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Have we ever introduced ourselves?

Started by Airfix, November 05, 2010, 04:32:54 PM

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CorkCity

My name is Martin, I was born 1963 in Holyport Rd, Fulham, about 100yds from The Crabtree for those that know the area. All of my immediate family support fulham, most of my extended family as well, apart from the odd Chelsea fan. My first game was during the 1967 season, I suppose my dad thought I was old enough at the age of 4 to appreciate Fulham FC.
I moved to Tourquay at the age of 17, then back to Hounslow (poo hole), then to Bedfont (another poo hole) and just after the 1990 world cup I moved to Cork City in Ireland where I have been ever since. Both myself and my son are season ticket holders and try to get to as many games as possible, I love the club, love the area, and hope to move back in the future, my wife has also got the Fulham bug, so it will be three season tickets next year !
I have met a few from this MB, and a nicer bunch you could not ask for.
"don't dwell on reality ,it will only keep you from greatness"

Burt

Hello.

Real name is Marc.

Place of birth was Putney, where I lived for my first 18 years.

Reason for supporting Fulham was because my second eldest brother was an addict, and after persistent nagging he took me to my first match (v. Blackburn) in 1974 and I have been hooked ever since. One of these days I may try and calculate how much I have invested in my love affair!

Went to school at the London Oratory, where most of my mates supported the other team in Fulham, so (please forgive me, fellow FOFers) for a period I was watching both sides. To this day I hate other clubs much more than our neighbours...

The only real gap in following the whites was when I went to Uni in Nottingham in the late 80s, where I went to see the occasional Notts Forest or Notts County match instead.

It runs in the family now too. I took my son to his first game when we played at Loftarse Rd (v. Cheltenham in the FA Cup, 1-0) and he has been accompanying me ever since. He is also passionate about the whites, despite all his mates at Hinchley Wood school supporting one of the so-called big 4. He doesn't give a stuff about peer pressure! I tried it with my daughter (her first match was v. Stoke in the FA Cup, 3-0) but she didn't get the bug.

My eldest brother supports Arsenal, my third eldest brother Munich 1836 or whatever they are called (he lived in Germany for 6 years), and my sister (along with her hubbie) Spurs. My dad was West Brom (to this day I am not sure why). My inlaws are all brummies, mainly on the blue side, but one of my brother in laws is Villa.

Outside of Fulham and work (which takes up far too much of my time) my hobbies are playing football (once a week), playing tennis (once a week), the Kewsick Kurry Klub (founder-member), and loafing about as much as possible.

TheDaddy

Well my name is Ian born in reading in 1967 was placed into care as soon as i was born Apparently i was one to many in the household.However found out later in life that Mum played away whilst married and i was the out come.As luck would have it i was adopted at 18 months by two Fulham locals , mum in Munster rd ,Dad in Mablethorpe rd childhood sweethearts.Dad took me to my first game in the early seventies cant remember a thing only being carried down to the front and nearly losing my head by a wayward shot.Remember fondly the party atmosphere around Fulham during the 75 cup final..At the age of ten i went regular to Fulham.Have been going ever since during the time i got married to a local lass had three boys who all have season tickets so haven't done to bad on that front.One day they will hopefully tell there story on why they are Fulham fans will be interesting to see which one tale will be told.Unlike some of you i've now moved too Battersea with my new partner Jo who is a stokey but has been to Fulham so their is hope, also im the proud Dad to Baby Grace who will follow her brothers to Fulham.
"Well blow me if it wasnt the badger who did it "


