FoxesFan#1

Wierdly I'll be at this game after not going since January, and it will be my last one as a season ticket holder as I got rid of my Ipswich ticket on the re-sale platform Realistically it will be my last game ever unless someone lends me a ticket! Had enough of donating hard earned cash to millonaires masquerading as footballers. It's not just the Leicester team that are disliked, most PL footballers have lost sight of themselves now. My pet hate is the players that ignore fans on the way into the ground wearing their anti-social headphones etc

Oh yeah they're brave lads that race, incredible souls that literally risk serious injury every time they line up for a race. Thankfully it is much safer now with air fences but it's still a tough sport Some good young lads racing tonight aiming to get into the British Final at Belle Vue later in the season, with the winner of tonight's meeting being a local lad. Those that get to the top in England find lucrative contracts in Poland waiting for them, where crowds are often close to 20,000 - the authorities there support the sport and they have football style stadiums, unlike in UK where they range from old Greyhound stadiums to tracks in fields. I'm just grateful good people keep it running. So good to hear you went to the Rider's too, it's good to see what else is going on. Great speaking and apologies all for diverting some talk onto another sport!

That's superb that you went, that makes my day! I was there too, got back home at 10.15pm. Very small crowd tonight with it being a qualifying round but actually the racing was good. Normally get 1200 or so for league meetings, about double what was there tonight I'd say. Last meeting (Ipswich) was much bigger crowd. Ha yeah, that rain was annoying! My Dad is involved in the club so we got to dash through the pits and head into the stand. My mate owns the stadium and used to run the team too. So good you went and to bring it back to football I saw the sign for Anstey as I was heading to the track!

And you should go, you should enjoy it still. Everybody’s circumstances are different and hopefully thoughts are unique too so if it’s right then enjoy the game. I’ll consider coming back when they’re in League two… maybe as an away fan if I’m lucky!

Good question I’m never not busy and always fill my time so it’s easy for me I go to Speedway, plus I support my local non league football team, and go out with family, friends regularly if none of that then I’m continually managing my business, building new business ideas and learning new skills all of the time. Failing all of that then I grow fruit. We even put an apple tree on the front to feed the local wildlife like the DHL driver who thinks we haven’t noticed him taking apples! The Amazon driver always asks nicely which is appreciated. Dropping LCFC has been a breeze, I wouldn’t have given up so easily but watching millionaires not care one bit about the fans made it easy to walk away. Watching players turn up with headphones on is shameful, how embarrassing they cannot engage with fans.

Super article, sums up my feelings too. The only downside for me was that after doing close on 20 Brackley games this season I was away for the final game of the season! I see your photo in the article and I'm now more gutted to have missed it! Ha, but not to worry going to non-league has reconnected lots of lost football fans in my small circle of family + friends I can take my son on ad-hoc games (cant do it at Leicester very easily), my Dad joins us for 2-3 games a year, my brother-in-law came to a game and loved it so much he now goes to Radcliffe Boro every home game near his home after no football for 8 years, and most importantly a very good mate (he's a Spurs fan sadly) comes to 90% of the games with me so is my main stay for watching games. Others have joined us too but didn't come back! On the odd occasion I go on my own, only to bump into ex-work colleagues that we can share a drink with but I prefer to socialise so going on my own isn't my preference. I never wanted to turn my back on Leicester but how they treated some long standing fans in the winter of 2021/22 will never be forgotten.

Looked a dramatic night all over the play-offs, it's a great event for the non-leagues and drives much needed revenue. I've been very lucky to see Brackley in the play-offs for the past three seasons having 5 play off home games in that time, some huge crowds and lots of disappointment too. They attract a lot of floating fans that wont be seen on a wet Tuesday night, but still great for the clubs.

Hope you had a great evening regardless of result, I keep meaning to go to Anstey for a game as I'm back in that neck of the woods quite regularly. My Dad used to play for them in the 1970s and I had one outing for the Swifts in the 80s! Possibly had my best ever game in central midfield. Funnily I'm at Beaumont Leys tonight for the Speedway just touching distance from the Nomads

I’m with you 100% The moment I swapped Leicester for Brackley in 2020 I started loving football again You're so right, the NL game is played in the style we remembered. That Arsenal game two years back pretty much sealed it for me. One of the worst games I have ever watched live.

