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Post by ewelldon on Jul 9, 2008 19:32:48 GMT
What's the friendliest club you have been to? I was thinking the other day about how clubs treat travelling fans in different ways. Merstham would get my vote. I visited their ground during our 2nd season in the CCL (our first visit was met with the club making about 2,000 cheese sandwiches for the 1,500 odd fans who attended!) and the chairman spent the entire game walking round the pitch shaking everbodys hand and thanking them for coming. I returned last season with about 60 others to watch my son play in a youth semi-final and I went into the club house for a tea which they served in a china mug! I even got a free refill! ;D Now you dont get that every week.
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Post by ambersalamander on Jul 9, 2008 20:27:46 GMT
Us! We're nice to everyone! Ahem. Bishop's Stortford put on a free buffet for us last season, and their fans bought me beer too and let me haggle over the price of my programme. But the kings of friendliness to me are hard to choose out of the hundreds of away games I've been to! I want to pick Newport, but I've had some of the best AND the worst of my experiences as a travelling fan there. Oh sod it, I'll go for Newport. The nasty ones weren't proper fans. The proper fans always say hello, remember my name, buy me beers and recommend the nicest cottage pies in the world. I like them. Buying me beer is something of a theme here
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Post by Col ISIHAC. on Jul 10, 2008 14:15:40 GMT
I get all confuddled between the friendliness of the fans, the novelty of a new venue and the result when it comes to these things! A pre-season to Arundel sticks in the mind, but there are few die-hard Arundel fans, so it was probably more to do with the location and number of pubs in the place. A blissfull July evening in a ground, with the river Arun on one side, and that magnificent castle on the other. I absolutely adore St Georges Lane, Worcester, but that's probably more due to sentiment than the overall ambience - though it is most certainly worth considering as an overnighter - cracking place. Very friendly clubhouse - and of course Daza / Georgie is a top chap. Bognor is great; possibly spoilt a little by the wee chavs behind the goal at the clubhouse end (through both halves of the game) but the one place with real ale to drink on the terrace, thanks to the location of said clubhouse. I have to say that Eastleigh, despite the banter between the Spitfires and Hawks, is most hospitable; though ugly, lets face it The fans are a great bunch. If pressed, I would have to plump for Hucknall as being the friendliest place I have visited - OK; Frankie was there to welcome me, but everyone - fans, shop staff, club officials; the whole bally lot of them had a smile and a welcome; and the fans made a right racket - for 90 minutes! It is, to me, a prime example of a relatively small community with a genuine passion for its football club.
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Post by ewelldon on Jul 10, 2008 17:04:58 GMT
I'm hoping that one the 14 grounds I have yet to visit in the BSS will out do Merstham but they will have to go some! Ambersalamander, seeing as you favoured Newport and we visit them on the opening day of the season, I will give you my opinion after my trek across the border.
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Post by ambersalamander on Jul 10, 2008 20:46:37 GMT
Good stuff. Yes, the BSS is a VERY friendly league- I managed to make friends at nearly ALL the clubs in the league and by "friends" I mean people I don't just see/talk to at football Do exercise caution at Newport! There are two groups of fans that really stick out there- the lovelies and the tosspots (who tend to stand on the big terrace at the side of the pitch). Do ignore the tosspots. If you go up to random Newport fans and talk to them then they will probably be lovelies. The clubhouse is usually packed to the rafters with lovelies. The ones carrying soft toys are definitely lovelies; they may include Lisa, Jeff, Peter and a few other friends of mine.
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Post by coops on Jul 10, 2008 21:12:04 GMT
The friendliest fans I have ever encountered were those of Golspie Stafford. They are a (very) small team up in The Highlands halfway between Inverness and the very north of nowhere!
I e-mailed them before one of my trips up north in May to find out kick off times and a venue for their Highland Amateur Cup match against the wonderfully named Wick Groats, not only did their secretary arrange for me to be picked up in Inverness by one of the players who was driving up after his days work, but I didn't buy a drink all night and when I booked out of my B&B in Golspie the next morning I found it had been paid for.
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davetscfc
Steaming Bovril
......and it's Salisbury City......
Posts: 457
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Post by davetscfc on Jul 10, 2008 21:16:30 GMT
Sadly friendliness is pretty much out of the window in the Blue Square Premier, for practical reasons as much as anything. Segregation, and our small bar often being home fans only meant we made contact with very few fans last season. It's the level where the personal touch just goes.