RidgeRider

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on November 05, 2010, 09:41:02 PM
Quote from: RidgeRider on November 05, 2010, 09:25:14 PM
I'm a married with two young kids, 5th generation Californian who rides and races his bike a lot and uses butt butter liberally. Besides my own sporting activities, as a supporter, Fulham is it for me. I was a little distracted with my childhood team the San Francisco Giants the last 6 weeks, but always with an eye on the Cottagers. My Fulham commitment includes occassional 4AM wake-ups to catch matches but usually it kicks off at 7AM every Saturday or Sunday....... and the intrigue of the Prem, Fulham, and it's community has me addicted. The Cottage is in my near future.  :dft010: :drums:
Read WhiteNoises thread about Villa fans view on Fulham away to wet the appetiate a bit, it is trully a great place to be, i'd just been to Arsenal a few weeks before my first game at Fulham in 78/79?? but although the Arse were obviously a much better team, i just feel in love with Fulham, i think the next season i started to go regular (and we got bloody relegated) , begging my nan and Grandad to take me, this will amuse you , we used to sit in the Riverside and my nan used to put a blanket over my legs incase i got cold in the winter, and we always had a flask of coffee and sandwiches, i was proper mollycoddled.

Thanks Fred. I read those links and it just makes coming to London that much more desirable. My sister is your neighbor now, so I have a place to stay. Frankly, going to a Fulham game is at the top of the list even if I don't see anything else in London. Your experiences as a kid sounds wonderful. Must have been bigger than life to hang out there on a Saturday afternoon watching those larger than life characters at work on the pitch. I have similar memories watching the Giants when I was a small kid.

Jimpav

My names Jim but some people call me Pav - hence Jimpav.

I was born in Kent, 30 years ago,1980.

My Dad has never been that fanatical about football and my two brothers  supported Everton so being a bit of a black sheep the obvious decison was to support Liverpool (apologies Finn). By support I essentially mean ripping up any Everton posters that my younger brother had drawn (Sorry Bill) and running around on cold Saturday mornings in a Liverpool kit with twenty other kids trying to get a touch on the ball.

I outgrew the aformentioned kit and Liverpol by the age of 9-10, realised that I was crap at playing the game (I kept the bench warm for the cub team) and got quite bored watching it. In hindsight I expect that Sanzchez played a part in this, amazing how much one man can hurt you in a lifetime.

When I was about 12 my brother went to a football match with my sports mad Gran to see a lower division side and got a tour around the ground and met Jimmy Hill. Not being remotely interested in football I hadn't been invited along.

I asked my Mum about this a few years later about the Jimmy Hill incident and she casually mentioned that one of her great uncles used to manage a football team and that my Gran used to go along as a little girl. It turned out that said team was Fulham and that my Grans Uncle (Jack Peart) used to manage the side (amongst others I later discovered).

So that was the day I found Fulham. Nothing changed dramatically but from then onwards if someone asked me what team I supported I said Fulham. Supported was stretching it as my contribution went no further than reading snippets about this strange little divison 3 side that I could pick up from the newspapers. I  had never met anyone that supported Fulham but there was a football mad bloke at school who once taped a match for me when we were on Sky. This was the first time I saw us in action and my first glimpse of the cottage - this was about 95-96 - we lost.

The following season Micky Adams secured us promotion - there was a picture of him in the paper celebrating so I cut this out and stuck it on my bedrom wall - this was dizzy heights in terms of press coverage! Little did I know what was going to happen when Al Fayed came on board and subsequently Keegan our coverage increased massively - I got more and more interested but still didn't know any other Fulham fans.

Fast forward through university and a lot of travelling to early 2003  and my brother (still an Everton supporter) excitedly told me that he had found another Fulham supporter (a mate from his football team) and that he was going to see them play Everton in the cup if I wanted to come along with them. I jumped at the chance and made a pilgramage on a dark, damp, February night to Loftus road. It was a grotty place but the game was exciting and the atmosphere was electric .My abiding memory was this guy reaching across to hug me when we scored and with my poor brother stuck in the middle watching his team lose - happy days!

The next match I went to was 18 months later at the cottage in April 2005. I had signed up for membership and brought my brother a ticket for his birthday.  We met his mate again who took us to the Lion for a few pints and a barbeque in the back garden of the Lion. It was a beautiful spring day with blossom falling from the trees and warm sunshine, this was followed by a convincing win over Everton. I was hooked. I went back a couple of weeks later to see us lose to Newcastle and then later on that year saw us lose to West Brom in the Carling Cup.