Yeah I agree 100% When I went to see Leicester in the UCL at Copenhagen I was amazed by their fans back in 2016 They were in the ground orchestrating noise over an hour before the game. We have our moments over past few years but it’s getting worse now. Tbf we’re a fractured society now that’s fully molly coddled with little life left so it’s no surprise big clubs are woefully supported now

This is a super website to take a look at for attendances https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/southern-football-league-premier-central-division/attendances Harborough averaging just over 500 this season

That’s quite some away support indeed I do wonder what will happen when their fantastic form tails off and/or LCFC pick up again. I think we’re on a crest of a wave at the moment for non-league attendances below National League and hopefully none of the clubs are taking it for granted. The hardcore numbers at Brackley must be about 500-600 judging by run of the mill Tuesday games. It’s only big games that the floaters turn up and there are no big clubs near here either. I suspect many that float in are bigger club fans that moved down here (like me tbh). I’ve been involved in amateur sports (+ my wife helps in sporting charity work) and numbers often capitulate just after everything is going so well. Good luck to Harborough tomorrow, the NL North is a great league and a real favourite of mine. Some very big clubs in it and some very small ones too so it’s a real interesting mix. Just gotta enjoy these moments

So pleased Brackley went up, it’s a huge step for such a small club. Some very useful players in the team and they are a real unit too that plays good football. Danny Newton was on Vardy’s V9 Academy and you can see it in his style. He’s a nuisance to defences. I went to 15 games this current season but annoyingly a family do stopped me from attending yesterday’s match. Crowds range from 600 to 1700 but realistically the typical attendance is 600-800. Huge clubs to play next year like Southend, Oldham etc so going to be some test indeed.

Exactly this, I bet.half of the resale Liverpool tickets went to fake scousers from Leicester that have a membership just in case a ‘big’ club turns up and they can watch a so called superstar. Good news is there are no superstars in the championship so it will be interesting to see how the ticket re-sale goes then once stuck in mid table. If we can ring fence the PL and get the rest of football back to something we once loved then that can’t come quick enough.

Popped mine on the LCFC re-sale platform at 1.18pm today and it was sold by 1.19pm Had no idea match was already sold out until today but at least it gives someone the chance to go instead of me at a fairer price.

I’m similar to you, slightly younger and it was more the early 90s that I grew up with. All players are now a poor version of their former incarnations. They have no personality either. Character wise they’re not even a patch on the footballers from the early 2000s. I only regained my love for the sport when I stepped away from big club football and started to follow a non league team nearly 5 years ago. There is life away from the big clubs, you don’t have to commit to the whole season and it’s easy to go with friends that can’t overly commit either. The quality of football isn’t too far off what we had 30 years ago, not the same I get it, but a good competitive and honest level. I wish fans from other clubs would snap out of the zombie like behaviour too but I doubt it. The only way it changes is if supporters remove their attention from it and stop going. Leicester literally had the perfect storm which is more of the reason why so many dislike them now. If it weren’t for relegation, then the other gripes would have been ignored.

I'd happily go back to 1990s football, none of the current nonsense dished up In fact it came to my realisation I was losing love for top flight football when they did the first (I think) of the regular light shows v Liverpool in the 19/20 season - I just watched thinking my time is coming to an end supporting this sort of football nonsense. Good luck @ozvaldo with the banner, I hope the cameras pick up the display, disappointed to be missing it as I sold my ticket on re-sale (fed up of wasting money with my seat empty most matches)

Hi @OntarioFox and anyone else interested! This website is superb for tracking official attendances all the way down the leagues. Click on the teams and you’ll see match by match crowds all the way back to 2012 https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league-north/attendances

Superb write up of your experience, it looks like a great day out. I ditched the clown show too and support my new local team since 2020, I’m aiming to be at Leamington away on Monday but I can’t make the last game of the season so I’m not happy or impressed that my Mum organised a family event for that day! I’ve moaned and whined for weeks but it’s not got me any further with getting out of the event. My brother in law (and his family) came down a few weeks back and watched Brackley v Buxton with us. He hadn’t been to any game since visiting Man Utd in 2017 and since then he has been to two Radcliffe games in NL North. He’s got the bug back too. Keep those reports coming as it’s great to read them.