Probably not surprising that just about the most friendly clubs we came across were the smallest two, Droylsden and Farsley Celtic. Droylsden probably take the prize - great reception in the local pub and good North/South banter in their bar. And at the return game at ours, chairman/manager Dave Pace joining in with good grace despite their then hopless position in the league.
Two of the friendliest places we went were on midweek trips to watch our reserves, Godalming (best food ever bar none) and Sandhurst.
Booby prize - Rushden & Diamonds, attitude just stank. Treated like cattle who weren't worthy of breathing the air in their grand stadium.
Defintely found the Conference South a great league to be in (have a feeling we'll be back there again a year from now). Some great days out, good pubs, good banter, plus a decent level of football.
Have to be boring and say that there's been none friendlier than Sutton. Maybe a lot to do with the fact that a few of us quickly discovered we shared similar drinking habits.
Bognor were great and a few of them turned up to sing with us when we played at Lewes on a friday night. One of the last places I've been able to drink on the terraces.
Have to agree with ISIHAC about Eastliegh. The common view (and quite correct sadly) of Eastleigh/Salisbury is of rival gangs of Danny Dyer wannabe's playing chase around railway stations and arranging fights on the internet (we even had the police called to an FA Youth Cup game). However the other side of that is fans from both sides meeting up and getting pissed together having a pre match drink together. Their chairman is a top bloke, always having time for a chat (even after we've beaten them 1-0 yet again) and I'm sure they're looking forward to playing us again so they can have their clubhouse karaoke livened up.
Finally I've never found much friendliness in Essex or Kent I must say.
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davetscfc
Steaming Bovril
......and it's Salisbury City......
Posts: 457
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Post by davetscfc on Jul 10, 2008 21:23:15 GMT
Good stuff. Yes, the BSS is a VERY friendly league- I managed to make friends at nearly ALL the clubs in the league and by "friends" I mean people I don't just see/talk to at football Do exercise caution at Newport! There are two groups of fans that really stick out there- the lovelies and the tosspots (who tend to stand on the big terrace at the side of the pitch). Do ignore the tosspots. If you go up to random Newport fans and talk to them then they will probably be lovelies. The clubhouse is usually packed to the rafters with lovelies. The ones carrying soft toys are definitely lovelies; they may include Lisa, Jeff, Peter and a few other friends of mine. Apart from a handful (who oddly enough we first came across at a Sutton/Newport game we'd gatecrashed after we'd been called off on route somewhere) who we always bump into for a chat, we only seem to meet the tosspots. Was pretty intimidating last time we were down there the season before last. Nutter at the front with back to pitch singlehandly eyeballing everyone, being called English scum by little kids with their dads, that sort of thing. There was no way we were getting in their clubhouse that day!
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Post by Meadow on Jul 10, 2008 21:23:17 GMT
Well you should get a decent welcome at Kingsmeadow, at least off the pitch. A fair few of us make a point of saying hello. Once in the ground, the insults fly. Nowt personal.
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Post by loudefc on Jul 11, 2008 9:09:35 GMT
Havant and Salisbury bloody hell. Will have to say i echo both.Have had some great laughs with both sets of supporters in the past. Sutton Quality. A good mention for Newport also who couldn't do enough for us last time we went there. Mostly found all teams have a good bunch of supporters. A few idiots.But they are the best ones.Being one meself
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Post by ambersalamander on Jul 14, 2008 20:17:07 GMT
chairman/manager Dave Pace joining in with good grace despite their then hopless position WHAT!? No beer?! (sorry, just filling in for Malx )
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davetscfc
Steaming Bovril
......and it's Salisbury City......
Posts: 457
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Post by davetscfc on Jul 15, 2008 8:12:17 GMT
chairman/manager Dave Pace joining in with good grace despite their then hopless position WHAT!? No beer?! (sorry, just filling in for Malx ) Boom boom. Must have had hops on the mind. Though a hopless situation is indeed hopeless.
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Post by ojiveojive on Jul 16, 2008 14:01:44 GMT
Soham Rangers, they also serve the best hot chocolate in the world.
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Post by ambersalamander on Jul 16, 2008 21:16:14 GMT
The best hot chocolate in the world is served at a nice cafe in Weston-super-Mare after a ridiculously early morning journey!
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Post by Meadow on Jul 16, 2008 21:34:27 GMT
The best hot chocolate in the world is served at a nice cafe in Weston-super-Mare after a ridiculously early morning journey! Oooh, whereabouts? I'm in Weston regularly 'coz my parents live there.
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