How Come You're A United Fan

As everyone here is giving their story, here's mine!

I moved with the family to NZ in 1969 (mother's country) but we didn't settle and came back in March 1972. I didn't know what football was so my cousin gave me a crash course on the top teams and we settled on Man Utd being 'my team'.. (I was only nine)
Dad found out that they were playing at Torquay in a friendly on the 29th July and got two tickets (40p each?) for my cousin and I and off we went determined to see George Best, Charlton, Kidd, Law etc. But mostly Alex Stepney, my hero as I'd been made goalkeeper for our Saturday kick about team.

We got to the ground, bought a programme and a B&W George Best poster and then got into the pop side. I managed to sidle my way down to the front but can't really remember much of the game, just the atmosphere. Didn't even realise it was 0-0, I thought Charlton had scored... But what really disappointed, actually hurt, was that Best didn't make it and when I got home, via fish & chips in St. Marychurch, I put up his poster, threw darts at it and decided then and there that it was the 'real' United for me.. (In defence of Georgy, I believe he was on one of his walkabouts and was never down to play.. so why sell posters of him outside the ground?)

Now this taking on TUFC as my team wasn't as easy as it sounds... I lived in Exmouth and was soon to go to Exeter School and our coaching was done by City players, our end of term prize giving was done by City players, our school outings often involved games at the Sid James park, including the end of season promotion game against Aldershot in '77 & the cup game against Wolves in '78 and, of course, all my friends were huge fans... But the worst thing, the very, very worst thing, was the school scarf that was compulsory to wear during the winter. It was, of course, basically a red, black and white striped City scarf... I once tried wearing a blue & yellow one to school and ended up in detention for breaking rules...

Then as luck would have just after the Wolves game the family moved back to our home town of Teignmouth and I was able to continue my fandom with like minded souls (well, Tanner from the third form at Teignmouth Grammar who still comes along to games with me now and then) and my next game was the Argyle league cup match in August '78.

I was still in touch with my Exeter school mates and I was determined that I'd see United gain promotion so I could stick it back at them after all the ribbing I'd got after their's. (By the time we did get up I couldn't remember who those school mates were!)

So here we are all those years later and I still get that thrill every time I walk up to the ground.

I've attached parts of that programme from the Man Utd game out of interest.

To close the story, and as some of you may've read on another thread, I spent a wonderful few hours last year, late at night, in a hotel bar, chatting away to Alex Stepney about football and life.

Thanks very much indeed Dave.
Regards
Tim

Thats what I'm here for Timbo ;D maybe if you used photo bucket things would be better for you, it lets you set the upload size so matter how big any image is, it will only upload at the size you set it at. I just select the size as 800x600, then in the post window I click the image tags and in the middle of the tags I put the one marked as direct link under the uploaded picture on photo bucket and then it will always be the correct size for the forum.

Dave