That October I bought two tickets to Liverpool, intending to take my best mate (a Liverpool fan to the match). We won the match 2-0 and as an added bonus came out of with another fan. I now had someone to attend matches with so started going monthly.

Five years, two relegation battles and a European final later we're both season ticket holders and have followed Fulham home, away and in Europe. I have introduced loads of friends, family and work mates to the cottage and the Fulham experience. Not all of them have become fans but I'm yet to find one that has not been wowed by the magic that is the Cottage.   

My Gran is still football mad and I try and call before or after every game. I would love to take her back to the cottage but she would struggle with the steps, cold and distance. There are still family jokes about her having a crush on Jimmy Hill but personally I'm worried that Corked Hat may have been a childhood sweetheart of hers. I've not been able to find out too much about Jack Peart but my parents go and visit his daughter in law a few times a year in Epsom. Her Husband, also Jack, was a sports journalist.

As for me I'm just pleased to be Fulham.

COYW 


LRCN

err, the names lorcan, 19 doing maths at leeds uni grew up in west london, supported fulham since i was 8ish but was never a footy nut until coleman got sacked and since then i've been a fanatic

Quote from: The Rock on November 06, 2010, 01:32:55 AM
Quote from: FatFreddysCat on November 06, 2010, 01:20:38 AM
Quote from: The Rock on November 06, 2010, 01:04:14 AM
This is the Rock. I am from Chicago, live in NY. I was not influenced by any club as a kid, and became enamored with Fulham as my friends lived in London and Brian McBride is from my hometown. I was in London often, but then I started coming just for the matches. Then I kept coming. Then, I had to live through 2 seasons of almost watching the club I support almost get relegated. I cried like a baby when we stayed up. Having endured that it was pretty clear I was Fulham for life. So now I can't get to many matches as I just had a kid. His name is "Robert Andrew". Perhaps you can guess where the name comes from.
Still gutted i've not got to meet you Rocky, but then again your ability in the prediction league winds me up. Can you start being crap please? :028:

Yeah I'll post and PM you when I'm over next and we'll sink a pint or 6. Lork I think is a better tipper than I - he's first in the league and has been quite solid for the few years we've been doing this.

fred won't accept my ability in tipping ever since that 'controversial' tipping incident. there was nothing wrong with it ofc but freddy just won't let it lie.


Aldo

Hi my name's Stephen and I'm a Pisces!

Grew up in Tolworth, but now live in Sutton. Went to my first Fulham game in 1976 aged 8 with a friend of the family, who I saw at the game today for the first time in a while. Can't remember the opposition or the score, but my second game was the famous 4-1 win against Hereford with Moore/Marsh/Best.

Been going regularly since then and even managed to get my daughter to come to games (she was also 8 when she first visited The Cottage). Although the novelty wore off and I haven't renewed her season ticket this year, at least she can now shout down all the Chelsea fans at her school who never have, or are ever likely to see a Chelsea game! If nothing else, she will always be a Fulham supporter, just like her Dad!



LRCN

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on November 06, 2010, 07:32:47 PM
Quote from: Lork on November 06, 2010, 06:11:15 PM
err, the names lorcan, 19 doing maths at leeds uni grew up in west london, supported fulham since i was 8ish but was never a footy nut until coleman got sacked and since then i've been a fanatic

Quote from: The Rock on November 06, 2010, 01:32:55 AM
Quote from: FatFreddysCat on November 06, 2010, 01:20:38 AM
Quote from: The Rock on November 06, 2010, 01:04:14 AM
This is the Rock. I am from Chicago, live in NY. I was not influenced by any club as a kid, and became enamored with Fulham as my friends lived in London and Brian McBride is from my hometown. I was in London often, but then I started coming just for the matches. Then I kept coming. Then, I had to live through 2 seasons of almost watching the club I support almost get relegated. I cried like a baby when we stayed up. Having endured that it was pretty clear I was Fulham for life. So now I can't get to many matches as I just had a kid. His name is "Robert Andrew". Perhaps you can guess where the name comes from.
Still gutted i've not got to meet you Rocky, but then again your ability in the prediction league winds me up. Can you start being crap please? :028:

