Triumph and disaster...

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

In 40 years of supporting St Johnstone football club, I've never known a cliff-hanger like this afternoon's. Whilst my team can reflect upon a brilliant season of 'nearlies', today having lost the big prize in the final minute of added-on time, my emotions are mixed as I reflect upon perhaps the most remarkable achievement in the history of Scottish football since Celtic became the first British team to lift the European Cup.

Gretna FC have just become members of the Scottish Premier League, at my team's expense. Five years ago they were playing in the Unibond League, and few people knew Gretna for anything other than its nuptial tradition.

Put a tenner on them to win the SPL next year - it'll be the best fun-bet you've ever made.

I'm gutted as a Saints fan.

I'm choked as a football fan.

Well done, Gretna - Kipling couldn't have written better drama (but he does make exceedingly good cakes).

[Colin]

Well now you know how I felt when Celtic lost the league 2 seasons ago to 2 Scott MacDonald goals. Wee Bassa that he is 

[Roger Kettle]

Apologies to those of you who don't like football---please pass on.
Colin, no, you don't know how Tarks feels. Your idea of pain is to miss out on winning the league for one year.( You follow that up by winning the title for the next two years and beating teams like Manchester United in the Champons League.) You don't experience the horrors of fighting relegation or facing the realisation that the team you've loved all your life might go bust and cease to exist. You don't experience, like Tarks did, the chance of seeing your team return to the top level and see it snatched away in two cruel minutes. Nor have you experienced the joy of seeing your club win a trophy for the first time in 60 years and watched old men cry because they never dreamed it could happen.....PAIN? YOU DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD!!!
Sorry, Col...I started off quite rationally, too.

[The Peepmaster]

I follow Wolverhampton Wanderers. 'nuff said.

[Malc]

I've been a Celtic and Man Utd fan since I was a kid (since they won the European Cup one year after the other in 67 and 68), but I back up my credibility by saying that I'm from Saltcoats, where Bobby Lennox lives, and that I have lived in both Glasgow and Manchester, unlike many Celtic/Man U fans worldwide.

Man U weren't always the world beaters they are now, by the way, they have been relegated in the past (73-74). Tommy Doc took them down and brought them back up.
Celtic, on the other hand, have always been easy to support. Not since the glory days of Ferguson and McLean with Aberdeen and Dundee Utd have the Old Firm had any consistent and meaningful competition in the SPL.

So when I lived in Irvine, in sympathy with my mate John, I started supporting Kilmarnock. I've probably only been to Rugby Park six or seven times in 20 years (my first being Charlie Nicholas's debut for Celtic) but I still check out their results weekly.

Kilmarnock are a much, MUCH better team to support. They offer the Scottish football fan enough of the misery needed to nourish a Presbyterian psyche, with just enough success to stave off the pangs of despair.

For those who don't follow the Scottish game, Kilmarnock also have an Aussie playing for them, Danny Invincibile (yes, Invincibile) who's from where I live right now, namely Brisbane.

If Kilmarnock start getting too successful, I'm definitely looking at Gretna.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Roger, thank you for your empathetic words. I know you have also suffered.

Peepsie, thank you for your...em...pathetic words. God help you!

Malc, Being a native Glaswegian, I followed Celtic (sorry, I was too young to realise I should have been a Thistle fan) until they won the European Cup. By that time I was 8 years old, and not long after it was decided that I was mature enough to actually go to matches with my mate and his older brother (seems another world away). By this time I was living in Perth, and that meant a trip to Muirton Park.

I guess I was old enough to realise the chances of ever seeing Celtic live would be limited to the (then) once-a-season visit to Perth, and even then only if my Mum allowed it (she only let me go to the 'quieter' matches to begin with), so I took the bold and selfless decision to abandon all hope of glory and become a fully-fledged St Johnstone fan.

It's been a roller-coaster ride ever since, the highlight of which was my time as a ball boy during Saints' first glorious European campaign (yes, they've had two), leading the teams onto the pitch for the magnificent demolitions of SV Hamburg and Vasas Budapest. For some reason, I was 'dropped' for the next round, and Saints went out narrowly to Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. I like to think that was probably no coincidence.

The first game I went to see at Muirton was against Hibs. We went just after half time - they opened the gates and let you in for free then. I remember me and my mates running up the steps and being hit by the noise which hooked me instantly.

That, and the other thing I hadn't even thought about until I reached the top of the steps and looked down on the gladiatorial arena......the match was in COLOUR!!!

(cue warm glow)

[Mince]

Roger posted: Apologies to those of you who don't like football---please pass on.


This is how the topic looks to me:

Tarquin: In 40 years of supporting St Johnstone football blah, blah, blah, blah, blah . . .

Colin: Well now you know how I felt when Celtic yakkety, yakkety . . .

Roger: Apologies to those of you who don't like football---please pass on. Blah-de-blah-blah . . .

. . . etc.

[Diane CBPFC]

My aunt sent me a Manchester United team pen with a little soccer ball on the end so I would look good when I was coaching kid's soccer.

Just trying to feel included here. 

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Consider yourself well included, Diane - that is very touching, and typical of this highly emotive subject.

Mince, two souls were on their way up to Heaven when they passed two eagles. "Ah, eagles!", said the souls. The eagles were too polite to reply.

You obviously had nothing in common with any of them.

[Roger Kettle]

Never mind, Diane---I'm declaring Tuesday "Diane Day". We'll count your candles!

[Diane CBPFC]

Counting my teeth would be more appropriate - I am going to the dentist this coming Tuesday... the following Tuesday is my birthday though.

[Roger Kettle]

Damn. I was going to take all the credit for remembering your birthday was this Tuesday. Since this is obviously wrong, it was Diamond Lil who told me.

[Colin]

Roger, if you remember correctly, Celtic were nearly out of business until Fergus "the bunnet" McCann took over and saved the club.

Here's a wee picture of our departing captain.

Total time logged in: 20 hours and 32 minutes

[Roger Kettle]

Colin, I'm sorry, this was anything but a personal dig at you. I was trying to point out the difference between supporting a team like Celtic and supporting one of the smaller sides. You were upset because, three years ago, your team was pipped to the title on the last day of the season. Despite winning it for the last two years--plus a couple of cups and an amazing European run--a lot of Celtic supporters regard this as failure and are unhappy with the management. It's all relative. For a lot of us, simply surviving is a cause for celebration.(Celtic, by the way, were NEVER in danger of "going out of business"). Most people who support the Old Firm do so for traditional reasons and I have absolutely no problems with that. They will probably witness their team winning sixty or seventy trophies in their lifetime.
I was at Hampden in 1994 when Dundee United won the Scottish Cup and watched an 85 year-old man dissolve into tears because he thought it was something he would never see. This certainly doesn't make the achievement better or worse than anything Rangers or Celtic have done----only more special. Like I said, all this is relative.

[Malc]

Tarquin, I lived in Maryhill for two years and Firhill was my "local' ground. I used to sneak in over an end wall (which was in a shocking state of disrepair - anyone could have sneaked in) and was able to walk around the ground at will, spotting friends in the crowd and going to sit with them. It was Firhill's noise and the emerald green of the pitch which hooked me, too.