Highlights and lowlights of following your team

[Matt 7,365]

For me, there's one obvious heartbreaking time being a Leeds fan; we've had many disappointments over the years but relegation to the third division hurt more than any. I was a bit young and naive when we got relegated from the Premier League, despite all financial concerns i never thought it'd be any more than a couple of years before we were back. Fast forward 3 years and how wrong was I? On the verge of administration, we were staring at our lowest point in our history: the third tier of English football. But then something happened, with moments like David Healy's late winner against Preston and a brilliant penalty save securing the points against Luton it looked as though we were going to make a great escape. With 5 minutes to go, we're leading Ipswich in the penultimate game and then they put a ball in the box, our defenders switch off and their striker nods the ball home. I was stood right behind the goal, I don't think me or my 2 friends said a thing until we left the ground. Thousands of our fans ran on the pitch protesting against the chairman/owner (and unfortunately some dickheads took out their frustrations on the traveling Ipswich fans) but I just stood there with my head in my hands. A truly awful moment.

 

On the positive side I can think of 3 that stand out. Two were from the following season. We were docked 15 points, we'd put together a team on a shoestring budget after selling anyone worth a dime but the fans rallied behind the club. Not the owner, not even particularly the team or management, but ourselves; I went to a preseason friendly against York and at that point we didn't know if we were going to be in existence at the start of the season but we sang for 90 minutes and declared that "forever and ever, we're Leeds United"... But that wasn't even the highlight, the highlight was when we wiped out the 15 point deficit in 5 games. I can't remember who we beat, I want to say Hartlepool, but I do remember the vast majority of the crowd not leaving the ground for 20 minutes or so as we chanted "zero" amongst otherthings while sticking up two fingers to the football league. No matter what happens to this club, however many cowboy owners and spineless players we go through, the fans will never lie down and take it.

 

Another one was in the same season, away at Carlisle in the playoff semi. Whilst the final didn't end well, and I imagine a certain poster may well include it in his highlights (😛), we'd all resigned ourselves to extra time and penalties when Johnny Howson scuffed a shot into the bottom corner in the 91st minute. That ball seemed to take forever to cross the line and I'm not entirely sure the collective intake of breath behind the goal didn't dragthe ball over the line. Pandemonium then ensued as we realised that we might just achieve they impossible. We didn't in the end but even getting to Wembley was an achievement all things considered.

 

And finally, the final whistle at Old Trafford in January 2010. I wasn't at this game as I refused to pay 70 quid to see us get beat by Man United's 3rd team. As it turned out, they put out a strong side and we managed to beat them. I was in the pub watching it and the Beckford goal was obviously well celebrated. But as the clock went over 90 minutes, it had Fergie time equaliser written all over it. They didn't deserve it but we'd seen it so many times over the years that we almost all couldn't bear to watch. I don't think I'll ever forget my mate Chris shouting "COME ON BLOW THE FUCKING..... GET IN!" in my ear, I've never heard a roar like it in a pub... I'd think the Man United fans in the pub 3-400 yards up the road heard us.

 

Anyway, whether you were there or watching at home, what are your highlights and lowlights of supporting your team?

[Ms. Canadian Destroyer 6,544]

Last year was a disappointment as a Blue Jays fan, but the two years prior were such a delight.

Jose's bat flip. Donaldson's dash home. Edwin's walk off home run. 

[Maxx 16,749]

Three super bowls in my first 10 years of being a fan.  Zero in the next 22.

[Bobfoc 3,895]

My team of choice has been a stressful one to follow. You could condense the scope of the topic down to last week, with the 4-1 win over Crewe in front of over 17,000 fans followed by an 8-1 thrashing at Swansea live on BBC television.

Looking further back, there have been a couple of Playoff triumphs at Wembley, although that's going back over twenty years now. Some FA Cup upsets, such as beating then-Premier League teams Wigan and Sunderland away from home in consecutive years, are particular highlights.

As far as lowlights are concerned, I've lost count of how many relegations I've seen. There have also been two points during which the club was potentially within days of ceasing to exist, so those weren't pleasant times. Right now, I'm glad the club's still around and with an owner who cares.

[Lineker 32,550]

Highlights: The first 60 minutes

Lowlights: The final 30 when we Spurs it

[Melly Sanders 2,792]

*something about Joe Flacco being an elite quarterback*

[It's Pronounced Zoom-E 2,431]

For NFL, my highest was just this year, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. The low light has been the years of Bobby Hoying and Ty Detmer, as well as losing the first Super Bowl to the Pats and the consecutive NFC Championship games.

