Your Favorite Club in Each Division

EPL: Newcastle United. A team with great support even if they don't compete for the title every year.

First Division: Preston North End. The dominant team in the late 1870s! More recently, their players have included Brian McBride and Eddie Lewis. A good competitive team.

Second Division: Cardiff City. Their owner has big plans for the club, and I believe his comments that this could be the team for all of Wales. I would love to see them make it to the EPL eventually.

Third Division: Rushden & Diamonds. I like the name and how they won promotion to the Third Division 2 years ago. Now, they have former MLS player Onandi Lowe on attack. I would love to see them move up.

 

Liverpool - my first soccer recollections were their dominant period in the early eighties. I liked the way they played and I like the "family feel" of the club in comparison to the corporate feel of ManU or a seedy club like Leeds. Though I always gravitate towards one team or another in other leagues, the only other team I am truly passionate about is DC United.

Crystal Palace - Used to be Wimbledon before the sellout. Palace can't get anything right, although now they are more irritating than loveable. They have big aspirations but have none of the personality of the other London clubs in the First Division. Simon Jordan should never have hired Trevor Francis. What a joke after a good, if mercenary manager like Steve Bruce.

QPR - Again - haven't been good for some time, but I have a soft-spot in my heart for them. It is amazing how many good players they had at one time or another. West Ham better watch out, because it could happen to them.

Third Division - no team in particular

Conference - no team in particular

Combined Counties League (?) - Wimbledon AFC - gotta love em.

 

For some reason, I always favor teams with Americans on them. Whereas I once had no liking for Blackburn Rovers, now I follow them because of Brad. Same with Sunderland, at least until they're relegated and Claudio is sold.

As far as teams which I actually liked regardless of their Yank Quotient...

Premiership: West Ham United. Gotta love Paolo Di Canio. Some sentiment also for Spurs, even before Keller joined them. And, while I don't much *like* Man U, I definitely respect them.

First: Forest (Ben Olsen connection); Sheffield Wednesday (John Harkes connection)

Second: Plymouth Argyle (I live in Plymouth, Michigan); QPR; and for some odd reason, Northampton Town.

Third: How can anyone not love a name like S-c-u-n-t-h-o-r-p-e? (dashes intentional to avoid BigSoccer Profanity Monitor)

And I agree wholeheartedly with Liverpool_SC... AFC Wimbledon all the way!

 

EPL (1)
Liverpool
-------
(2)1st: Reading
(3)2nd: Huddersfield
(4)3rd: Bournemouth
(5)Conference: Doncaster Rovers

Doc Martens Southern:
Prem (6) Folkestone Invicta
Western (7) Merthyr Tydfil
Southern (7) Erith & Belvedere

Unibond Northern:
Prem (6) Accrington Stanley
Div. 1 (7) Spennymoor United.

Ryman League
Prem (6) Canvey Island
Div. 1 North (7) Barking and East Ham
Div. 1 South (7) Dulwich Hamlet
Div. 2 (8) Dorking (bottom of the table, alas)

Spartan South Midlands Premier
(8) Biggleswade Town

Combined Counties Premier
(8) AFC WIMBLEDON!!!!

Essex Senior
(8) Saffron Walden Town

Hellenic
Premier (8) Tuffley Rovers

Div. 1 West (9) Chipping Norton
Div. 1. East (9) Quarry Nomads

Midland Alliance
(9) Quorn (fcuk Wednesfield!!!)

Midland Combination Premier
(9) ************enham

West Midlands Premier
(9) Gornal Athletic

Leicester Sr. League
(9) Loughborough Dynamo

Wessex
(8) Hamble ASSC.

Hampshire
Prem (9) Hyth and Dibden
Div 1 (10) Yateley Green

Dorset Premier
(9) Sturminster Newton

Western
Prem. (8) Odd Down
Div 1. (9) Shepton Mallet

Devon
(10) Otterey St. Mary

South Western
(10) Penzance

Eastern Counties
Prem (8) Diss Town
Div 1.(9) Godmanchester Rovers

Kent
(8) Slade Green

Kent County Premier
(9) Snodland

Sussex
Div 1. (8) Pagham
Div 2. (9) Pease Pottage Village (currently on a -16 GD after 5 games, alas)

United Counties
Prem (8) Yaxley
Div. 1(9) Thrapston Town

Northern Counties East
Prem (8) Armthorpe Welfare
Div. 1(9) Tadcaster Albion

Central Midlands Supreme
(10) Graham Street Prims

Northern
Div 1 (8) Billingham Synthonia
Div 2 (9) Norton and Stockton Ancients

North West Counties
Div 1 (8) Ramsbottom United
Div 2 (9) Stone Dominoes

 

Premiership - Boro - I can sympathise with the historical lack of success

1st - Forest - simply because of Brian Clough

2nd - Stockport - for some reason I have always liked Carlton Palmer

3rd - Darlington - although I have a soft spot for Carlisle.

