Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

Losing the love for the Albion



byf1

Active member
Mar 22, 2012
271
So there I was, 16 years old and the fixtures have just been released, games such as Darlington away, Wycombe away, Brentford away and the real biggun away to Orient will be my future for the next 9 months, dreams of Pompey or Palace in the cup were also possible, what more could you want....it was going to be a hell of a season and I'd go anywhere to watch us. High points of fun away travel knowing we were going to watch div 3 comedy football with tea bars and £2 burgers, terracing and affordable entrances, we were the 'BIG' fish in the smallest of ponds, outsinging and out partying our opponants and on very rare occasions out playing them, these were the days where football was fun, grounds were old, tatty and the experience was hardly smooth and slick, Brighton were shit and I loved every minute of it but as with anything in life, I dreamed like so many others for more, I dreamed of once having a ground as beautiful as what was then the 'Alfred Mcalpine stadium', I cant say I ever thought it would happen............

13 years and the dream has been realized and if I'm honest, I loved it for about 6 months but now the club that I loved, the club that I would have walked 70 miles to watch instead of jumping on a double decker bus to go to, the club which I wanted so so so badly to succeed is just that to me now, a club, a business, a modern day money making machine that gets large numbers through the door, but somewhere within that change over, somewhere in all the quick success and 20,000+ new or returning fans that have emerged, something has dramatically changed and the 'Amex effect' isn't what I dreamed, isn't what I for-saw for my special club and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be part of it. Lets be realistic, it needed to change...I'm fully aware of that, I'm certainly not one of those who wanted us to always be the big fish in the lower leagues but it appears to me, the higher up you go, the more plastic it becomes, the more expensive it becomes and the more theatre like it becomes and that isn't the game or experience that I grew up loving, I had my fix of what the higher level was like from other fans on the trains coming back from the games and also on MOTD if I could get back from Darlington in time!

The most hilarious thing is, we lord it over teams like Palace with their run down ground with wooden seats, a drum and a tacky old school feel about it, but theres something 50x more real about that experience than the same dreary songs being belted out by the amex faithfull as they run up the exit stairs on 80 minutes and head for their train after adding nothing to the day and escaping without being noticed. I know we're very lucky, we have a wonderful chairman who has invested heavily into a wonderful arena to watch football and I may sound it but im most certainly not ungrateful in the slightest, it's just not working out for me personally and I was as avid as they come. Maybe its an age thing or maybe it's modern day football at the higher level in all seater staduims but as I've said, this isn't the great club & game it once was.

I met a pompey fan the other day, I said to him "Bet your gutted about another relegation" "No he replied, why would I be, I get to visit grounds I've never been to, take thousends away and take over small shit hole towns and basically get back to the game I fell in love with" I walked away thinking, my god he's so right.

It's all well and good moaning about the club/ground/expiereince but what can be done, what would make this more appealing, as I cant be alone in this feeling?

For me, terracing would bring a bit of banter back, bring fans closer together and make it more of a laugh to go to football, somewhere along this journey I've stopped laughing at the albion home games, I don't really look forward to them, that usually still thankfully occurs at away games which haven't lost the full edge and the future for me will proberly be just away games as home games just don't do it for me.

Slate me, ban me or ignore me, it's my view but I'll always follow the albion as they once were everything to me, maybe it's healthy that they just aren't what they used to be.
 




Beach Hut

Brighton Bhuna Boy
Jul 5, 2003
71,907
Living In a Box
You must be completely deluded if you think home games are shit, if you can remember Withdean which maybe you can't you would realise how lucky we are to have the Amex.

Perhaps you would rather see Hawkins and Dixon as opposed to Orlandi or Lopez
 


Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
Cheerio then.

That Pompey fan will soon get bored if this team don't start WINNING at these "shithole towns" they are apparently going to take over.
 






Monkey Man

Your support is not that great
Jan 30, 2005
3,157
Neither here nor there
It's a brave and honest post. Fair play.

I do have sympathy but I think the Amex era arrived at just the right time for me. I absolutely loved the Goldstone terraces when I was a teenager, the gallows humour when we played badly, didn't take any notice of the horrible food and worse toilets.

Now as a middle aged dad nothing gives me more pleasure than taking my seat at the Amex, with two young sons, watching the best Albion team I've ever seen perform in a packed stadium.

Football has changed. But you can still get some of the old-school thrills in non-league. Lewes, Eastbourne Borough, Hastings and probably many of the others are pleasant places to be at 3pm ona Saturday, in my experience.
 


Mackenzie

Old Brightonian
Nov 7, 2003
33,508
East Wales
Have a couple of extra pints prematch, that should do the trick.

:)
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,384
West west west Sussex
Losing the love for the Albion...is something that will never happen.
 


