For any fan relegated to League One

[Andy]

1) Get over yourselves - Seriously, you are not 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, so you wont be alone. It's sad but true.

2) It is a crap division - so get used to it, crap teams, crap grounds, crap crowds and unplayable quagmire pitches - and thats just August. The 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 ****, truly ****.

3) "You're not famous anymore" - expect to hear that alot. The 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 - they will be pissing themselves, and on a weekly basis. If you lose, they'll take the piss, if you win they'll take the piss "oh wow, you beat , woohoo lol". Suck it up, there's 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.

5) Ok pop quiz - It's late February, you're a few points off the playoffs - lower than you expected to be after a dodgy set of early 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) You 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 isn't the Ryman Premier, you're not playing pub sides, these are professional players playing for professional teams, and they're not going to roll over just because you once played in Europe. You're not going to win every game 4-0, you're 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 - Do you think it was great going up to the Prem? That's nothing from the feeling of getting out of League 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, and when promotion comes the joy is augmented by bucketfuls of utter relief.

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



P.S. The above was paraphrased by myself, somebody else wrote the original many many years ago and it has been passed down.
P.P.S. Yesterday NCFC were promoted out of League One at the first attempt. Thank F*** for that.

[bristolcity]

Welcome back to The Championship!

If Leeds stay down it should be a very interesting division with no Media favourite hogging the limelight.

[wndllll]

Starpost!

[3058BURGE]

Post of the Year!

COME ON!

[Mariner13]

Thanks Andy - I'll try and remember all those things when Grimsby are playing in the Blue Square next year

Congrats on Norwich promotion btw, like you hope dirty leeds won't be joining them.

[passthedutchy]

Quite a timely post. Thanks.

Unfortunately I have already experienced that cesspit of a division as Wednesday were in there not so long ago.

Unfortunatly it looks very likley that we will have the pleasue of experiencing it again!!!

We have had over 15 years of absolute crap at Hillsborough now, but there are still far too many pricks who think we have a god given right to beat teams percieved to be smaller than us.

The painfull truth is if we do get relegated its because we deserve it.

Its because Brian Laws put together a team that wants to play nice football, but unfortuantely are crap at actually doing it. He is also proving at Burnley how the word 'defence' has been misplaced from his vocabulary.

Brian Laws - Nice man, good at beating Sheff United, crap football manager.

Alan Irvine has done a sterling job at getting us more compact, harder to breakdown, but unfortnately we just cannot score the goals required.

If the worst happens though, at least we have the opportunity to get rid of this useless set of tosspots and get in some players who actually have a backbone, spirit and hopefully just a little bit of footballing ability.

Anyway like I say we have experienced the division before and winning the Play Offs a few years back was almost better than beating Man U in the 1991 Cup Final simply becaue we out of that goddam division.



Oh and by the way,


Well done Norwich.

The Championship looks like being an even more open league next year as the teams coming down dont seem to be in that great a shape. And there isnt that many current Coke teams that seem to be building anything special, so coming up with confidence should mean you go well next year.

Maybe we will find a goal or two from somehwere, stay up see you in there.

I doubt it though..........

[Stevesharpe]

What's with all the Leeds hating? On the season as a whole we have easily been the 2nd best team in that division and deserve to go up. Well done Norwich.

Shame on you Leeds haters

[dreamylittledream]

What's with all the Leeds hating? On the season as a whole we have easily been the 2nd best team in that division and deserve to go up. Well done Norwich.

Shame on you Leeds haters

True but at the end of the day you're still Leeds

[TonyMarc]

Shame on you Leeds haters

Not me...Leeds were my favourite childhood team in the 70s and have always had a soft spot for them...they called Revie's team 'dirty Leeds'... but they miss the point... they were a great footballing side.

Hang on in there Mariner13...I remember sat watching a dispirited Doncaster Rovers losing 1:0 to Lincoln City and that season we went down to the Conference ...and the stand was burnt down by the chairman. Now look at Doncaster, new stadium, good manager and a team that don't play like donks!

[wndllll]

What's with all the Leeds hating?

I never had a problem with Leeds until this years home match when a minority of your fans went on somewhat of a rampage involving punching OAPS and spitting on disabled people. Sorry if that sounds a bit Daily Mail, but it happened and it hasn't happened against any other team we've played, even the Ipswich games in my experience.

I realise it's a minority but until someone sorts them out, you'll have this reputation.