Choosing your team

Hap

Hap

Well-known member
When it comes to supporting a football team I’m a firm believer in this: on the day of your birth, your Dad and brothers (or his friends) spread a map over the kitchen table, and with a ruler identify the nearest football ground. And THAT is the team you support until you die. End of.
I did come down with a case of Manchester United in 1976 which lasted until 1991 (Long United, it’s commonly referred to). I’m now a recovering Middlesbrough fan and thoroughly underwhelmed at all times.
 
My dad was a massive, massive Boro fan, but living in the Boro he told me, sorry son, you can only support your home team, which I passed on to my 2 kids

My dad started going when he was 11 in 1946 & stopped in 2018 age 83, when he was no longer with us

I've mentioned on here, I told my kids, once the Boro break your heart they have you for life
 
I was groomed by Leeds United as a small child.
It took quite a few years for me to trust an appropriate adult.

It is fair to say I have hated them with double intensity since then.
 
I'm in total agreement with this, even though I did the exact opposite as a kid and chose to support Boro even though I was born and bred (and still live) in the south east and have no connection whatsoever to Middlesbrough. My dad got me into football, but didn't push me toward any local team (Charlton and Palace are my nearest) and instead let me make my own decision.

Although this quite obviously defies the rule laid out in this thread, I'd like to think I'm excused from criticism on the grounds that choosing Boro when you live almost 300 miles away couldn't possibly be classified as glory hunting - in fact, quite the opposite.
 
I'm a big believer in the idea that you should support your local league team, and I have no time for the Man U, Man City, Liverpool and Leeds fans around Teesside.

But at the same time, you could argue I'm only a Boro supporter because my mum and older brother are Boro supporters and I was brought up in to that, I obviously can't say for certain how things would have panned out if I'd been brought up in a glory supporting or a non-football family.
 
I was originally a Man Utd fan as a young child, but changed to supporting Boro around 9, my parents aren’t into football so I think it was a mix of the start of the Robson era and wider family.

I’m in a dilemma at the moment with my son. I support Boro, my Father in Law supports QPR and our closest team is MK Dons. No idea which way it will go, as my sons first game is probably going to be me and the FiL taking him to an MK dons game.
 
My dad was a big Boro fan. He never pushed the Boro at me though and gave me the space to grow into my own decisions in life as well as footy, despite his bias. However, on my 11th birthday, a relative knew I liked football and bought me a pair of Leeds United sock numbers (no10) because a year earlier they remembered me watching Leeds beat Chelsea to win the cup final the year before.

My dad must have decided enough was enough though and these numbers got lost somehow 🤔 He took me up to Ayresome Park, to stand in the North East corner for my first ‘squeeze’ (Carlisle were the opposition), bought me a newboulds pie and a bovril and the rest was history. I have forever been grateful for that experience and ‘intervention’, but in all honesty I seem to remember being glad Arsenal pipped Leeds to the title in 1971, so the Leeds ’threat’ was always a non starter.
 
coluka said:
My dad was a big Boro fan. He never pushed the Boro at me though and gave me the space to grow into my own decisions in life as well as footy, despite his bias. However, on my 11th birthday, a relative knew I liked football and bought me a pair of Leeds United sock numbers (no10) because a year earlier they remembered me watching Leeds beat Chelsea to win the cup final the year before.

My dad must have decided enough was enough though and these numbers got lost somehow 🤔 He took me up to Ayresome Park, to stand in the North East corner for my first ‘squeeze’ (Carlisle were the opposition), bought me a newboulds pie and a bovril and the rest was history. I have forever been grateful for that experience and ‘intervention’, but in all honesty I seem to remember being glad Arsenal pipped Leeds to the title in 1971, so the Leeds ’threat’ was always a non starter.
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Nice story mate

I honestly can't remember my 1st home game, asked my dad many times & alll he would say it was the backend of 1971

My 1st FAC game & yours coluka was Man City on the 18th Jan 1972 but we'd been to a few Saturday games before that
 
Jostler said:
I was originally a Man Utd fan as a young child, but changed to supporting Boro around 9, my parents aren’t into football so I think it was a mix of the start of the Robson era and wider family.

I’m in a dilemma at the moment with my son. I support Boro, my Father in Law supports QPR and our closest team is MK Dons. No idea which way it will go, as my sons first game is probably going to be me and the FiL taking him to an MK dons game.
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At least you don't need to feel guilty about him not being an MK Dons fan. They are a parody club, a plastic tribute act to a football club.
 
My dad and mam were massive Boro fans. There was only one team we were going to support. Had a soft spot for Chelsea in the late 60s/70s but only as my second team. That went when the Boro beat them.

Remember when Leeds played Sunderland and me and my brother wanted Sunderland to win rather than Leeds. When they did Dad wouldn't speak to us.

Also when my son was younger he liked playing in goal and asked for a Peter Schmeichel goalies top. Told him you can have a Stephen Pears one or nothing. He was hooked from that point.
 
Erimus74 said:
Nice story mate

I honestly can't remember my 1st home game, asked my dad many times & alll he would say it was the backend of 1971

My 1st FAC game & yours coluka was Man City on the 18th Jan 1972 but we'd been to a few Saturday games before that
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I can’t be sure when it was unfortunately and keep flipping between games, but the more i think about it the more i tend to come down on it being 27 December 71, a 2-2 draw, Christmas would make sense, I can’t be certain though.
 
coluka said:
My dad was a big Boro fan. He never pushed the Boro at me though and gave me the space to grow into my own decisions in life as well as footy, despite his bias. However, on my 11th birthday, a relative knew I liked football and bought me a pair of Leeds United sock numbers (no10) because a year earlier they remembered me watching Leeds beat Chelsea to win the cup final the year before.

My dad must have decided enough was enough though and these numbers got lost somehow 🤔 He took me up to Ayresome Park, to stand in the North East corner for my first ‘squeeze’ (Carlisle were the opposition), bought me a newboulds pie and a bovril and the rest was history. I have forever been grateful for that experience and ‘intervention’, but in all honesty I seem to remember being glad Arsenal pipped Leeds to the title in 1971, so the Leeds ’threat’ was always a non starter.
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Coluka you might have been hoping that Leeds beat Chelsea but in reality Chelsea won. 2-2 at Wembley Chelsea won the replay 2-1. Dont remember Leeds beating Chelsea in a final. They did beat The Ar*e 1-0 in 68 League Cup Final. Maybe it was that one.
 
TeaCider said:
I'm a big believer in the idea that you should support your local league team, and I have no time for the Man U, Man City, Liverpool and Leeds fans around Teesside.

But at the same time, you could argue I'm only a Boro supporter because my mum and older brother are Boro supporters and I was brought up in to that, I obviously can't say for certain how things would have panned out if I'd been brought up in a glory supporting or a non-football family.
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Hopefully you would have stayed on the red brick road:)
 
I disagree with the OP to be honest. I think it should be more about your background. For example if I was to have a son they would live in between Brentford’s two grounds but I wouldn’t want them supporting them necessarily I’d want them to be Boro fans and the other half would probably want them to be gooners.
 
My alliegance to Boro is purely by luck.
My grandfather decided it was time for him to take his son who was 13
to a football match in 1946.Living in Bishop Auckland and having no ties to
any of the big three he looked in the Northern Echo that Saturday morning to see which of the three was at home that day.It was Boro and that was it.From that day my grandfather,dad,myself from 1966,my son have lived and breathed everything Boro.I often think how things would have turned out if either Newcastle or Sunderland had been at home that day.
 
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