Bladders

Twats everywhere
Jun 22, 2012
13,672
The Troubadour
People seem to spend too much time worrying about how they watch the game rather than what it is they're actually watching.

I go to watch the Albion, be it in a state of the art stadium or some ramshackle terrace ankle deep in piss. What's being produced on the pitch is what get's my interest not whether I sit, stand, eat a £1 or £5 burger.
 


The Birdman

New member
Nov 30, 2008
6,313
Haywards Heath
I loved the Goldstone standing in toilets full of piss 3/4 of the fans getting wet wood lice in my tea. Withdean even better everybody getting wet and no beer but pretty setting. I now love the Amex but I will never forget the Goldstone days or Withdean . I even enjoyed Gillingham Once seagull always a seagull!:albion2:
 




Martlet

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2003
679
I know what you're thinking byf1 - the initial gloss of moving to the Amex was always going to come off at some point, and some aspects of the 'new world' were never going to be as fun as stuffing toilet rolls in your pocket to wipe down the seats at Withdean on a cold wet Tuesday evening...

I was talking to a Man City fan a couple of weeks back who said they were going through something similar. Despite Premiership success, a new stadium, ooodles of cash - there was a core who harked back to relagation battles at Maine Road.

Personally, I'll never forget the lower league football, and had a lot of laughs along the way. It's all too easy though to just remember the laughs, and not the eternal frustrations. There were plenty of people who left Withdean early too - and I can't remember an atmosphere there as good as when we beat Palace 3-0 a few months ago.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
It happens. Other things in life become more important. I have waivered in my interest in all things Albion over the years. The only time I've ever looked for excuses not to go or wondered WTF am I doing here after 15 mins was when MA came back. It took me about 5 games of his cluelessness that time around to lose interest, but the thought of relegation and the arrival of Russell Slade re-ignited my interest.

I'm sure that quite a few people who felt close to the players and the staff in the Withdean era are finding the corporate feel of the Amex a bit clinical after the initial buzz.

You pays your money you take your choice, no reason to slag off the op imo.
 


Seagull on the wing

New member
Sep 22, 2010
7,458
Hailsham
buf1....Well thought out post....I agree about the the 'lost feeling' of home games to a certain extent...when I was your age I used to love going to the Goldstone...reading the report in the paper...studying every single word,working out the goal average...but you find as you get older your taste change as everyone does,beit music,style,fashion...at my age now all I want is a bit of comfort when watching football...love when the Northstand burst into song...wish they could find some new ones though...probably will with new signings.
Gone are the days of being crushed up against the barrier when we scored, by the Northstand surge...
I have been lucky of supporting every promotion team and every relegation teamof the Albion since 1958 but I would never lose my support for the club...TBH if there was no Albion I would lose the 'butterfly' feeling before every match and give up football...but till then....."C'mon you Seagulls!"
 








Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,787
Seven Dials
Never fear. half a season of struggle and many of those 20,000 extra spectators will melt away, leaving the Withdean hardcore to make up a bigger percentage of the crowd. And if the board waits until the last few days of the close season to appoint a new manager, we may end up with the last available old-school hoof-it merchant to bring back some of that shit football you used to enjoy. Who knows, we might one day follow the Portsmouth route to footballing redemption?

Seriously, I see what you're saying and agree with a lot of it - and I don't subscribe to the received wisdom that a corporate feel was inevitable when we moved to the Amex - but I also don't think it's quite as bad as you're making out. And a day out at Yeovil next season will give you that old-time lower division feeling ...
 


Rugrat

Well-known member
Mar 13, 2011
10,212
Seaford
I can see where OP is coming from but it's more symptomatic of what's going on in football generally. It's now ruled by moneymen and mediamen neither of which existed very much in the pre Prem days.

Seems to me like "the soul" has been totally ripped out of the game but I've adapted with it ......... no alternative really. It's only going to continue down this road so best get used to it imo
 




wilko1

Active member
Feb 23, 2009
592
Eastbourne
Goodbye and good riddance
Call yourself an Albion fan.....in my 40 + years following the team,have seen mainly and almost exclusively bad times in the lower leagues
Players and managers come and go...it happens, but we the fans are the club
Couldn't have dreamed we would be where we are today...I trust in Tony
 


I agree 100%. I still enjoy it, but I miss the rawness and simplicity of football in the 70's- 80's. I like my padded seat, but I felt more excitement sitting on the stone steps of the old North Stand before the game. Maybe it's my fault for being 'forced' into 1901, it's not for me.
 



Paying the bills

Latest Discussions

Paying the bills

Paying the bills

Paying the bills

Albion and Premier League latest from Sky Sports


Top
Link Here