Are you proud of your local club?

[DanTheUnit]

• People support different clubs for different. I want to know how you feel about the club(s) nearest to you and if you support them?

 

[When In Rome]

Lifelong Shots fan now living on the south coast. Costs me around £100 every 'home' game but I go to as many aways as I can.

 

[Abbeygoo]

I wonder why this thread hasn’t had many / any replies ?

 

[Leo31291]

People who support their local team probably don't even support the club nearest to their home. How local are we talking ? Because using this website UK Football Team Finder

My nearest registered club is Hanworth Villa FC who play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division... 7th tier of english football. There's nothing to be proud of around here. You have to go 5th on the list of nearest clubs to find a recognisable outfit in Hampton and Richmond (3.6miles away).

Obviously I think it's nice if they do well and I'll keep an eye on their results to see how they're doing

 

[Abbeygoo]

I think it looks at nearest football league club rather than non league ....

My closest league club is .... Manchester City.

 

[Dony]

I'm very proud of my local club, St Mary's YCFC.
We were formed 60 yrs ago this year. As treasurer I should add at this point tickets £45 each if anyone fancies attending our anniversary dinner, or just to chuck money at us (or something to include in the auction) .

To this day we still recruit all our players from the local area, which also happens to be one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Our club has been at the heart of this community, and the locals have helped to keep the club running all this time.
We are now playing at intermediate level and have expanded the club to include junior teams. Every week we have over 120 players representing us.

 

[Abbeygoo]

Love it Dony - you are a legend

 

[Leo31291]

Brentford are my nearest football league club.

I'm very proud of my local club, St Mary's YCFC.
We were formed 60 yrs ago this year. As treasurer I should add at this point tickets £45 each if anyone fancies attending our anniversary dinner, or just to chuck money at us (or something to include in the auction) .

To this day we still recruit all our players from the local area, which also happens to be one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Our club has been at the heart of this community, and the locals have helped to keep the club running all this time.
We are now playing at intermediate level and have expanded the club to include junior teams. Every week we have over 120 players representing us.

Do you guys have many local clubs competing for the spotlight ?

 

[Dony]

Brentford are my nearest football league club.


Do you guys have many local clubs competing for the spotlight ?

There used to be 2 other clubs in the local community but one of those folded a few years ago, so 1 close rival. In our town there's probably 4 or 5 other teams in our around us in the league. The town also has a club in the IFA leagues so they gobble up most of the sponsorship opportunities.

 

[When In Rome]

I wonder why this thread hasn’t had many / any replies ?

Why do you think? Are people not proud of their clubs? I'm sure you must be proud of Manchester City.

I'm proud that we (Aldershot) are still in existence.

I'm not proud of the current state we are in or how the club is being run.

 

[Abbeygoo]

No what I meant was that people don’t support their local club in here. In general. Most support a team more than a hundred miles away.

 

[When In Rome]

Looking at it like that then I wouldn't qualify but I continue to follow the team from where I'm from.

Going up Stockport next week but sometimes I wonder why I bother especially after today...

ATFC 1-2 Barrow AFC: Optimism checked as Shots fail to deliver – yet again

Thing is, after a defeat you often say I ain't bothering next week but when Saturday comes...

you know how it is...

 

[Sebastalona]

I wonder why this thread hasn’t had many / any replies ?

I’ve not replied as it makes me angry talking about my team at this present moment.

 

[clydebest]

Brentford are my nearest football league club.


Do you guys have many local clubs competing for the spotlight ?

No we have the city of Bristol to are selves OTIB.

 

[clydebest]

It has now been 52 seasons since i was first taken to Ashton Gate to watch the Redmen.. they were my local and nearest geographically to where i lived , they represented the large council estates that made up the landscape of South Bristol.. unlike are home owning SB from North of the river... we have never won anything of note and doubt we ever will but they are my team , and that is what matter's most.. i wish the fans were as passionate and noisy as we were in the late 70's-90's.. but it really is like a library , and i am too old now to get them to be more passionate... CTID.

