,s time to end it blind loyalty

Need to make a DARREN NORTON believes fans tough decisions... stand – even if it means making

WE’RE a funny bunch, football fans.We expect a lot and, at the same time, we put up with a lot. But where exactly do the boundaries end? How much is too much? I’m not talking financially, that one pretty much answers itself.

You can either afford to go to a game or you can’t.We’ve all sacrificed other things to afford to go to a game at one time or another.

I personally know of a family of four that purchase season tickets, two adults and two kids, and then go without a summer fortnight in the sun. That’s their choice and fair play to them for putting that to the front of the family activity list.

Their rationale is that for 20 or so weekends of the year they can have a form of family entertainment, spread over the course of nine months, as opposed to a stressful fortnight arguing over sun-loungers.

Many people have been frozen out of supporting their team (I’m one of them) but that doesn’t make them any less of a supporter in my eyes. If, all things being equal, they could afford to attend on a matchday, then you could guarantee that they would.

However, in times of financial uncertainty, the entertainment industry is the first to take a hit. It’s the least justifiable expense, and this is where many have been forced to call an end to their Saturday afternoon ritual.

So how much is too much in terms of your time and effort? After all, we’ve presumed you can afford to attend your team’s games. At what point does it become more of a chore than a pleasure? Now, having supported Hull City from the early 80s, I’m in a good position to answer this one!

Because for the first 20-or-so years of me following them the length and breadth of the country, we frankly weren’t very good.

Languishing mostly in the lower two division’s of the Football League, stood standing on dilapidated terraces in the freezing cold was enough to test anyone’s resolve. And yet week after week we turned up.Why? Football wasn’t expensive then, relatively speaking. Nor was travel or any of the so-called “matchday experiences”.

Friendships formed at school and later on the terraces were partly responsible for my continued attendance. It’s what we did on a Saturday afternoon, me and a bus full of likeminded friends.

You picked a team, or were born into one, and that was what you did every week. It’s what I did from being seven years old.

I first went with my best mate and his dad and, by the time my teenage years had come round, I did it with my usual dozen or so mates.

It was our thing. Some went to concerts. Some bought clothes. Some did nothing.We did football, without fail.

So, because of your friends or your routine, you attend matches every week.What other reasons are there?