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

[john e]

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.

We weren’t allowed to watch telly, go to the shop, or do much of anything on Sunday when I was a kid apart from go to church

My Dad was the church minister though

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Lad a knew at school used to follow Swansea when they were playing in the bottom divisions at The Vetch, still see him occasionally and he still goes and has seen them win cup finals, play in the Premier League and Europe. Huge respect for sticking with them.

[Lizz]

Unbeknownst to me at the time until he was seriously ill at work and died the following day, I used to work with the son of one of the Busby Babes survivors.

[rob_bridge]

In mid 00s one season 04/05 I think I decided to do some ground hopping following relationship breakup.

A then 4th tier match between Boston United and Bury was a choice one Saturday.. Long train journey from Nottingham (where I lived) to Boston.

Some Bury fans got talking to a North London bloke who said  he was a Spuds fan when younger but had switched to ManUtd when Premier League started. Obviously he'd never been to a match at OT. Felt sorry for  Fergie as press picked on him.

Let's say the Bury fans were very unimpressed.

[Risso]

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

Surely you were at least 40 in the 1970s?  😳

[Rory]

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.

Any legitimate family connection is fine, but as you say, it's funny that all these people had fathers/uncles who were born or worked in Manchester, rather than, say, Hull. I remember one going on in our sixth form common room about how he's a 'true' Man Utd fan because he lived there in a terraced house with his parents until he was 8. He was irritating me, so I said, "oh yeah? I have family in Manchester*, know it quite well, whereabouts?"

Silence.

"Erm, central..."

"Yeah? A terraced house in the city centre? Which street?"

Silence.

"Old Trafford Street..."

It pisses me off far more than it should as well, and at my school there were indeed plenty who supported Brazil/Argentina/France in international football. After England lost to Brazil in 2002 it got quite nasty because there were several lads who came in wearing Brazil shirts or carrying Brazil flags.

Most of them were Asian, and I don't want to speculate because it gets into nasty Norman Tebbit territory, but from my experience a higher proportion of Brummies of Asian descent support Man Utd or someone like that, than other ethnic groups. Whether that is because there is greater identification with family roots and not geography, or their families maybe weren't welcomed very warmly and so feel a lack of connection to their city, I don't know.

It's not really relevant, but I always love seeing Asian faces down VP because it means we're engaging with and appealing to the local community.

*I don't.

[Footy-Vill]

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.

No guessing about it- it is fine!! And it's no different to people from the UK choosing to follow a football team from overseas.

[cdbearsfan]

Depends on the reason. If you just pick a team because they win all the time, you're still a wrong 'un.

[astonvilla82]

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.

Any legitimate family connection is fine, but as you say, it's funny that all these people had fathers/uncles who were born or worked in Manchester, rather than, say, Hull. I remember one going on in our sixth form common room about how he's a 'true' Man Utd fan because he lived there in a terraced house with his parents until he was 8. He was irritating me, so I said, "oh yeah? I have family in Manchester*, know it quite well, whereabouts?"

Silence.

"Erm, central..."

"Yeah? A terraced house in the city centre? Which street?"

Silence.

"Old Trafford Street..."

It pisses me off far more than it should as well, and at my school there were indeed plenty who supported Brazil/Argentina/France in international football. After England lost to Brazil in 2002 it got quite nasty because there were several lads who came in wearing Brazil shirts or carrying Brazil flags.

Most of them were Asian, and I don't want to speculate because it gets into nasty Norman Tebbit territory, but from my experience a higher proportion of Brummies of Asian descent support Man Utd or someone like that, than other ethnic groups. Whether that is because there is greater identification with family roots and not geography, or their families maybe weren't welcomed very warmly and so feel a lack of connection to their city, I don't know.

It's not really relevant, but I always love seeing Asian faces down VP because it means we're engaging with and appealing to the local community.

*I don't.

talking to one Malaysian girl in the holte end with her partner, she was telling me that she loved Aston Villa when she lived in Malaysia,or as she politely put it "I f**king love Aston Villa"sisters were a lawyer and a scientist, great to see people from the ethnic communities down the matches

[kippaxvilla2]

It never pisses me off more to see Africans and south East Asian people following the sky four for no other reason than they’re successful and are on telly a lot.

[eamonn]

Was it the Ghanaian Lions who sang "Leeds are falling apart, again" in donated Villa shirts earlier this year when we did the  3-0?! It was wonderful.

[pauliewalnuts]

Depends on the reason. If you just pick a team because they win all the time, you're still a wrong 'un.

Exactly.

These people with no geographical link with a club, it's not like many of them are plumping for the shit nothing clubs like Grimsby, Mansfield Town or Albion.

It is always the successful ones.

[Rory]

Depends on the reason. If you just pick a team because they win all the time, you're still a wrong 'un.

Agreed. I don't follow much European football, but the two teams I look out for are Fiorentina (because of their colours) and Freiburg, because I visited and loved the city. They're both pretty shite, but who cares?

I met a lad at university from Devon, his local team were Exeter and he supported them, but he wanted some kind of investment in the newfangled PL, and from a child his PL team was Sheff Weds because he liked the owl. That's something I could believe and get behind.

[Rory]

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.

Any legitimate family connection is fine, but as you say, it's funny that all these people had fathers/uncles who were born or worked in Manchester, rather than, say, Hull. I remember one going on in our sixth form common room about how he's a 'true' Man Utd fan because he lived there in a terraced house with his parents until he was 8. He was irritating me, so I said, "oh yeah? I have family in Manchester*, know it quite well, whereabouts?"

Silence.

"Erm, central..."

"Yeah? A terraced house in the city centre? Which street?"

Silence.

"Old Trafford Street..."

It pisses me off far more than it should as well, and at my school there were indeed plenty who supported Brazil/Argentina/France in international football. After England lost to Brazil in 2002 it got quite nasty because there were several lads who came in wearing Brazil shirts or carrying Brazil flags.

Most of them were Asian, and I don't want to speculate because it gets into nasty Norman Tebbit territory, but from my experience a higher proportion of Brummies of Asian descent support Man Utd or someone like that, than other ethnic groups. Whether that is because there is greater identification with family roots and not geography, or their families maybe weren't welcomed very warmly and so feel a lack of connection to their city, I don't know.

It's not really relevant, but I always love seeing Asian faces down VP because it means we're engaging with and appealing to the local community.

*I don't.

talking to one Malaysian girl in the holte end with her partner, she was telling me that she loved Aston Villa when she lived in Malaysia,or as she politely put it "I f**king love Aston Villa"sisters were a lawyer and a scientist, great to see people from the ethnic communities down the matches

Definitely, mate. And you know they're there for the right reasons, as opposed to seeking a selfie opportunity or a boost to their self-esteem by backing 'the winning team'.

[Rory]

Was it the Ghanaian Lions who sang "Leeds are falling apart, again" in donated Villa shirts earlier this year when we did the  3-0?! It was wonderful.

That was fantastic.