Aston Villa 3-1 Newton Heath post match pint, pie and chips

[john e]

If I stopped conversing with Man Utd fans I wouldn’t have been speaking to my parents most of my cousins and nephews and where I’m living now probably 50% of my friends some of them best friends

[Monty]

But that's fine, like. Family reasons, local reasons, these are completely legitimate reasons to support someone (I mean I'm not from Brum but my family's WM and been Villa since the founding).

And yeah, if anything's not worth losing friends over it's football, if politics and religion can be overcome then, I mean to say, come on. But I watched this game with United fans from Lazio and Houston, TX, the former of whom had a family connection but the latter of whom has never even set foot on British soil. I just find it bizarre.

[Lastfootstamper]

My nephew asked a Brummie Red who was telling him that he should support a decent team how often he had been to Old Trafford. The answer was "where's that?"

I think I've mentioned before a bloke I worked with close to forty years ago, when grounds weren't full and you could part with your two quid, even less than that at OT, on the gate, whose "dream" it was to see his chosen team. I said why don't you just do what I do, jump on a train and go. I think I might as well have suggested flying to the moon.

[dave.woodhall]

Again, I'm sure I've said this before but a particularly obnoxious even by their standards one drank in the same pub in town as me. Every year he enquired about a season ticket and was told there was a waiting list but he never joined it because then he might have had to buy one. When we played them in the League Cup 1992, he said he was going in the Holte. At the final whistle me and my mate ran down to Witton island and caught a number seven just as it was leaving. It was the easiest I've ever got away from Villa Park; it couldn't have been twenty minutes after the match ended when we walked up to the bar and there he was, with a virtually empty glass. "I left at half-time," he said. "I couldn't see."
 

[Risso]

But that's fine, like. Family reasons, local reasons, these are completely legitimate reasons to support someone (I mean I'm not from Brum but my family's WM and been Villa since the founding).

And yeah, if anything's not worth losing friends over it's football, if politics and religion can be overcome then, I mean to say, come on. But I watched this game with United fans from Lazio and Houston, TX, the former of whom had a family connection but the latter of whom has never even set foot on British soil. I just find it bizarre.

Foreign people picking an English team is fine though I guess, no different from people in the UK choosing to follow an NFL or basketball team.

[Monty]

But that's fine, like. Family reasons, local reasons, these are completely legitimate reasons to support someone (I mean I'm not from Brum but my family's WM and been Villa since the founding).

And yeah, if anything's not worth losing friends over it's football, if politics and religion can be overcome then, I mean to say, come on. But I watched this game with United fans from Lazio and Houston, TX, the former of whom had a family connection but the latter of whom has never even set foot on British soil. I just find it bizarre.

Foreign people picking an English team is fine though I guess, no different from people in the UK choosing to follow an NFL or basketball team.

Sure, but it's a bit tragic to come across some English Yankee who's never even set foot in New York, isn't it? Like the guy in Partridge getting a Dr Pepper from the cooler.

[LeeB]

There were a few lads in junior school that followed Everton as this was the mid 80's and they were shit hot. Most of them switched to us by the Big Ron era, but I know a couple of lads from the Bromford that stuck with it and used to go up quite regularly, and I saw one of them a couple of years back and he's still going now. That I have some respect for.

[astonvilla82]

Best friend follows them and is a season ticket holder, fortunately he talks commonsense and he's no problem and he likes the Villa

[Exeter 77]

I think I've mentioned before I went to school with a guy in the early 80s who claimed to support Liverpool and Manchester United and also had Forest and Southampton kits just to cover all bases. The last time I saw him (from a distance but it was definitely him) he had a beer gut bulging out of a Small Heath retro penguin shirt getting off a train at Bordesley station. At least he had finally accepted his true colours.

[LeeB]

Someone on twitter has found the clip of Anthony Taylor sending off Mings against Palace in that Boxing Day game a couple of years back for bumping into Zaha.

But they're not biased.

[chrisw1]

On the glory hunting thing I do get it when there is genuine family connection, although I think a lot of people make this up - mostly their Dad's will never been to old trafford either.  Funny how you don't get many Norwich fans in the Midlands because their Dad supported them (or even Newcastle, Leeds etc)

But without the family thing, I just can't understand why someone would support a team with another City's name.  You're from a Birmingham suburb but choose to support Liverpool or Manchester United when you have no connection to the City whatsoever.  Most probably haven't even been to the City let alone the ground.  Why not just go the whole hog and support Brazil or Italy in international football?

Also, if you're not really into football, why bring your kid up as a Liverpool fan (as one of my mates has), which means they'll probably never see them live or if they do it ill be once in a blue moon, when he could have jumped on board with Villa or even the Baggies or Wolves?

I don't get it.  And yes, it probably pisses me off more than it should.

[john e]

As I’ve said before most of my family support Man United, mum and dad were actually season-ticket holders later on

Doesn’t stop me hating Man United and everything they stand for with a great passion in fact it probably makes it worse
Only team that would top them would be Liverpool and that’s because I’m a 70s kid, and the Liverpool of the 70s were the same as Man United of the 90s, bloody unbearable

[Chris Smith]

A bloke I used to know supported them but only in a keep an eye on results way rather than go and watch them. He grew up in a strict religious household to the extent that they weren’t allowed to watch TV on Sunday. When he started getting interested at school he read about the Munich disaster and it turned out it happened on the day he was born so chose them as a result.

[Bad English]

Tragedy-hunter!

[steamer]

I think back in the day they won a lot of sympathy votes based on that tragedy, that were transferred on as a family tradition.