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Friel

Division One - a fan's guide

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[quote user="Lord Snooty"][quote user="Lord Snooty"]

"Division One is like a septic tank - its full of crap but eventually the big chunks rise to the top."

 

Classic.

[/quote]

 

Afterthought : but are we really a big chunk of crap ? 

[/quote]One of the biggest in division, it''s all down to Doncaster''s hard work  [;)]

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Was expecting all of these things,but hearing the pain of it all from a fan with experience of what we are about to witness really hits home. [:''(]   Thanks for the insight,great post.[Y]

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[quote user="Friel"]

Greetings Canaries

Assuming you dont get your get out of jail free card on Sunday and get relegated, I''ve compiled this guide for fans of a big club on how to survive League One, or as I affectionately call it, ''The Abyss''. As a Forest fan, we had 3 delightful seasons down there, so I know of what I speak. If you do get out of jail, keep this handy and read it next year, as safety often convinces boards that all is fine and nothing changes - there''s clearly something wrong at your club, and it often takes relegation to shake things up so maybe in the long run its best to get it over with.

1) Get over yourselves - Seriously, you arent the first ''big'' club to go down to the third tier, and sadly you wont be the last. Man City, Wednesday, Forest and Dirty Leeds all went before you - hey you''ve even got Southampton, Charlton and (hopefully) Dirty Leeds as company, you wont be alone like we were for the first 2 years until Dirty Leeds joined us down there. Expect a team like Derby or Watford to follow you next year. Sad but true.

2) Its a crap division - so get used to it, Crap teams, crap grounds, crap crowds and unplayable quagmire pitches - and thats just August. Worst thing is, you''ll be losing to some of these teams - you''ll be a ''scalp'', their cup final, they''ll be desperate to beat you, or they''ll put ten men behind the ball and say ''come on then, we''re happy with a point''. Its shite, truly shite.

3) "You''re not famous anymore" - expect to hear that alot. Best response is "You weren''t famous anyway". If its sung at their home ground, "here cos its Norwich, you''re only here cos its Norwich" will do the job nicely. Should you score and make it 1-0 for example, "one nil to the famous team, one nil to the famous team...." always goes down a treat. If you''re losing, or have lost, just grin and bear it.

4)  Your local rivals - Will be pissing themselves, on a weekly basis. If you lose, they''ll take the piss, if you win they''ll take the piss "oh wow, you beat <crap team>, woohoo lol". Suck it up, theres nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, you went down, they didnt, they have the bragging rights and you will just have to live with it - think about it, what would you do if roles were reversed,? Exactly the same - Your only hope is that they get a flukey promotion to the premiership, get utterly found out and become the worst team in history - this strategy worked quite well for us.

5) Ok pop quiz - Its late february, you''re a few points off the playoffs - lower than you expected to be after a dodgy run of results, you have a home game against a bottom 6 side thats shipped goals all season, its half time and its goalless. What do you do? a) hope for better in the second half, go and get a pie. b) boo your team off becuase you should be turning teams like this over in your sleep. If you chose b, you are a cock. This isnt the Ryman premier, you;re not playing pub sides, these are professional players playing for professional teams, and theyre not going to roll over cos you once played in Europe. You''re not going to win every game 4-0, youre not going to win every game period. So what if you only beat yeovil 1-0 with a lucky 87th minute penalty, at least you won. If you''re losing 3-0 at half time then fine, boo away, they deserve it, but booing your team because it isnt men against boys is just gay. Treat every goal, and every win as a bonus, not a given. Some fans expect too much - dont be such a fan.6) Promotion is the sweetest - think it was great going up to the prem? Thats nothing from the feeling of getting out of Division one. There are benefits to losing out on promotion to the premiership - you get to play in the championship, and that means watching your team play on a saturday afternoon, no ridiculous ticket prices and being part of a genuine league as opposed to a cartel of four sides with sixteen others who just dont want to go down. There are no benefits to losing out on promotion to the championship from Div 1, and when promotion comes the joy is augmented by bucketfuls of utter relief. Our promotion day against Yeovil on the final day matched any from the European days for atmosphere and pure jizz-my-pantsness. Promotion will come eventually, it is inevitable, Division One is like a septic tank - its full of crap but eventually the big chunks rise to the top.

Now go my son, tread the oft-worn path of a big club in Division One, and when you return to the championship - for return you surely will - may you be a better fan for it.

[/quote]

I am not confident of that at all.We have an absolutely useless board who i genuinely beleive will secretly be happy that we are league one and further away from "that wretched Premier League".We are more likely to slide into League 2 than get promoted back to the Championship i fear. I do genuinely fear that.

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[quote user="ron obvious"]

Come on then, Cam, don''t be shy; what''s your view?


[/quote]

 

Not shy as you know but I think you should all wait and see.  There is nothing to stop you winning this weekend and with luck in the other result League One may not be troubling you next season.

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Don''t apologise SI, we all need cheering up!

Great post from Friel, made me laugh and almost look forward to next season!

Almost!!!!

 

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[quote user="SI"]Sorry to bring this back..[/quote]

Cheers SI,great post!!! (Oh and Friels was pretty good as well)

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[quote user="SI"]Sorry to bring this back..[/quote]

Don''t [Y]

I''m almost looking forward to next season, and i enjoyed reading it.

It''s too easy to just look at League One as a pile of c***, and the be and end all of ever falling into it.

This is the first time that i''ve thought League One will do us any favours at all, but briging us down a notch might give the whole club a better perspective of the hard life that football is, and how we have to work together to achieve something, rather than rely on the presumption that we always deserve to be higher in the leagues.

Screw the "Charlton" model, we''ll make our own history!

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I missed this the first time it was posted - I must have more of a life than I thought!Top post. Shame about not going to Chesterfield - I''m almost tempted to go to any old game there just for a look.

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Brilliant post ...makes some very good points.

 

I am looking forward to STANDING without the stewards constant nagging!!

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Missed this the first time around.Great thread ... should be stickied [;)]

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As a fellow exiled (Norwich based) Forest fan I can certainly concur with Friel on this. Forest were in exactly the same boat at this time four short years ago. Our stuttering 3 season tenure in this league did make promotion all the more sweeter. I remember standing outside Hughes for 30mins on a warm May Saturday afternoon watching the final day scores come in on BBC Final Score. I got some very strange looks when I started dancing round outside Castle Mall entrance at 17:05. Just think, you''re only two seasons from the Premiership. Good luck, see you up there.

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Crap teams and crap grounds...

wow, really overjoyed about Brentford''s ground now :P

Just gotta hope for an atmosphere ;]

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Rereading Friel''s post its funny to realise how true this has been. League 1 has been an experience - some crap and I wouldnt want 3 or more seasons (as Forest and Leeds have endured) but its actually been good fun - almost like a holiday. Old fashioned grounds, proper fans, a cup run (albeit in the JPT) and hopefully a title and promotion at the end.

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