1 November 1975 - 21 October 2013

[26 January 2013 - Where once we watched the King Keryn play]

Scoreboard Paddock

“We’ve got too many out of town supporters… it isn’t helping generate the kind of support that the club needs…”.

“If you go to any stadium around England… the atmosphere is not there within British football any more.”

“There’s a myth about certain clubs.  The media will build up the atmosphere at St James Park or they’ll build up the atmosphere at Anfield but if you actually go to those places, apart from the big games, there’s no atmosphere there at all.”

"It's heart that will get you through..."

"Being a jaded, glory-hunting Chelsea fan, I'm used to an uneasy dichotomy of crews of agitated looking guys in quilted jackets doing bumps of nasty gak off their season tickets, and guys in salmon pink trousers talking about the Mata issue over a Nastro Azzurro.

...

That despite "The Emirates Experience" or whatever obscure methods of branding and persuasion the clubs are employing to get you to spend £12 on a Tuborg and a Pukka, most football stadiums actually are like this: transitory settlements of corrugated iron, portaloos and boxed-in coaches.

...

But non-league fans aren't in it for the same reasons that most other football fans are. They're in it because they want to feel part of something. Big business football can be utterly alienating, and who wouldn't rather tour with Black Flag in a bus with no floor than with U2 in a private jet with no soul?"

Read more here:- Vice: Searching for English Football's Soul with Non-League Fanatics

The true spirit of Mancunian rebellion and defiance

- "I just thought, I should be here.  This is where I'm meant to be now."

- "I just thought, this is everything I believe in.  What the f*ck am I doing not involved in this."

- "We're Post Modern Football."

- "It's about community not just about the football."

Mes que un club (More than a club)

“Football fans are not customers, despite what the press and some club’s owners seem to think. The majority do not watch football because their teams win. It’s not about the winning – it’s about your upbringing. Your football club says something about you.

...

FC United is about saying to those who run the game it is not about winning it is about being united as fans. It’s also about improving the community in which you are located which is something we will continue to do.” - Andy Walsh, CEO FCUM

Read more about FCUM's community work here:- Football club proves it's a winner on and off the pitch

From our Scottish correspondent (again)

"They provided an important insight into a world when footballers were still at one with those who watched them play, a time when England captain Billy Wright travelled to Molineux on the bus and Tom Finney might be fixing your broken tap in the morning before you paid to watch him tormenting full-backs in the afternoon.

...

The mutual respect between player and fan was evident in these small gestures and is something that must be retained within the game, rather than slavish and detached adoration."

Read more here:- In praise of older supporters, who carry with them stories of football's past

Tra la la la la la la la Borussia!