Crowds

aussie mate, you have done nothing to fell sorry about on here, If you feel strongly about anything, want to have a good rant, to get it off your chest, then you just carry on.

We all big boys here and don't get too upset, we love a good debate and we will always kiss and make up afterward

Dave R

Read this thread with interest (well, the bits about attendances anyway) and just thought I'd offer a personal perspective, as a former die-hard turned part-timer, and one who knows a few others in the same camp.

First off, I will admit that personal circumstances have curtailed a lot of my visits to Plainmoor this season (I live in Exeter, my wife works a lot of Saturdays, and my daughter is of an age – nearly two – where taking her to the football is logistically and practically a bit of a nightmare).

However, it's actually my status as a former die-hard that's really put the dampeners on my support, and I think others. I kept my head (and regular attendance, programme contributions etc.) up through years and years of mostly thin times, but Colchester 2005 was the first cut. The following season I recall turning up week in, week out to games, expecting us to lose (which we would) and standing amongst a thin crowd of either angry or silently resigned supporters thinking, 'I'm not enjoying this' – 'I could be doing something I actually like today'. The fact that the club itself resembled a corner shop run by a dysfunctional family with a skeleton staff of sycophants didn't help. After watching us lose to Cheltenham and realising that – possibly for the sake of my own sanity – how totally resigned I was, I vowed that the following season I would stop holding my life to ransom for something I was getting so little out of and started missing home games for the first time in seven years.

And that I did. Felt weird at first, but you soon get used to it. Of course, this was the Chris Roberts season. I still only missed 3-4 home games I think, but that just compounded the misery (and also taught me a few bitter lessons in overestimating the intelligence of my fellow supporters and just how sleazy and corrupt the world of football can be – and, believe me, I was no naïf in that respect). I was as relieved and thankful as anyone when the consortium took over and the Trust got going, and pleased with the explosive start to last season (and current form, obviously), but I’m afraid a little bit of my love for both football and Torquay United died some time during the 2006-7 season, and I’ve reverted back to another life-long obsession for my most of my weekend kicks these days.

I know a fair few others with similar feelings to mine. My brother is the same, but also can’t get into the idea of non-league football, and I don’t think I’m alone in that my view is also tempered by what had for years been a simmering disgust at the higher echelons of football which grew into outright contempt in the Roberts season, and is now total disinterest. I never watch Match of the Day or midweek European games any more, and I couldn’t give a stuff about England. Sadly, I don’t even care about the plight of Lewes or Newton Abbot FC in the way I would have done a year or two ago. All I care about is Torquay United, but not in the way I used to – for now, at least.