NCAA highlight is when PSU beat Florida State I think in triple overtime, and the lowlight being the Sandusky stuff and JoePa being who he was. From a basketball standpoint, watching my area's local college, Bucknell, upset the 3-seed Kansas in the Tourney back in I think 06 or 07 was amazing to watch.

 

I only became a Liverpool fan in the last 10-ish years so many lowlights. My first memory of my fandom was the Riise own goal against Chelsea in the first leg to give them an equalizer at the death; selling Torres who I loved; the Europa League Final loss; and of course, the slip. My highlights are the comeback against Dortmund, the FSG takeover saving the club; and the game against Man City in the 13/14 season. I truly thought we were winning the title after that match.

For the USMNT, the bullshit against Germany in the 02WC, going to my first qualifier this year and watching them lose to Costa Rica, the way we fell apart to Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup, and obviously, the Trinidad game and failing to qualify for the WC. Highlights are Benny's screamer to win the 07 Gold Cup and that Landon Donovan goal against Algeria in the 2010 WC. That was magical.

[Gorka 1,005]

I do remember as a child being gutted by Swansea losing to Barnsley in the play-off final in 2005, despite not really being into football and the team until 2006. Because of when I started supporting Swansea, the highlight/lowlight balance is definitely in favour of highlights.

Guillem Bauza's double against Gillingham to secure the League One title in 07/08 was probably my first major highlight. From then on, Swansea became synonymous with good possession football, and it was great to see the club getting more and more attention for the playing style (even if it slacked off under the likes of Sousa). Beating Cardiff is always a highlight, whether it was in the first South Wales derby for ages back in 2008, or Pratley's volley in a 3-2 thriller and Emnes' twenty-yard strike.

The whole play-off campaign in the 2010/11 season was special. The tightest of draws with Forest after playing with ten men for eighty-eight minutes in the first leg, and a second leg that featured a belter from Leon Britton and Darren Pratley scoring from the halfway line to get us to Wembley. The play-off final against Reading is one of the happiest days of my life, and I frequently rewatch the goals from that game. It's weird but I probably value the play-off win over the League Cup win a couple seasons later, probably only because of the drama that surrounded the match with a 3-0 nil almost slipping, versus a five-nil domination. But still, the League Cup was a fantastic achievement, and I'm glad to have witnessed it as well. Then again, the League Cup win allowed us to beat Valencia three-nil in Spain and take Napoli to the limit. The Premier League era has given me a bunch of great memories with some of the results against top teams.

The lows? Definitely the incompetence behind the scenes over the last few years, whether it's managerial stints, transfer targets, new owners or transparency between board and Supporters' Trust becoming less and less so. The fortunes have changed slightly, but it doesn't excuse the shambolic nature of the club at this current time. It's just a matter of time before relegation happens, and the project of the last decade and a half comes crashing down. Then there's individual lows like seeing Swans thumped in person, losing to Cardiff due to gutless performances or last minute goals, and the fact I have yet to see Swansea win in the last seven matches I've attended, and the last five away matches I've been to.

[GA! 10,907]

Grimsby Town

 

Highlights: 1997-1998

Lowlights: 2002-2016, and if we lose anymore games: 2018-?

[Bobfoc 3,895]

18 minutes ago, GA! said:

Grimsby Town

 

Highlights: 1997-1998

Lowlights: 2002-2016, and if we lose anymore games: 2018-?

No mention of the victory over Liverpool?

[Liam 4,879]

For Fulham, it was the run to the Europe League Final, in particular the 4-1 victory at home over Juventus. Look at the beauty that was Dempsey's chip for the win:

As for lowlights, getting relegated from the Premiership is the obvious one. Considering the Great Escape, where we were mathematically relegated before Diomansy Kamara's hat-trick:

It was the manner in which we went down that upset me the most. We rolled over and never looked like fighting our way out of the relegation zone.

 

[Colly 12,910]

I think this sums it up. 

[The Chiksrara Special 29,305]

The entire year of 2016 was the highlight. Losing over 100 games in 2012 and Steve Bartman were the lowlights.

[Adam es Tranquilo 6,249]

With Rovers, the highlights are the unbelievable title win at Brentford in 2013 (doubt I'll ever experience anything remotely like that again), getting back out of the Conference in the Play Off Final in 2003 and defeating Leeds at Wembley to go up in 2008. Lowlights...the 'experiment' season of Diouf, Piquionne et al ruining our club in 2011/12, and going 17 games without a win on the way to relegation two years ago. I am young enough to have just missed the 90's disgrace of our chairman trying to burn down the stadium as we plunged out of league football and very nearly out of existence.