Conference - Scarborough - anyone who played at a stadium named after a frozen food company deserves respect.

Other non-league sides - Accrington Stanley and West Auckland & St Helens.

 

on a differant note.......

Clubs I hate.....

Prem. Aston Villa (fans always moaning)

1st Wolves - Sponsored by Doritos
division
one
rejects
in
tatty
orange
shirts

2nd Crewe Alex. (dont know why)

3rd Exeter City (wot a dump)

TV pundit Rodney Marsh
Where's your lipstick?
Worn out cockney bstard, talks out of
his arse.

 

like: Liverpool, Man City, and Sheffield Wednesday

hate: Man United, Everton, Arsenal, did I say Man U?

 

For me there is only one opther team in England that I kinda follow in a casual way, they are Liverpool, purely because of John Barnes in the late eighties and early nineties was one of the best players in the world, and still remains one of heros, along with Mr.T. I have maturity problems.

Outside of England I follow Hearts, because my Grandad use to take me to watch them when I was young, and Napoli, because of Careca and Maradona.

To all you Accrington and Stanley shitheads, you may be top know but come the end of the season it'll be Stalyvegas going up.

 

Re: on a differant note.......

Ahh I see you've discovered the joys of Rodney Marsh then An elitist pundit if there ever was one, why anyone employs him I'll never know. He only cares about the top 5 + Manchester City. Last season he was asked to predict the score of Bolton V Derby, a vital relegation battle. His answer? "Don't care", which basically sums up his attitude to anyone other than the top clubs. His dislike of newly promoted teams is legendary. He's a snob, completely and absolutely.

 

Huddersfield Town ... mostly b/c of John Thorrington but even if he left I think i would keep up with them now.

West Ham United.

Other than that, dont know too much about any other clubs outside EPL and First Division.

Been meaning to try to follow Cowdenbeath in Scotland after watching the decent Robert Duval Scottish soccer movie but have failed miserably.

 

Premiership - Leeds.


Div.2 Wycombe ..... I have free tickets and they are the closest club to where i live.


thats it.

 

Pretty much everybody does fcuk Wednesfield, after getting knocked out the Vase 13(thirteen)-0 last weekend, their league record stands at

P9 Won 0 Drawn 0 Lost 9 For 4 Against 57 Pts 0

This includes a Ten-Nil hammering at home from Stourbridge, and an Eight-Nil away to the Mighty Chasetown.

 

So they do exist!!

 

I'm ashamed to say that I've been keeping an eye on Wednesfield results. It's sort of the football equivalent of gawking at a traffic accident as you drive by.

 

Premier-Blackburn
1st-Nottingham Forest
2nd-Queen's Park Rangers or Tranmere
3rd-Rushden & Diamonds or Wrexham

 

I generally follow the team that is closest to me whenever I move somewhere new. So those teams would include Leeds, Brentford, Torquay, Eintract Frankfurt, PSG and Chicago Fire

 

Favorites

I generally try to follow teams with some connection to Americans. However, when I was first able to watch the EPL on a regular basis 9 years ago, I was enthralled by Eric Cantona and Man U. I liked their style of play and they've been my favorite English team since then. Now, I also follow Sunderland (Reyna), Blackburn (Freidel), and Everton (Moore). But, since Joe-Max has been having a hard time at Everton, I'm falling off a bit on following them.

1st Division - Derby County, Reading. John Harkes played at DCFC. But, what really hooked me on the Rams was seeing a listing on the old broadcast.com (now Yahoo! Broadcast) for a pre-season friendly against Barcelona from the Baseball Ground. I've always liked their webcasts. So, I felt bad they were relegated. I hope they get their financial house in order and recover to get themselves promoted back to the EPL. I'm also following Reading, now that Hahnemann is there.

2nd Division - Huddersfield Town, Luton Town and QPR. Thorrington's at HT. Juergen Sommer was the first American keeper in the EPL with QPR, after having played with Luton.

3rd Division - Boston United. Boston United was Sir Alex's first managerial job. I'm glad they got promoted, but I do have questions to how they were able to do that with irregularities and still go up.

 

Re: Favorites

I was under the impression that his first managerial job was East Stirling, followed by St Mirren, Aberdeen and finally Man Utd. I don't recall any connection between him and Boston Utd.

 

prem: No surprises....BORO

1st: Portsmouth (because festa went there and he is a legend and i like harry rednapp)

2nd: Northhampton.....cobblers....no really northampton (just for soccer am viewers..)