Yeah I'll post and PM you when I'm over next and we'll sink a pint or 6. Lork I think is a better tipper than I - he's first in the league and has been quite solid for the few years we've been doing this.

fred won't accept my ability in tipping ever since that 'controversial' tipping incident. there was nothing wrong with it ofc but freddy just won't let it lie.
Ask Logicalman i was only winding you up, but when you started crying about it , i thought i'd make out i was taking it seriously.But all that leaving the midweek scores untill after todays game is hardly in the spirit of the competion, i'm right up there, dont look at team news, already done the 2nd part of this weeks scores. And damn, my relatives stopped me changing my Blackpool v WBA score  :012:

err, i didn't take it seriously either... tongue was firmly in cheek.

finnster01

Quote from: Lork on November 06, 2010, 06:11:15 PM
err, the names lorcan, 19 doing maths at leeds...
Mr Lork,

I thought they stopped doing maths at leeds in 2001 (or perhaps that was accounting...)  :011:

If you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, you are most likely dead


LRCN

Quote from: finnster01 on November 06, 2010, 09:05:37 PM
Quote from: Lork on November 06, 2010, 06:11:15 PM
err, the names lorcan, 19 doing maths at leeds...
Mr Lork,

I thought they stopped doing maths at leeds in 2001 (or perhaps that was accounting...)  :011:



haha, if only they had me on board eh?  :54:

sipwell

It is time for me to unveil some fun facts about my existence. My real name is Pieterjan, which for most of you would mean nothing unless I said it means "Peter John" in English. My maternal language is Dutch, but as all Flemings I speak English, French (not that much though) and I understand German.

I was born in the coastal province of Belgium in 1980, which makes me 30 years old. I am currently living in Brussels, but that for sure is not our final destination. We'll be living in other parts of the world for sure.
I work in academia (that is: until my contract ends) preparing a PhD in Political Science and giving a number of classes to undergraduates (both at BA and at MA level). My field of research is the "European Union", the institution that is not much loved but equally not much understood. Especially the Brits seem to misinterpret plenty of things about it, but here is not the place to lecture anyone ;-)
I have a girlfriend, who is a Fulham fan in her own right, who is an animation movie maker, independent artist and who has recently started her own business making customer based pieces of art (basically she draws, in discussion with the customer, what he/she wants). 

I became a Fulham because of Airfix's endless talks about the Whites: even when I did not care (shame on me) he would inform me what the score was, who performed well/bad and how sad/happy he was. The 2007-2008 season wasn't the best for the Whites and in the final months (when they secured their place in Premiership miraculously) he spoke even more about Fulham than normal. As a result, he got me – and some other people – hooked to Fulham. (even though Fulham is an "acquired taste").
Airfix and myself met through an online football game (www.powersoccer.com) in which we both had/have a management role. I head the team that heads some 50 forum admins, after basically building that from scratch, whereas Airfix wastes everybody's time with statistics of a useless nature. Befriending Airfix wasn't too hard, as he - or "she" as he is known in the game - has an excellent taste in humour (I am funny, he likes funny people) and is overall a nice, trustworthy and intelligent chap. We don't discuss politics, so that helps too.

Fulham is the first team that I really follow in a detailed manner. It is equally the first team of which I have a shirt! Airfix brought it with him when I took "his" bus to the game in Hamburg. My dedication to Fulham cannot be proven better than with this anecdote: I actually had a 38,5 ° fever and was later diagnosed with the "kissing disease", which wears you out for a lengthy period. Despite that minor issue, I went to see the game (and as the boys told me later on) became a true Fulham fan seeing them lose.

