Which sports team are you rooting for? Some people simply support their hometown team; they are lifelong supporters, good times or bad. Others associate it with familial customs.
It was difficult to get very enthused about the accomplishments of the Poppies, who were competing in the Southern League at the time, while I was growing up in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Ron Atkinson’s first taste of mnagement came from the club in the early 1970s, though, and I attended a couple of games at Rockingham Road when Derek Dougan, a former Wolves legend, was manager. At halftime, you had to walk around to stand behind the goal opposite Kettering’s attack.
It was difficult to locate a football team to be passionate about because no one else in the family was into the sport. Northampton Town, a team that alternates between the Third and Fourth Divisions, was the closest professional team. They had no chance of being on Match of the Day. So I never lived in a place with a large team until I was hired in Derby when I was in my 20s. At that time, they were in the Championship, almost at the top; they famously lost the 1994 play-off final to Leicester.
Soon after my relocation to Edinburgh, I never felt at home in the Scottish football environment, even though I have lived here ever since.
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