Good/Bad/Funny/Sad Footballing Stories

Paully D

Basically post your best/worst/funniest/saddest stories that you've been involved in, have heard etc from football.

Not really anything too entertaining from me to start off but I heard a story from a Sunderland fan recently who said that he had a spare ticket for the 1998 play-off final between Sunderland and Charlton. Tickets for the Sunderland end were like gold dust and he happened to meet a lad in a pub who was after one, he offered him the ticket for free and said he'd give it to him for a pint (well, not technically free then but you get the point). He handed over the ticket and the fella went to the bar to get his pint in exchange. He never came back.....

I'm sure we'll get some good posts on this topic so fire away lads!

Guy:Incognito

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/oliver-holt/Oliver-Holt-on-Exeter-fan-Kirstie-Bowden-banner-tribute-to-tragic-Adam-Stansfield-article734236.html

Came across that story today. Really nice but sad story. Hadnt heard about Stansfield till today.





You might think Kirstie Bowden is a little crazy when you read her story, but I don’t.

You might think what she did was insignificant. Or excessive. Or strange. But if you’ve ever felt a visceral loyalty to a favourite player, you won’t.

Me? I think her act of devotion this season is one of the most beautiful things a football fan has ever done.

Kirstie is 24. She’s a super-smart university student studying for a PhD in geography. She’s also a dedicated Exeter City fan.



And this season, she has taken a companion with her on the supporters’ club coach to every away game Exeter have played.

Her companion is a white banner. It measures 8ft by 6ft and has six letters written on it in vivid red – STANNO.

Kirstie made it just over a year ago when it was announced that Exeter’s centre-forward, Adam Stansfield, had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

Stansfield was the most popular player at the club. An honest, hard-working, tireless grafter, an unselfish No.9 adored by the supporters.

Kirstie and her family had met him many times after games. He had worked on the railways, like her dad, so they had something apart from football in common.

He had always been friendly with the supporters, happy to stop and chat. It can be like that in the lower leagues. Fans still feel the players are just like them.

So Kirstie wanted to do something, however small, to show her support.

She took the flag with her to the three remaining away games of the season at Swindon, Hartlepool and *Tranmere and pinned it up where it could be seen.

“I thought I would make a banner because he and his family would be able to pick it out and it would show we were thinking of them,” she said.

“The whole point of making it really was that I would take it to grounds until he was fit to come back to play for us.”

Stansfield had an operation to remove part of his colon and, in July, he showed up for the first day of pre-season training.

“He was ill again by then but I’m not surprised he did the session,” said Steve Perryman, Exeter’s director of football. “The more tired he was, the more he ran.”

Stansfield was 31 when he died on August 10, leaving a widow and three young sons.

Supporters left scarves and shirts and flowers to him on the Big Bank terrace at St James Park as tributes.

Kirstie left her banner there, too, but after *Stansfield’s funeral at Exeter Cathedral, she retrieved it and took it home.

And then she made her decision. She would take it with her to every Exeter match this season.

“I was standing outside the cathedral in the rain and thought: 'I have to take it to every game in his memory,'” Kirstie said.

“I know it might sound mad but he was persistent and dogged as a player and so I thought taking it to every game would reflect that.”

And so a poignant odyssey began. First to Leyton Orient for a league game, then to Yeovil on a Tuesday night for a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie.

Just about every away game for an Exeter fan means long trips, but Kirstie and her memorial to Adam *Stansfield made every one.

A wintry Tuesday night at Boundary Park in December or a balmy Monday evening at Prenton Park in April, it made no *difference. She found somewhere to display his name.

“There was that run of bad weather last winter which meant postponements and a few long away trips midweek,” Kirstie said. “But there was never any *consideration I might not go. I had to go for Adam.

“The other thing was I wanted supporters from other clubs we visited to know we had not just forgotten about him.

“Again, I know this might sound odd to some people but sometimes having the banner at the ground made it feel as though Stanno was still with us.”

The Exeter fans still sing his name, too. There is a chorus of, ‘There’s only one Adam Stansfield’ at every match.

Last week, the club staged a testimonial match for him. His sons Jay, eight, and Taylor, five, kicked off the game.

And on Saturday, Kirstie completed her journey.

She got up at 5am to catch the supporters’ coach to Hillsborough for the final game of Exeter’s season.

She pinned her banner in a prominent place in the away end and watched the game. After Exeter came from a goal down to win 2-1, she took it down with a heavy heart.

“It was hard because I was dreading the Wednesday game,” Kirstie said. “When the season started nearing its end, I began to think I didn’t want the Sheffield game to come.

“Like I said, the whole point of making the banner really was that I would take it to grounds until he was fit to come back to play for us.

“I know everyone has to move on, but putting it away is the final admission he is never coming back. The original purpose of the flag will never be fulfilled.”

Maybe not, but it has served a different purpose.

It is easy to dismiss football fans as fickle beings but Kirstie Bowden’s devotion to her team and her favourite player humbles us all

That_Guy

My young cousin passed away two years ago. Massive Tottenham fan and at his funeral, Harry Redknapp wrote a really heartfelt letter to his parents with complimentary tickets etc.

Nice gesture.

Mars Bar

Me and my best friend were/are mad David Beckham fans. When we were in first year, she suffered a brain hemorrhage in school. We had the same Beckham teddy and she had it in her bed for the while she was in a coma and during her rehab. Her Mam sent a letter to Becks and he sent a signed picture of him which is still hanging in their sitting room. We both still have our teddy's in our bedrooms!

mirwillbeback

The tribute to the boy Rhys Jones at Anfield will live long in the memory.

An Everton fanatic, Liverpool played the Z Cars theme and the ground stood to applaud his parents, and brother, all in their Everton jerseys.

It's on youtube and impossible not to be moved by.