I am following a Belgian team too, which is Union Saint Gilloise, a former bigshot but now a Division III team. It is in my view the only "Belgian" team left in Brussels, in the sense that people speak French, Dutch and Bruxellois (a patois of Dutch and French) without thinking about language divisions and the separation of the country. You can start a sentence in French, change to Dutch halfway and end with the typically Brussels "menneke". They are under-achievers but the few times I have the chance to see one of their games (I have too much work), it is always great fun!

That's about it. COYW.
No forum is complete without a silly Belgian participating!

Jimpav

#31
I hold no responsibility to the outcome of drink/arm wrestling related injuries or indeed the score line Lork. However if we win I will let you buy me a pint on your next trip South.


cebu

Hi, my real name is Don, but living in Cebu (by the way it's pronounced "say boo") and deferring to  others who used Don long before I joined here, I decided on cebu as my FoF name.

I was born in Paddington in 1947, but we moved a few weeks later to Colehill Lane, Fulham where I grew up. It was my older brother who dragged me to my first Fulham game, but I never needed to be persuaded after the first time, having become instantly addicted to the whites.

I left the UK in 1972, so keeping track of FFC was very much from afar. The advent of fast internet connections has changed all that, though of course it's not the same as actually attending matches.

Sometimes people pose the question, "What team would you support, if FFC ceased to exist"? The only possible answer for me would be "None".

Scrumpy

Hello, my name is Dave and I'm a Fulham addict. I live on the Berks/Hants border, but work in Swindon (hence the avatar because of the 'West Country' connections - plus I quite like the stuff). I am middle aged, with a lovely wife but no kids. So I should have plenty of time and money to watch The Whites but it doesn't seem to work out like that! I have a habit of posting late in the evening after a few sherberts, so would like to apologise for some of those posts. :wine:

Born in Claygate, I was first taken to The Cottage by a school mate in 1981, which was the season that Super Mac took us up from Div 3. None of my family were football fans, but I was the youngest and a bit of a rebel. I was 15 and we had quite a few of us that used to go up together, acting like hoolies and just having a laugh. I enjoyed the buzz as much as anything, and we used to get in a few scraps (Gillingham and Wimbledon spring to mind). After that great first season and an even better next season, I was well and truly hooked. I managed to rope in an older mate with a car and we used to make it to most matches home and away. After that, the football slowly got worse and worse. My mates drifted away (although one of them still goes fairly regularly) but I just kept turning up. Every season we seemed to get worse, every match was the 'last one at Craven Cottage', and every Manager had less and less money to spend. But Fulham was part of my life by then, and the ever dwindling faces around me on the terraces were 'family'. A knowing nod, or a brief chat was all it took to renew faith and determination to stick with the Club until the end. There were many people who gave their time, their pennies and their voices to try and get The Club through those difficult  times and they all deserve huge credit. I think we all knew that it would take a minor miracle, and that duly arrived in the shap of Big Mo. The rest is now history.

The spotty teenager is now all grown up, and the wife is as mad about Fulham as I am. We've introduced several nieces and nephews, and all the family know where we'll be on a Saturday afternoon. I am almost embarrassed by how much this Club means to me - I really am old enough to know better! But as I walk up those steps at the back of the Hammersmith End, and see the pitch stretch out in front of me, luminous under the floodlights, the fans at the back chanting and clapping........well it still gives me that little tingle at the back of the neck and I realise that I could never give up this crazy drug called Fulham Football Club. Est. 1879.
English by birth, Fulham by the grace of God.

Rambling_Syd_Rumpo

Hello
My name is Simon and I have a Fulham problem,actually,it's not a problem at all,it's the only thing keeping me sane(ish) to be honest.
And my mates use my middle name of Stan because Simon isn't northern enough.
Born in 1970 in a post industrial town up north called St Helens,the 1980's killed it stone dead so I left in 1990 and I only go back now to vist my mum and watch the rugby league.I've worked on the Cruise ships and went round the world,worked in North Wales,Worcester and 7 years in the Isle of Man before moving to Reading to work for the BBC. No rugby league in Reading so what to do?
I got recommended to Fulham by a chelsea fan,maybe as a joke,but still I gave it a go and....................................................I became an addict,thats the only word for it.
I love the people,the respect for the game,the love of the honesty of it all,the lunacy,the lack of glory hunters,the fact we have this wonderful old ground that doesn't exsist anywhere else anymore,the fact that we can't beat Hull but we gave Juventus a football lesson, a result I will take to the grave.
Fulham fc,the fans,this site all help me get through the week of mind numbing boredom that I call work,the shinning becon of hope that lights up the weekend.I can give up everything in my life I have except 3 things-beer,sausages,and Fulham football club :59:


