Why do you love city?

[Bob Weasel Fox]

My uncles on my mams side of the family took me to see Leicester away at Notts County in the 1979-80 season we got promoted as champions and ive supported them ever since. I was born in Leicestershire (Loughborough sadly!!!) and currently live in the middle of the City, Leicester proud, and live for the footy, dont go as often at present (due to being a shift worker and other associated shitty excuses) but my heart is always with the club even when i am not there

[Guest Col city fan]

My uncles on my mams side of the family took me to see Leicester away at Notts County in the 1979-80 season we got promoted as champions and ive supported them ever since. I was born in Leicestershire (Loughborough sadly!!!) and currently live in the middle of the City, Leicester proud, and live for the footy, dont go as often at present (due to being a shift worker and other associated shitty excuses) but my heart is always with the club even when i am not there

Well said mate.....

I couldn't imagine mi life without footy... Genuinely

And to see City at Wembley this year would no doubt bring a tear to my eye

[Ilkeston_Fox]

Because there's no other roller coaster like it! Having grown up with Derby and Forest fans I've loved every second of it. Yes Leicester haven't won any 'major' trophies but how many Forest or Derby fans my age (26) can say they've been to Wembley 4 times to see their team play? When was the last time either of them won anything?

Loved every second supporting Leicester, wouldn't change it for the world. This year is my 20th year going to Leicester games - they'll be many more years to come of that you can be sure!

[Salieri]

Sad but true that LCFC play a massive role in my life, sandwiched nicely between my kids (1st) and my missus (3rd).

[_Fatboyslow_]

Because they never make it easy for a supporter.

If you survive ten years with Leicester City, you can survive anything.

This

[Ibbyfox]

I have to admit shamefully that I tagged onto Derby as kid at school because it was mid seventies and they were winning the league - I was a shameful glory supporter like most of my mates. Never went to a game though luckily and my dad (not into football) offered me a choice of going to a Derby game or the money instead as my 12th birthday present ........... I took the money

My Leicester supporting mate took me to a game in 1987 (I was 19 then) against Bournemouth and we lost an awful game 1-0 at Filbert Street and I was hooked ever since.

I blame my early indiscretion on not having any proper football supporters in the family, but I was lucky to be able to see the error of my ways - was a close shave though! I've made sure to be that football influence to young members of my family though and am pround to have been that influence in making my 20 year old nephew and 19 year old niece true blue Leicester supporters.

[Trav Le Bleu]

[Haydos]

LCFC is like another family member. Football's weird.

[Finnegan]

Proper fan doesn't 'pick' his team, his life picks it for him. Had no real interest in football til we moved to England, then Leicester was my local team. No real option.

[Finnegan]

Because if you don't support where you're from you really are plastic.

Oh, hmm.... **** my last post then!

JACK ARMY!!

[Guest Bilo]

Because my dad dragged me up to Filbert Street to watch the boys when I was 8 and I quickly got hooked.

It was either that or go to M&S with my mum, in which case I'd have grown up like a white Gok Wan. I'm camp enough as it is without that shit.

[Finnegan]

Erm, you ARE the white Gok Wan.

[Guest Bilo]

Only in looks Finners, not behaviour.

[FrankieADZ]

I dont know,its kinda ingrained now, ever since i started going to watch at 5yrs old...

tho...we go thru hard times sometimes....I still love it

[steveherbe]

Because if you don't support where you're from you really are plastic.

Not so. I was born and bred in Barwell, so obviously I'm a City fan. But moved to hampshire in '86, and my son was born here (Sol the wall Bamba, he posts here occassionally). Based on your theory, he should be a Southampton fan, but he's as blue as everyone else on here, a credit to the club - and his dad! Sometimes, who you support is genetic, and in his case thats true.

[Tielemans63]

Grew up in the Western Park area only a couple of miles from Filbo to a family of City fanatics - don't remember ever not supporting City!

[PegguyArphexad]

Not so. I was born and bred in Barwell, so obviously I'm a City fan. But moved to hampshire in '86, and my son was born here (Sol the wall Bamba, he posts here occassionally). Based on your theory, he should be a Southampton fan, but he's as blue as everyone else on here, a credit to the club - and his dad! Sometimes, who you support is genetic, and in his case thats true.

Same story as me. Dad is a Leicester boy through and through. Came down to Southampton where I was created but I guess its genetic. I am a blue all the way through. Can't explain it but when Leicester play I feel every kick. Don't get that with Southampton...

Sometimes your body tells you who to support, not geography.

[Earl Shilton Lee]

This seems as good a thread as any to make my first post.

Why do I love City? I've no idea. It certainly wasn't love at first sight. I'd been to Leicester games in the late 1980s and early 1990s before I formed any sort of attachment to the club. My dad was determined that I'd become a football fan, I suppose, but I just wasn't interested. Even if I had been interested as a very young boy I'd probably have ended up a Birmingham City fan. My dad supports them and my uncle played for them before moving to Wolves in the late 80s. So there's another candidate. When I finally came round to football I guess Leicester just about had a head start. It's where I was from and I'd been to see them live. And I wasn't aware of football beyond Leicester. I didn't know that Manchester United had just won their first league title in twenty-six years for example. I could easily have ended up a United fan otherwise. What's unattractive about heroes collecting trophies when you're a nine year old boy?