Cardinals...I became a fan with the Super Bowl loss to the Steelers, so beyond that it's probably the epic Play Off victory over the Packers a couple of seasons ago to get to the NFC Championship game...and then that NFC Championship game is the lowlight, getting royally spanked by the Panthers despite having a team capable of winning it all. Can't even put seeing the Cards live for the first time in either category because, whilst it was an amazing experience we lost without scoring a point so it evens out really.

[Cajun Cloudad 16,591]

1 hour ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

The entire year of 2016 was the highlight. Losing over 100 games in 2012 and Steve Bartman were the lowlights.

108 years.

[Los Ingobernables De VP 9,308]

Highlights of being a Detroit Lions fan: Barry Sanders. 

Lowlights: literally everything. 

[million$$man 409]

Tampa Bay Lightning:

Highs: Being there live to see the team win the Stanley Cup. Anything after Jon Cooper came aboard.

 

Lows: Anything pre-Lecavalier. Hiring Barry Melrose as coach. But the most egregious is the drama with Chris Gratton. 

The team contended that it traded Gratton to Chicago for Ethan Moreau, Keith Carney, and draft picks. The trade was overturned as the NHL said he signed a restricted free agent tender with the Flyers. 

We then claim that we matched the offer sheet, but a smudged fax apparently overturned that. It then went to arbitration.

In his book, Phil Esposito claimed that he then worked out a trade between the teams that would send Rod Brind'Amour, Mikael Renberg, and Karl Dykhuis to Tampa for Gratton, however before it became official the owner called him and said he worked out a deal for Dan Kordic and Dykhuis for Gratton.... The trade ended up being Gratton for Renberg and Dykhuis.

Edited February 17 by million$$man

[Pooker 174]

Highlights of being a Utah Jazz fan: Stockton and Malone. Jerry Sloan. Despite never winning a championship, being pretty successful and making the playoffs lots.

Lowlights: Hayward leaving this past off season. Jordan pushing off in the Finals. Hell, just having out best seasons during Jordan's run is a lowlight. 

[Stick Stickly 805]

Highlights of being a Browns fan: Drafting Joe Thomas and this game.

Lowlights:

[Moses Julep 1,650]

9 hours ago, Lineker said:

Highlights: The first 60 minutes

Lowlights: The final 30 when we Spurs it

But what about all your other teams?

[Kaney 8,520]

Without going into really distant history, my favourite memory as an Arsenal fan was the 1st of the the 3 recent FA Cup wins. It was such a long time since we'd won a trophy, and to go 2 nil down that early it felt like another typical day for us. Seeing Ramsey score the winner in extra time was fuckin nice. Downsides are every other bloody week.

Celtic have been winning the league for years so there's no really been many big downsides. In my own personal history the worst was watching Mourinhos Porto cheat Celtic out of the 03 UEFA Cup final.

[Matticus 392]

For the past 25 years of going to Reading games, I've been fortunate to experience the club grow massively. From 6/7,000 a game at Elm Park to 24,000 in the prem at a new ground. 

In that 25 years, I've witnessed 4 promotions (3 of them as champions, including a record breaking points total for the championship) 6 failed play off campaigns out of 6 attempts ,( the first one we had finished 2nd, but only 2 teams went up to the premier league as they were reducing the amount of clubs from 22 to 20) twice finished 7th on last game of season missing out on play offs, a season that we were in the relegation zone at Christmas and finished 8th, 3 relegations, an FA Cup Semi Final, 2 FA Cup Quarter Finals, and 4 owners. 

Random matches include losing 7-5 to Arsenal in the Leauge Cup after being 4-1 up at half time, losing 7-4 to Portsmouth and setting the highest scoring game in premier league history, and a 6-4 defeat to spurs. 

Mostly really been 7 or 8 forgettable seasons, so there's always been something going on for the most part, especially since all the history before that consisted of a sole Simod Cup win and 3/4th tier obscurity for 100 years.

Bad omen is in 1988, 1998 and 2008 we have been relegated, and this season could end up that way too

Edited February 17 by Matticus

[GA! 10,907]

12 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

No mention of the victory over Liverpool?

We were relegated that season, never to return to the Championship.

[Bobfoc 3,895]

Fair enough, but it must have been a highlight at the time.

[Liam Mk2 2,275]

Highlight - Being in the crowd at Highbury when we beat Leicester to finish the league unbeaten. Will never, ever see that again.

Lowlight - ArsenalFanTV amongst many battering away from home, especially at Old Trafford.