 

[Don Rogers Tash]

I was born Palace.
I'm a born and bred Selhurst boy. Went to school opposite the top of The Holmesdale Road too.

South East London born and bred
Red and blue til I'm dead.

 

[arenaman]

I can't support anyone else than Darlington, always have, even in the ninth tier back in 2012 when the FA screwed us over, currently in the National league North (6th tier) which is about the ceiling for a part time club.

 

[When In Rome]

Went there in 1980, Darlington. Remember having to walk round a cricket field. Darlington had a Liptons I remember (are they still going?).

This week it's another new ground, Chorley, somewhere between Manchester and Preston.

Ales ‘n’ pies, let’s rock and roll!: Shots @ Chorley FC

Where? North of Manchester and south of Preston! Chorley is a popular market town steeped in history and surrounded by beautiful countryside. You may have heard of Chorley because of the famous mar…

calling-the-shots.com

£87 return on the train. Some good alehouses around up there. #COYS

 

[arenaman]

Went there in 1980, Darlington. Remember having to walk round a cricket field

Yes Feethams, sadly it's all housing now, since then we somehow had and lost a Premier league standard stadium and ended up being unwelcome guests at a local rugby club ground.

 

[When In Rome]

Yes Feethams, sadly it's all housing now, since then we somehow had and lost a Premier league standard stadium and ended up being unwelcome guests at a local rugby club ground.

I forget the chairman's name now but remember reading about him (George somebody or other?) in relation to dealing with the council and trying to get DFC a ground, last time I saw it on TV it didn't look too bad either, guess at that time the club were in the fourth or fifth tier, certainly the place was a lot different to Feethams and when I went which is almost forty years ago!

So maybe you are in the sixth tier with Gateshead? Of course we should be in the southern version of it but stayed up due to Gateshead's off-field misdemeanours.

 

[arenaman]

I forget the chairman's name now but remember reading about him (George somebody or other?) in relation to dealing with the council and trying to get DFC a ground, last time I saw it on TV it didn't look too bad either, guess at that time the club were in the fourth or fifth tier, certainly the place was a lot different to Feethams and when I went which is almost forty years ago!

So maybe you are in the sixth tier with Gateshead? Of course we should be in the southern version of it but stayed up due to Gateshead's off-field misdemeanours.

In a nutshell George Reynolds (local old school millionaire crook) took over and had the philosophy build a stadium (27500) and the fans will fill it He even unveiled Tino Asprilla as a signing who when he realised what was going on was on the first plane back to Colombia, embarrassing to say the least.

Reynolds then screwed all the builders etc and didn't pay them for building the stadium but didn't screw the club as such but the Arena (see username) was to be our demise

The real villain was next chairman George Houghton who split the club into 2 companies, the playing side and the stadium, he racked up debts against the stadium and defaulted so we lost the stadium, it was subsequently bought by a local Rugby club for £2m when it cost in excess of £25m to build originally.

Then the next shyster Raj Singh (current Hartlepool (spit) chairman) finally took us under.

We went into admin and failed to exit with a cva so in an unprecedented punishment by the FA (spit again) were demoted 3 leagues and had an enforced name change. Note Leeds UTD had only a 25 point deduction for the same offence a few years previous.

The good thing is we never actually went bust as a club, we kept the history and took on the debts of the creditors which we paid off then were allowed our name back a few years later.

Tell you what was fun though averaging over 100 points and 100 goals smashing up the lower leagues for 4 seasons on the way back, taking 1000+ fans to away games in the Northern league (9th tier who have crowds of a couple of hundred max), ha ha mental.

The NLN is tough though, half the teams are FT and as a PT fans owned club with no sugar daddy I think we've found our level

 

[When In Rome]

In a nutshell George Reynolds (local old school millionaire crook) took over and had the philosophy build a stadium (27500) and the fans will fill it He even unveiled Tino Asprilla as a signing who when he realised what was going on was on the first plane back to Colombia, embarrassing to say the least.

