don't necessarily expect it whilst I assume at Camp Nou now they groan when everything doesn't work just so.
So for me, keep your Premeirship, Champions League, etc they're not my thing. Give me something where I can relate to the players, the fans, the club every time, I'm quids in!!!

[Wullie]

I think the problem with Champions league and Premsership is all the stupid hype before a game. An example is the Spurs game mentioned. If you believed all the crap before the game , you would have thought you were going to see the greatest comeback of all time, and of course once the reality of the game set in, it was boring. Barcelona are so hyped up i thought my tv was about to explode. So the golden rule for me now is i never watch any pre match drivel. I just watch game at kick off, and if it's crap i switch it off.

[foxes1]

sharrowblade wrote:

What's with the 'Kudos' surrounding watching lower league football?

You will find out next season in League 1

Seriously though I believe in following your local team. I first went down to see Leicester in the 1960's and followed them through good times and bad inc a season in Lge 1. When I was young you didn't pick your team it was picked for you, but then again you weren't brainwashed by Sky etc, football was Star Soccer on a Sunday afternoon with Huw Johns. I even managed to get my son and daughter to follow Leicester and eventually my 10 month old grandson wont have a choice either as he will be dragged kicking and screaming to the Walkers Stadium even as a punishment if he misbehaves, and although my daughter now lives in West Yorkshire, she has resisted the lure to go and watch Leeds, Huddersfield etc and still follows Leicester. What you do tend to find nowadays kids that are walking around 1 year in Man Utd shirts are the next year walking around in Arsenal shirts followed 12 months later in Chelsea shirts.