Rambling_Syd_Rumpo

#35
I suppose that makes me OddJob then Mr Fat Fred (or GoldFred as we will now have to call you),which is funny because thats what I look like(sort of) LOL  :005: :005:

Senior Supporter

Hello,

My name is John (like about 20% of all males born in the mid-thirties that I have met).

I honestly can't remember my first Fulham match but I started going with friends at about the age of 13, so around 1948, and I was therefore lucky enough to see all those legends - Haynes, Langley, Macedo, Robson, Leggat, Mullery, Jezzard, Moore, Clarke, Cohen - Hill!. I was born and bred just the Barnes side of Hammersmith Bridge, and we would walk to the Cottage past the wharves and warehouses that have long since given way to expensive homes for city types. When Fulham were playing away we would, like many, either watch Chelsea or treat ourselves to seats in THE stand to watch the reserves.

I moved down to the south coast near Bournemouth in 1962 when I married, and work and family commitments meant that I only saw a handful of matches between then and the beginning of the Al Fayed era. I always followed the club's progress (if that's an appropriate word) but the media coverage was sparse in the lean years. The coming of MAF and the internet era raised the profile of FFC and my enthuisiasm was rekindled. I started posting on the old official board and then TIF in 2000, the year in which I became a Senior Citizen (hence the handle Senior Supporter, now shortened to SS). I have managed to bring up my two sons to be Fulham supporters, and my first match for some years was a birthday  present from them when the took me to a match at Loftus Road, and some match that was! Half time, buying the pies, Fulham 0 Spurs 2 and thinking this was not the way fairy stories should be. Then full time Fulham 3 Spurs 2, and a fitting outcome for a prodigal son.

I still live on the south coast but get up to the Cottage when I can. For a couple of seasons I had one of the ten match season tickets (what a shame they stopped doing those) and now I get up when I can. My next visit is for the Birmingham match, so I'm hoping for a fitting result.

