November 2011

The poor hard suffering soul...

...As if the burden of one thankless relationship isn’t enough, he is saddled with another one that costs him more time and money than he ever thought possible.

But in essence, this is what being a football fan is all about isn’t it?

Meeting triumph with disaster and treating those two imposters just the same is what being a die-hard fan stands for, particularly of those clubs in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

You’ve hastily concocted your own conspiracy theory when your team didn’t get a first round bye and you chuntered all the way into the ground as you brace yourself for some good old Tuesday night misery.

You probably think you have a monopoly on the concept of ‘underachievement’ too, but would you really have it any other way?

Because when those good times do eventually arrive, they are blessed with an enriched sense of achievement that many ‘armchair fans’ will never, ever appreciate.

With all this in mind, have we just answered the original question that this blog has been born out of.

Namely: Is it possible to support more than one football team?

After listening to that poor chap on his radio rant-line, the answer is pretty obvious.

Or is it?

For many football supporters, their true allegiance is engrained into their genes and there’s absolutely nothing that they can do about it.

Some might be lucky, others might be wishing they could lop down their family tree in protest!

But after doing some digging of our own, it has become clear that supporting more than one club isn’t the oxymoron that we first thought.

Many fans appear to follow their local team and couple this allegiance with an affinity for a bigger club from the Premier League.

On our official twitter page, @MattyDavies96 professed his love for Liverpool, but admitted to following Tranmere Rovers.

Bryn Curran, otherwise known as @bryncurran, said he actually supported four teams (yes four!), those being Spurs, Watford, Brentford and Hibernian.

Others seemed to agree, suggesting that our initial argument may have appeared slightly short sighted.

After all, I personally grew up on the outskirts of Hereford and would often visit Edgar Street to see Chris Pike, Steve ‘Chalky’ White and co in action, despite not being a ‘real fan.’

It is for that reason that I still look out for their results today.

Maybe the term ‘support’ just carries its own unique gravitas for each football fan that contemplates it.

As far as we are concerned, if that supporter is being fulfilled by cheering on one side or two, then it doesn’t matter too much to us here at Johnstone’s Paints in the grand scheme of things.

The main thing is that they are giving football a go and appreciating ups and downs of it all in the process...

...A bit like the bloke who called that radio show!

Johnstone's. Bringing colour to the beautiful game.