I fell in love with the game before I fell in love with the club. I don't quite remember how it happened but in the summer of 1993 I began to play football with my mates on the green in front of our house on Goodwood Crescent. That autumn I started attending football practice at Whitehall Primary School. I was delighted when the PE teacher, Mr Bull, pinned up a team sheet on which, next to the number twelve, was written my name. I'd made it! Or so I thought. It wasn't until I got to Leicester General Hospital's social club, where my Mum had taken me for a celebratory drink and bowl of chips, that I realised that the eleven men on the pitch included the goalkeeper. My dreams of becoming a professional footballer ended there. But it didn't matter; I'd caught the football bug.

I remember the first time I watched a match as a Leicester City supporter very well. I wasn't even there. Our home game against Nottingham Forest (which may have been played at the City Ground due to the construction of the Carling Stand - somebody here will remember better than I, I'm sure) was the featured Sunday match on Central Television. We won 1-0 thanks to a scrappy headed goal scored by David Speedie. And that was that. I was now a Leicester City fan. Perhaps if Stan Collymore or Steve Stone or Scott Gemmill had done for us that day I'd have ended up a Forest supporter. I seem to remember wanting Leicester to win that game even before Speedie scored, but I can't swear to it. So in essence my answer to the question posed in this thread is "David Speedie's balding head".

I can't claim to have never wavered. Like most young men embarking on a long-term relationship I had my doubts. Indeed I very nearly cheated. It was Boxing Day 1993 (or perhaps the day after, but Boxing Day sounds nice so we'll go with it) and we'd just drawn 4-4 with Watford at Filbert Street. We are comfortably above Watford in the league and in my ten year old mind that meant that we should win. I was in a strop that evening and told my Dad I'd had enough. I was going to support Newcastle United. Kevin Keegan's side were exciting, they were winning, and they had Andy Cole. Well, I don't remember another telling off like it. Dad stopped short of giving me a slap on the back of the legs, but I was told in no uncertain terms that I'd picked my team now and switching was out of the question. I was forced to remain a Leicester City fan. So I guess it was just as well that I got used to the feeling of disappointment early on.

A few months later and I was delighted he'd made that decision for me. We didn't have much money so I didn't get to games very often. Mostly I'd rely on the words of Neville Foulger to keep me informed of our progress on the pitch. Every Saturday I'd play out as normal but I was never completely happy until I knew the Leicester score. On one occasion I was playing in a friend's garden and asked his Mum what the score was. She told me that we were losing 2-0 to Wolves at home, I wasn't having that. I didn't believe her. I wanted to hear it from Nev. By the time I'd annoyed her enough that she turned the radio on it was 2-2. Iwan Roberts with a brace, possibly on his debut. That made my weekend. When Dad did manage to save enough to take me to a game at Filbert Street I was as excited as a kind could be outside of Christmas Eve night. I remember watching us go 1-0 down against Grimsby courtesy of an early Clive Mendonca goal. As the end of the match drew near my Dad got up to leave. He wanted to beat the rush and he wasn't a City fan, so why not? I didn't let him. We were arguing on the steps of the Double Decker as Julian Joachim burst through the Grimsby backline to bag an injury time equaliser. I haven't left a game before the final whistle ever since.

Julian Joachim was my hero. I will never forget the feeling one Sunday morning when I woke up to my Mum handing over a crumpled piece of paper across which was scrawled Julian Joachim's signature. Steve Walsh's autograph was there too, but I didn't really know who he was. He'd been injured while I was following City. He'd introduce himself properly when he grabbed two goals against in the play off final in May against Derby County to give the club its first ever Wembley victory. I remember the play off semi final against Tranmere Rovers more clearly than I do the final, despite having watched the latter on the television. Ahead of the Tranmere game my uncle and I were crouched over the radio waiting for team news and trying to soak up the Filbert Street atmosphere by proxy. We won the game 2-1 thanks to a controversial late goal of which I can't remember the detail. I've never celebrated a goal so much before or since. That memory remains the only vivid one I have of spending time with my uncle. He died less than four years later.

I could go on, but there isn't the need. What I've written above encapsulates pretty neatly why it is that I love Leicester City Football Club. It's the memories, the child like excitement. The club is a very real part of who I am. Events in the history of Leicester City are reference points for my own personal history. It isn't anything to do with any of the cliches about the club being in my blood, nothing at all to do with the roller coaster ride which comes with supporting an average sized club from an average sized town. I support the club because I do. I love the club because it has become a part of me. It isn't rational. I don't refuse to shop anywhere other than Tesco, nor do I refuse to eat anywhere other than McDonald's. I know that in reality City is just another business and that I'm probably a mug handing over my cash to men who don't need it as much as I do. But football isn't the same as reality. When I'm at the ground every other week I escape reality. Sometimes what I watch is worse than what I am trying to escape but the habit is there and it won't be broken now. So that's why. That, and David Speedie's balding head.

[Salieri]

'fantastic first post'

Brought a tear to my eye, welcome fella.

[harpendenfox]

Beautifully written Earl Shilton Lee. Days like today are what it's all about. Sure we were well beaten by a team whose supporters barely seemed moved by a trip to Wembley. For me it was all about the pre match excitement, the journey in with my son, the magnificent support, the cries of Hallelujah when Torres scored, the 'you're just a poor man's Gerrard' banter with Lampard. The fact that we were loud and proud but behaved ourselves.

At 45 my passion for Leicester seems to get greater at a time when I should have grown up by now! Like my Dad before me, and my son now, we just love Leicester, and always will.

Sure it's been a disappointing season for the most part, but we are a proper club with proper supporters.

Up the City

[OzFox]

Family originally from the Loughboro area, and growing up in London I didn't want to be one of the Arsenal/Spurs/Chelsea supporting drones.

Also, when I started supporting Leicester in the early 70s we were really good. Stupidly I assumed it would always be that way

[OzFox]

David Speedie etc

Good read that