ScalleysDad

My name is Galvin and I am about to hit the big five zero. I put Local Government Officer on my passport but in reality I have the best job at Exeter City Council as the Parks and Playing Fields guru. I've been in the business as it were for nearly twenty three years, married for twenty five years last month and the eldest will be twenty one after Christmas. Is it any wonder the crossroads look like quicksand. I have added an old 1972 Landrover to my mid life crisis list which makes my weekends pretty well sorted. Fulham wherever and whenever possible and spanners, grease and bewilderment on Sundays. I have been a black and white for well over thirty years and that seems to have flown by. My grandparents used to live on Norwood Hill and on regular visits I would return home to Redhill via Crystal Palace, the Peter Taylor era, Chelski during the punk rising on the Kings Road and Fulham to kill some time. My Dad was a tailor near Oxford Street and the Chelsea boys like Bonneti, Osgood and Hutchinson were regulars and latterly Kerry Dixon and others went along as well so I got tickets, photo's and all that sort of stuff but the simplicity of the Cottage and the underdog at Wembley finally nailed it for me. I rode the rollercoaster and put the miles in until I got elbowed in the face on the tube one morning on the way to work, had a paddy and headed west. Too much detail to fill in the gaps but one day I was married, we had Elliot and Caitlin, (Scalley), a dog, a mortgage, I wore a shirt and tie to work and had completed a degree in my late twenties la de dah. We were always very sporty and the kids did the whole junior football thing from whence came an interest in coaching. I did both my C and B Licences back in the late nineties and I have been very fortunate to work on some great projects, a Centre of Excellence programme where I met and hopefully befriended Tony Gales dad, County Games and loads of school initiatives. Elliot did as much as he needed to and was a very good keeper but at 15 he got into music, festivals and his own band prior to swanning off to Norwich UEA to study Politics. He'll watch cricket and shows a polite interest in Fulham but his one game though, the Saha debut at Tiverton, is best remembered for him wanting to come home after twenty minutes. Caitlin took to sport and played county, district and regional level football, rugby and baseball. Vying for top spot in my welling up list with the Juventus finale is her walking out at Bath in an England top. She went to Gloucs Uni a couple of years ago to study Sport related stuff and will make a very good coach/teacher one day ...... cocky so and so.  She has earn't her shirt as it were and has three flags up in her room. The Devon cross, the cross of St George and my Hamburg one. She is the one who started "We're winning away" at Birmingham a couple of years ago which caused a mini riot in the Zulu quarter and "Who are ya" directly at David Trezeguet much to the amusment of the Italians sat around us. She was the mascot for the Exeter friendly when the new kit that was'nt even colour fast was unveiled. Great day for me as I got to meet and greet the team coach and introduce the team to the joys of grass roots. It was'nt intentional though. A couple of minutes earlier the gate literally broke when we openned it on hearing the coach at the top end of the ground. Coleman might have wondered why I barely moved and leant forward to shake hands with everyone but one foot was holding a corrugated fence back and my left hand was pushing back on the wandering post. A great day.
My wife, Denise, tolerates the Fulham affair but appreciates that being a Fulham fan has an aura about it. The kids I have coached down the years have laughed at me, aplauded me, scoffed and asked questions about my sanity but have all remembered me for hailing the likes of The Horse, Morgs, Tony Gale, Saha, McBride and latterly BZ and emphasisng the other attributes they all had .... professionalism, sportsmanship, skill not manhood size. Many people we see now and again or indeed had'nt seen for a while, when the kids leave home a whole new social circle develops, remember me as the Fulham bloke or envied the Europa experience. I usually come up on the Waterloo line which is a lazy three hour chug through our green and pleasant land. In the past I have dragged up exiled Wolves, Reading, Gooner, Spam, Charlton and Liverpool fans who have had a good day out and thats our aura. To play Fulham and to play at Fulham is as unpredicatble as my mother in laws trifles.
I have a whole list of wants and needs for the five zero, bit like a bucket list really. Perhaps thats another thread for when there is little going on pitch side.


NogoodBoyo

I wrote this for the old messageboard on Feb 23, 2006.

"How did we become Fulham supporters?

Against my better instincts, I find myself being sucked inexorably into this messageboard.  I chuckle at some of the ribald humour.  I admire some articulate posts; I fail to comprehend others.  And I have no idea why I'm always being told to think on.  But I try.
Sometimes I wonder how we all found ourselves under the same roof, so to speak.  So, at the risk of setting myself up for a severe bollocking from some of the less welcoming members of the community, I thought I would bore you to death with the story of how I came to love Fulham.
In 1976, I moved into a leafy West London lane called Doneraile Street.  One Saturday afternoon, I found four large men picking up my Mini and dropping it 1" short of the car in front in order to park their Ford Zephyr in the new space they had created.  A little later I could hear lots of ooohs, aaahs, polite clapping followed by sharp bursts of frenzied cheering.  Without knowing it, I had taken a bedsit within spitting distance – well, a prodigious gob - of Craven Cottage. 
I had no interest in football, but I decided to investigate the next home game.  Somehow, I chose the Stevenage Road Stand and stood right by the half way line in front of a very tall, acerbic man with a beard, the loudest voice in Christendom and a viciously malevolent sense of humour (where's Osama?).
On the pitch were Bobby Moore, George Best, Rodney Marsh and a few other waifs and strays of lower league standard from the old Division 1.  I was immediately hooked, lined and sinkered.  I went to every game I could just to see the useless Marsh trip over his own toes.  Fat, drunk and wasted, Best was still as fine a footballer as you could ever wish to see – watching him show the ball to Ray Lewington (Chelsea) and making him fall over in utter confusion just through mysterious hip and foot movements without even touching the ball was priceless. 
Moore was even better.  He made the art of defending and passing the ball from the back look so easy.  He was slow, but opponents rarely got past him.  Moore was years ahead of his time. 
There followed many years of happy times at the Cottage.  I eventually tired of the bloke with the loud voice and the other negative fans in the Stevenage Road stand.  I found their close-up assassinations of our team's players too debilitating for my taste, so I emigrated to the Hammersmith stand where there was space enough to wander at will.
I moved to New York sixteen years ago (Ed. now twenty), but the internet age drew me back to the club in time for the Al Fayed era, although my support has only been from a distance.
So, why am I writing such drivel to people whom I have never met?  What are we all doing wasting time in a glorified teenage online chat-room?  In my case, I don't really know, but I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the people who support Fulham don't do it because they want an easy life.  They obviously don't follow the crowd.  They haven't taken the easy route of supporting a big winning team.  I don't particularly understand this "Fulhamish" thing, but following Fulham is definitely for stalwart individuals who like to stand up for the underdog with style, self-deprecating humour and unabashed loyalty. 
This shines through on the messageboard.  It's a great, egalitarian slice of life – a credit to London, to the club and to its participants.
That's my reason and my excuse – and I'm sticking to it.
SENT @ 10.30am 2/23/06

