Welcome to the first Support Your Local Saturday thread - which we will be trialling for the first time today.
The premise is a thread to talk about your local team - something of an amalgamation of the Saturday Non-PL Daily Discussion Thread, and a “match-going fan” thread.
This does not necessarily mean that only comments from fans going to their local that day - but the spirit is a Discussion Thread for people who support their local team, and especially teams from lower or non-PL leagues - who can get drowned out in the pre-existing Daily Discussion Thread.
There is a small but dedicated following in the Non-PL DDT, and we were hoping that something of a re-brand may boost participation and help to build the excellent sub-community there.
We want to keep the focus to Non-PL teams, to prevent it being drowned out by Big 6 fans - but we will soften this slightly, in that comments of PL-supporting fans are valid, providing they were “at the match” that weekend.
It may not work, but worth giving a go, eh…
Rules:
- Discussion must be of your local team - whether they were you local growing up, or are your local now
- Discussion of PL teams is allowed only if you are attending the match that weekend - and hence focused on the match day experience
- Keep a high bar. This is not the DDT. If you want to troll, bait, or shit-talk like it’s Football Twitter, use the DDT. Or even better - Twitter.
Today we play the absolute worst team in the league by a longshot (2 points in 12 games) and I’m actually nervous they’ll play us to a draw considering our current form.
My team: NK Varaždin
Off to Mechelen today on an away game, the first one we’re allowed to do by car and not by a mandatory bus
Up the greens
Mandatory bus!?
What the fuck!?
They were not my local growing up, but technically right now it’s Sheffield United… live less than 30 minute walk from Bramall Lane. Often go to see the women’s games there
Football across the city in a sad state. Women are doing okay in the Championship, but with the tragedy of Maddy Cusack passing away, and whatever on earth is going on with the manager being suspended, that’s a sad state of affairs too
Been to Sutjeska game against Jedinstvo, and Yanis Beghdadi looks really good. Really excited about him, one of the only bright spots about Sutjeska this season.
My local team died last weekend and I have an empty hole in my heart… I wish our SG was going on a bus up the freeway today to watch our boys play in the next round of the tournament… =(
Will be at the Stevenage game today. Had a little downturn of form after a brilliant start so hopefully we pull off a bit of a surprise in this one against Derby. Never know!
Love this, mods!
After 17 games, we stood dead last on 10 points with everyone writing us off. But after picking up 16 points in the following 10 games, we now find ourselves at one of the play off spots with 3 games remaining!
Our most recent game was against Jönköping Södra where we, for the first time since the opening game, pulled a respectable away following! We managed to fill our bus (fuck me, organising bus journeys for a bunch of drunk football fans, is fucking stressful!) and plenty of cars drove down as well meaning 80+ on the away stand. It’s still a shamefully low number, but for us, it’s a massive step in the right direction!
Tomorrow, we face Utsiktens BK at home in a game where sponsors and supporters pay for the entrance fee, meaning it’s free entry for the public. Should be a decent attendance despite the horrible weather. Utsikten were once top of the league by some margin but have had a horrendous second half of the season. Their top scorer also managed to get himself suspended in the last game because he went over to the away fans and started shouting abuse after the game was over!
On a personal level, it looks like I’ll finally be able to get my perfect season after missing out 2 years in a row by one single game. My old man is heading for his third consecutive perfect season! If we manage to keep our position, the first play off game will be his 100th competitive game in a row he sees in person, mad respect for that!
A perfect season in Sweden is really impressive, I’ll probably reach 28/30 this season but Belgium is tiny lol
What’s the furthest away game?
28/ 30 is strong, regardless of country!
Furthest would be Östersund, a lovely 1,300 km roundtrip and Sundsvall at ~1,200. The way home from Östersund this year was absolutely fucking brutal due to heavy snow. The first 300 km’s was probably the worst time I’ve spent in a car. Passed two trucks and a handfull of cars that had ended up in the ditch causing delays. Took us nearly 13 hours to get back home…
Lovely stuff!
Great idea! I’ve always supported Palace as they were my local team and my dad’s. The match thread was a disasterclass last night as we were playing a “big 6” team and really refreshing to read some of the comments here.
My local Team Greifswalder FC is in first place in 4th division right now, unbeaten so far. Tomorrow theyll play against last years champion (the promotion from 4th to 3rd division is kind of weird in Germany). Im really excited to go. Ive been to two games this season and the vibes have been immaculate.
They are working on building a new stadium, and the current one likely doesnt meet prerequisites for 3rd division, so if they end up promoted they might have to play at 90 km away Rostock. But we will see, the recent developments are definitely exciting. Lots of former pros have been added the last two seasons
Went to see Bath City this week, 2£ as it was student night. Stadium is a shed, the bar was teenagers badly pouring cans into cups, weather was shit, and it was a blast. 3-0 win, two great goals and a funny keeper mistake. Brilliant evening out
This thread comes at the perfect time for me. Our next game is Botev away (our derby) and there will be no away fans, because the derby at our ground was on the first round and the stadium is under construction. The away stand wasn’t ready for the game. The solution was simple - switch the derbies. First round at their ground, second at ours. Our club refused. Fuck them for that. I haven’t been at an away derby since 2012, cause their stadium got demolished in 2013 and it took them a while to build the new one. Can’t fucking wait for next season’s derbies.
How is the Bulgarian league now, anyone close to ending Ludogorets’ reign of terror? Maybe just coincidence but it feels like since they started winning every year the national team has been in a state of constant decline.
Was labouring a cold the whole week, but got persuaded to make the one hour away ride anyway because we lacked a CB, only for us to get thrashed 5-0. Well that was a waste of an evening.
Salford actually brought away fans. Fair play I thought they were fictional
Went and saw Latics go on and win our 3rd game in a row, out of relegation for the moment on goal difference. It’s a hard do to overcome a 8 point deduction, an overhauled squad whilst also reducing the wage budget by over 400%. Maloney has been the rock for this club since he came in.
Derby day on Thursday against cfr in the cup, already can’t wait