3rd: Darlington, (patronising support for local lower league clubs) hartlepool (i played at victory ground and they helped bail out the boro in 1986), and york (might be going to uni there next year...)

con: Scarborough (mccain stadium.....enough said...)

i only support the boro but i dont mind when the other teams win.....

big hates!!

sunderland, man u, and chelsea.....

 

I'm an Arse supporter, but I always check the results of...

Leyton Orient. Great name. Strong contender for "Unluckiest Club in the World". First team in England to have a player banned (12 mths I think it was) for recreational drug use. Their chairman had his personal fortune destroyed by the Rwandan civil war just as the club needed investment, prompting their sale for the sum of £5 ($7.50 for our transatlantic cousins). Plus I've spent the past few years knocking around the East End and been to a couple of their games.

Bristol City. An ex was a supporter, and yes, she had.

 

Seeing as my great-grandfather was an East End copper, and my grandfather supported and my Dad supports West Ham, I never really had a choice on who to support.

The only other team I have a soft spot for is Bradford City, for a couple of reasons. One, I sat at the Bradford end at the Valley in a Nationwide 1st Div match between Charlton and Bradford which the Addicks won 4-2. Secondly, the last match my late grandfather ever saw from the Irons was against Bradford - and the lovely chaps lost 5-4 to give my Grandad an exciting West Ham win for a sendoff - fitting, and for that I'll always have a soft spot for Bradford.

 

EPL: ManU, i check the Charlton results sometimes as well...

D1: Brighton and Hove Albion, and this girl I know likes Gillingham so I check their results as well.

D2: Colchester United

SPL: Celtic

Yeah, the only two teams i REALLY follow are ManU and Celtic, though I do check results of the other ones often.

 

EPL: Boro, on account of their signing Alen Boksic, and their reputation as a club that never quite manages to achieve success despite big spending in the off-season.

Div. 1 - Portsmouth - After they signed Prosinecki a couple years back, I tried them out in Champ Man, and they proved to be the easiest Div. 1 Club to get into the premiership. Probably the most fun I've had playing Champ Man.

Div. 2 - Queens Park Rangers - When I first started following the EPL back in the early 90's, they were a premiership club, and at the time I thought they had a cool name. Now, they are on somewhat harder times, but I still follow them.

Div. 3 - Leyton Orient. London's last, yet most lovable club. They are like the klutzy little brother that you always want to do well. Maybe someday they'll make it out of Div 3 (they should never have sold Carl Griffiths, though).

 

Favourite and least

Prem: THFC. Just happened at a young age, and since I'm originally from the London area it had to be a club from the Smoke. Dislike: Arsenal. Someone once wrote that Arsenal attract the most diversified ethnic mix but the dregs from each of those groups.

Div One: Favourite: Palace. I walked in through the turnstile and instead of the usual concrete and metal holding area in the bowels of a Stand, found myself in a plush, carpeted, mood-lit Glazier's Lounge with efficient bar service, enjoying Palace "highlights" (snicker) on the monitors. Had drinks and good chat with the local Eagles, then, somewhat buzzed, walked merrily thru a door and found myself back on the street again, minus ticket stub! They kindly let me back in and I found my seat just in time to join the "Glad All Over" sing-a-long, wondering what CPFC fans had to be particularly glad about. Dislike: Millwall. Some real unsavoury characters. Threated to attack peaceful Brentford fans and any black players representing them. An atmosphere of unpleasantness and lurking danger. Yuk.

Div Two: Favourite. QPR. Seems like I'm not alone in having a soft spot for the R's. Like Man City's faithful, The Loft loyalists have always had a great collective sense of humour even in the Hoops' darkest days. Dislike: Cardiff. Obnoxious owner and fans.

Div Three. Favourite. Tie. The Orient. I seem to meet women who support them. I particularly remember one very attractive employee at Hackney Hospital asking me increduously: "You mean you don't support Orient?" Gee, what was I thinking? Tie. Bristol Rovers. One of the world's perennial losers, yet their fans, belting out The Gasheads Song in full voice, make me glad all over to be part of the beautiful game and comforted that there are still many genuine local supporters to offset the faceless, long distance hordes of Arse, Pool and Manure. Dislike: Rushden & Diamonds. Pretentious club, contrived name, distorted history, all created and backed by a big bankroll. Some of the locals have defected to the Cobblers I'm told.

Honourable mentions: Charlton, Brighton, Bournemouth, AFC Wimbledon, Enfield Town. Just some examples of fans who wouldn't allow their clubs to die and moved mountains to save them, at least for the time being.

Nice thread. Sorry if I offended anyone, ie. AFC, MUFC, CCFC, MFC, R&D. Just another subjective viewpoint.

Got a kick out of Dr Wankler's selections, by the way.

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