Not a lot has changed, other than the fact that I've forgotten how to post on the old messageboard, my name is still Joe and I got into the parallel world of the music industry by living the words of the song "I fought the law and the law won."
Back to the present, I train black and white dogs how to herd sheep and chase birds - I earn a crust from living the life of a professional wild goose chaser.  Oh yes,  I still live far from the green and pleasant land some sixty miles north of New York City.
To add a schizophrenic element to the confessional, I was born and raised in Wales to a Welsh father and an English mother who died when I was two.  As a result, my English grandmother exported me to English boarding school two weeks after my seventh birthday to rub out any vestiges of Welshness.  I've never looked back since, but I still speak Welsh to three of our dogs that I brought over from the hills of my home country.
I'm wed to a girl from New Malden (29 years now).  We have two grown, left-leaning children who live and work in New York City. 

Nogood "Duw duw, there's peculiar you are then, isit" Boyo

The Equalizer

Int - (the sound of fingernails screeching down a blackboard) camera pans to reveal a weather beaten old sea dog wearing a cap and a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Equalizer: "Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's just too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing. "

Ooh, I don't know what came over me. Must have been a flashback to my days as a shark diver...

Anyhoo, my name's Tom, I'm 34 and grew up on Clem Attlee Court in Fulham. My dad is a filth supporter, along with my sister and pretty much all of the friends that I grew up with. Fortunately, my mum and her family are Fulham supporters. Even more fortunately, it wasn't my dad that took me to my first game, but my uncle Brian (who still drinks in the Eight Bells and the Whistle).

My first game was Fulham vs Chelsea in the 1985 Milk Cup replay. We lost. I was changed for life.

My dad started taking me to games regularly in the early 90s up until I moved to Bristol for University. I tried to get to as many games as I could whenever I was back home, but it wasn't until 1997 that I started going to every home game. My friend Simon used to get tickets for free, so we were always in the enclosure. Then one day Simon stopped going to see Fulham and I was left on my own. It was then that I bought my first season ticket and met someone in a pub who I'd shared banted with on the Offal. That bloke was Airfix, and we started going to games together. Me in the Hammy End, him in the enclosure. We then extended our group of friends to all and sundry from the Offal and TFI, and here most of you are now!

One big happy family, brought together by the despair that is being a Fulham supporter.  :yay:
"We won't look back on this season with regret, but with pride. Because we won what many teams fail to win in a lifetime – an unprecedented degree of respect and support that saw British football fans unite and cheer on Fulham with heart." Mohammed Al Fayed, May 2010

Twitter: @equalizerffc