Reynolds then screwed all the builders etc and didn't pay them for building the stadium but didn't screw the club as such but the Arena (see username) was to be our demise

The real villain was next chairman George Houghton who split the club into 2 companies, the playing side and the stadium, he racked up debts against the stadium and defaulted so we lost the stadium, it was subsequently bought by a local Rugby club for £2m when it cost in excess of £25m to build originally.

Then the next shyster Raj Singh (current Hartlepool (spit) chairman) finally took us under.

We went into admin and failed to exit with a cva so in an unprecedented punishment by the FA (spit again) were demoted 3 leagues and had an enforced name change. Note Leeds UTD had only a 25 point deduction for the same offence a few years previous.

The good thing is we never actually went bust as a club, we kept the history and took on the debts of the creditors which we paid off then were allowed our name back a few years later.

Tell you what was fun though averaging over 100 points and 100 goals smashing up the lower leagues for 4 seasons on the way back, taking 1000+ fans to away games in the Northern league (9th tier who have crowds of a couple of hundred max), ha ha mental.

The NLN is tough though, half the teams are FT and as a PT fans owned club with no sugar daddy I think we've found our level

Knew it was George somebody. Quite a character! I do remember Darlo being demoted three leagues, yes. We're still taking 200 away even now which is amazing seeing as we're total dross and in danger of relegation again. But we have a lease and ground redevelopment in the pipeline. All fine so long as we don't frop into NLS where our gates would halve.

These next opponents, I just heard that their chairman hasn't been seen for a month apparently under investigation.

An accountant stole £250,000 from a football club so he could pay a glamour model to visit him. Infatuated Andrew Barnbrook, 37, took the large sum from semi-professional National League club AFC Fylde. He worked as an accounts assistant at the Lancashire club and transferred the money to his personal account, Blackpool Magistrates’ Court heard. Barnbrook shelled out large amounts for visits from Manchester based model Victoria Sinclair, 24, the Sun reported.

AFC Fylde chairman David Haythornthwaite said there was no way of recovering the stolen money, adding: ‘It is a very sad situation in many ways. I have built a business up from one employee in 1998 to over 300 worldwide today.

 

[arenaman]

Knew it was George somebody. Quite a character! I do remember Darlo being demoted three leagues, yes. We're still taking 200 away even now which is amazing seeing as we're total dross and in danger of relegation again. But we have a lease and ground redevelopment in the pipeline. All fine so long as we don't frop into NLS where our gates would halve.

These next opponents, I just heard that their chairman hasn't been seen for a month apparently under investigation.

Chorley or Fylde?

Fylde just have bags of cash at that level (funny story though), Chorley are an odd one, didn't think they'd have the resources to survive in the National League and it looks like that's right

 

[When In Rome]

Chorley or Fylde?

Fylde just have bags of cash at that level (funny story though), Chorley are an odd one, didn't think they'd have the resources to survive in the National League and it looks like that's right

Fylde. Sorry, I did mention it as connected to our opponents this weekend (Chorley) - it's getting late!

Maybe Chorley will go down and Fylde had delusions of grandeur about winning the title - they're not pulling up any trees and we owe them one for the 7-1 there last season.

 

[arenaman]

Do your fans see your club as THE Aldershot FC that went bust?, I imagine you do

Looking at your reformation you won the Isthmian by 18 points in 1992, I can relate to that, in the 2012/13 season when Darlo were punished to the Northern League (9th Tier) we had 1 player on the books and no ground. We ended up winning 40 out of 46 games finishing on 122 points, the funny thing is this was the year Spennymoor were going to take promotion after winning and refusing it for years, they ended up on 109 points in 2nd place and missed out, you'd be gutted wouldn't you?