That's incredible, just shows us why non-league is so good these days. I've seen so many matches where a bottom of the league team can look as good as a top team. I was at Brackley v Oxford City today for a 1-0 win to put us tied in top spot with Kidderminster. Almost 1700 in today with vast majority being home fans. Lewis Hall was in attendance supporting his brother which was nice to see.

I can completely resonate with your story too as mine is almost identical to yours Actually there isn't a single point you made that differs from my perspective now from old grounds to the awful treatment of supporters. I lost all the love for the top flight (and wannabe PL clubs too) especially in 2020 when it became apparent that we were no longer important to these clubs anymore. The big clubs were never going to help the smaller outfits so from that point on I wanted my footballing funds to go to non-league and not to big clubs anymore. As soon as the NL North re-opened for that brief window I headed to a couple of nearby non-league fixtures at Banbury and Brackley with the latter winning a myself (and a good mate) over instantly. I dropped my ST for good last week and it felt good getting that burden off my shoulders which became an utter chore near the end (including last season where I stopped going after a few games). I managed to sell my Liverpool ticket on the official LCFC ticket site so I may head to one final game to say a farewell but tbh I'm not overly fussed at even doing that now. I'm sure relatively good times will be back for LCFC but I won't be returning for them unless on a rare occasion I'm lucky enough to get a digital ticket gifted to me on the lovely new restrctive system they have put in. With them being back in the mix with 20+ similar sized wannabe PL clubs they will most likely see much less success going forward and at best brief flirts with the PL. Do you know what I will not miss... sitting crammed next to supporters getting frothed up about a bad pass and getting home feeling like you've had a round in the boxing ring! I'm only Messi height and build but my word those seats are getting worse as our fellow humans seem to be growing in size these days encroaching onto the surrounding seats somewhat!

Well after 27 consecutive years being a season ticket holder it is fully confirmed that I am now divorced from LCFC I was adament that I'd not renew and had that final wobble at 4.59 on Wednesday so decided not to fire off my email to request my DD ends along with auto renewal. I felt awful afterwards knowing I'd commited to another season when in reality I'd be lucky to go to 3-4 games I was driving back home from Leicester last night and after 3x M1 lane closures taking the traffic down to 1 lane each time so a worker could have a donut in peace, my mind was made up. So I fired the email off today and fair play to them they cancelled it and as soon as I recieved the confirmation email it was like a weight off my shoulders. A strange story I know, but I fully understand all who have gone through a similar feeling to this and only to renew. I still love the club I watched in the 90s, plus the disaster years in the 2000s and my favourite season was still the L1 08/09 as I got to see lots of fantastic away grounds I had never been to before. It's just since 2020, I had lost my love for the club and in reality all big club football. I could not bring myself to keep going and donating money to millionaires any longer, that let's be honest could not care one bit about their customers (we're not fans now are we) Like I said, fair play to LCFC to cancel it after the deadline and I'm so happy that's it now!

Yeah 100% Leicester good seasons - we don’t want you, but pls stay on a list and be happy overpaying for our membership Leicester atrocious season - please come and support us, we need you! We have huge gaps in the corners to fill. Leicester improve - then jump through more hoops again! You dare share your ticket or not turn up for 95% of the games and we’ll banish you for life! Rinse and repeat

Yeah it's a circus now, good riddance to the PL and if the so-called big clubs want to leave, the door is open for them to go anytime they want!

I think that's a very fair reason to keep going, the social apsect is still very important. You'll enjoy no VAR for sure + I'm sure they'll score a goal again in the Championship! If I still lived in the county I'd have renewed I'm sure as next season should in theory be more enjoyable, but living 50 mins away it became a chore. Maybe we shouldn't travel silly distances to games, not thinking environmental reasons, just it's a long way for a lot of fans to travel. The peripheral often fall away in tough times.