Then again their sugar daddy has bank rolled them to the edge of the National league since then (beaten by Chorley in the playoffs)

The joys of the jumpers for goalposts leagues

 

[When In Rome]

Looking at your reformation you won the Isthmian by 18 points in 1992, I can relate to that, in the 2012/13 season when Darlo were punished to the Northern League (9th Tier) we had 1 player on the books and no ground. We ended up winning 40 out of 46 games finishing on 122 points, the funny thing is this was the year Spennymoor were going to take promotion after winning and refusing it for years, they ended up on 109 points in 2nd place and missed out, you'd be gutted wouldn't you?

Then again their sugar daddy has bank rolled them to the edge of the National league since then (beaten by Chorley in the playoffs)

The joys of the jumpers for goalposts leagues

I wouldn't mind doing a feature on the Darlington story for my blog.

We;ll be lucky to get 22 points at the moment let alone 122. Some fantastic names in that table; Merske United, Celtic Nation, Norton and Stockton Ancients! Do these teams still exist?

Do your fans see your club as THE Aldershot FC that went bust?

Great question. I sstill feel a bit alienated with ATFC, I think us older fans do. In the sense that we remember the glory days an our junior fans haven't a clue who John Dungworth or Murray Brodie are. Home games I stand on the East Bank where I grew up and because I'm like a journo doing the match reports, second half occasionally I go round to the South Stand to chat with a lot of folk I know who are fifty-somethings also.

To me it'll always be Aldershot (I never ever say Aldershot Town if I am asked who I support) but we are two clubs in essence, the one that folded and then in 1992 the Phoenix rose again, we're red and blue, you know it's true!

I love feature writing and usually knock out one football or non-football related story per day so with an avid interest on Darlo I shall begin knitting one together tbis morning. I will link it once it is on air and perhaps, when you have time, you can say anything that isn't quite correct (copy and paste world we live in).

I would have seen the home fixture I mentioned from 1980 (I think it was 1-0 to Darlington up there but I'll check) but don't remember it. What I do have is a bundle of programmes I bought from eBay around that time, home ones (and 10p each) but I've not read any of them yet; maybe there's an Aldershot v Darlington one among them.

 

[When In Rome]

The feature is now up online @arenaman though this tablet refuses to copy and paste from the address bar so, just click on my signature and you will see it on the homepage.

 

[arenaman]

At least the club lived on in some respect, it won't feel the same but it goes on. Darlo were forced to be called Darlington 1883 until they were allowed to drop the 1883 after a few years, lost a lot of fans along the way. A complete new team and playing out of town didn't help.

From that table Marske Utd are playing a league higher these days and doing ok

Celtic Nation were short lived and went bust, had a cash injection and big plans which never took off and the money dried up.

Norton & Stockton currently play Wearside league Div 2 (12th Tier)

Note South Shields, they're ripping it up and will undoubtedly be playing NLN next season

I'll check out your feature now

 

[arenaman]

The feature is now up online @arenaman though this tablet refuses to copy and paste from the address bar so, just click on my signature and you will see it on the homepage.

Great little article there , one glaring error at the end, they don't play at the Northern Echo Arena, they haven't since being bumped down to the Northern League in 2012. The arena was bought by Darlington Mowden Park rugby Club for only £2m.

Darlington ground shared with Bishop Auckland at Heritage Park for a few seasons then struck a deal with Darlington Rugby Club to ground share at Blackwell Meadows in the town and have redeveloped the ground up to National League standard since. They actually qualified for the playoffs the year before last but couldn't take part as the ground was sub standard for the next level at the time

 

[When In Rome]

Great little article there , one glaring error at the end, they don't play at the Northern Echo Arena, they haven't since being bumped down to the Northern League in 2012. The arena was bought by Darlington Mowden Park rugby Club for only £2m.

Darlington ground shared with Bishop Auckland at Heritage Park for a few seasons then struck a deal with Darlington Rugby Club to ground share at Blackwell Meadows in the town and have redeveloped the ground up to National League standard since. They actually qualified for the playoffs the year before last but couldn't take part as the ground was sub standard for the next level at the time

Thank you... on It!

I've actually used your words in bold in the edit.