My admiration for our fans who travel away.. but why do you do it these days ?

[swansvalleyjack]

So, while I'm a long time fan, I'm primarily a regular home fan with occasional trips away.

For the Cooper, Martin, Duff, Williams, and now Sheehan timescale I've been increasingly bored and frustrated.

So what I'd like to understand is the mindset of our fans who, apart from attending home games, regularly attend away games. I'm not talking about your "nearby" weekend Bristol or Birmingham type games, but your long distance midweek type games eg Preston on a wet cold Wednesday night

I just take my hat off to you

But how do you do it ( not by car or bus I mean !). But why - the football is so bad at home, what prompts you to go away as well on those midweek trips ??

Is it just habit (like I tend to do at home) ?

Is it mainly the travel with mates, not the football ?

Then there's the cost. Let alone miserable defeats more likely on the road away !

I'm really curious and maybe it'll give me some better reasoning to put up with the home crap these days ( years I mean since Cooper !)

 

[Smurph]

These days if I travel away it's more a case of spending time with friends and family rather than actually going to watch the actual match if that makes sense?

It's a chore watching us at home so I take my hat off to anyone who makes midweek trips to places like Preston.

 

[cmajack]

So, while I'm a long time fan, I'm primarily a regular home fan with occasional trips away.

For the Cooper, Martin, Duff, Williams, and now Sheehan timescale I've been increasingly bored and frustrated.

So what I'd like to understand is the mindset of our fans who, apart from attending home games, regularly attend away games. I'm not talking about your "nearby" weekend Bristol or Birmingham type games, but your long distance midweek type games eg Preston on a wet cold Wednesday night

I just take my hat off to you

But how do you do it ( not by car or bus I mean !). But why - the football is so bad at home, what prompts you to go away as well on those midweek trips ??

Is it just habit (like I tend to do at home) ?

Is it mainly the travel with mates, not the football ?

Then there's the cost. Let alone miserable defeats more likely on the road away !

I'm really curious and maybe it'll give me some better reasoning to put up with the home crap these days ( years I mean since Cooper !)

Spent the best part of 45 years travelling to away games , been to about 75 different grounds , many 3 or 4 times. Guess it's a combination of things, Swansea is miles from everywhere (it's nearly always a 10 hour bus ride there and back) don't think footballers give much of a toss these days where they play (always kissing the badge till the next bigger pay offer arrives) . The cost of everything as well, it's a dear day out travelling away for games . The combination of all those put together made up my mind I'd had enough of watching away games. Got lots of admiration for those that do go , particularly as the last few years have been anything but fun to watch , particularly with our possession based style with very little goalmouth action going on .

 

[JackFish]

I went to pretty much every away game for about 10 years when I was younger, including things like the paint trophy and Welsh cup. It's a lot more fun when you're winning a decent percentage of the time! Still do most of the close games - midlands and London - but couldn't imagine making the trip up to somewhere like Preston midweek at the moment. It was great fun watching Ferrie Bodde pinging one in from the half way line last time I did that mind!

 

[jacabertawe]

Bladder says no more.

 

[Colin-swansea]

I take my hat off to the much maligned Ugo Valerio Travel Club who has been travelling around the country for a long, long time until he was shafted by the club who thought they could do better.

 

[Pentyrchjack]

I still travel to lots of away grounds and prefer to go to places you would not otherwise go to if it wasn't for the footie eg Middlesbrough, Charlton, Portsmouth etc

I mainly travel from home near Cardiff or sometimes make an epic flight and hire car when I'm living in Stockholm.

It gets me away from the domestic humdrum and, because Lady Pentyrch hates footie, it gives me a break and an excuse...

 

[swansvalleyjack]

As good reasons as any . Honest that the football on the pitch is secondary here.

I guess that was the reason for my initial query, it can't be the "enjoyment" on the pitch to take fans to long distance places midweek, so what is it ?

 

[PSumbler]

I take my hat off to the much maligned Ugo Valerio Travel Club who has been travelling around the country for a long, long time until he was shafted by the club who thought they could do better.

Indeed so and echo this and great to still see Ugo in the crowd at away games when the camera pans around occasionally

Haven’t been away myself since we lost 5-0 at West Brom in coopers first season (back end of 2019) - did so many over the years first with mates and then more so with my daughter in the years she watched us but now no desire to do the trips and give up a Saturday or midweek to do it

 

[TerryPHELAN]

Such is the dross that’s been served up recently, I have admiration for any fan that makes a trip to the .com these days!

 

[PSumbler]

And thats another bit for me its been hard enough getting motivation to watch us at home in recent years let alone finding any energy to spend a hundred or so quid watching us away from home

 

[monmouth]

Except for the regular trips to Gashton Gate, I only do it now to combine it with a weekend away to a place we've never been, or want to go to again. A nice country spa hotel, and the actual match and inevitably losing (in all my away trips since 1978, I think we've lost at least 90% of the time!) becomes less of a downer.

Haven't been to any this season and no plans this side of the new year. Maybe East Anglia, but at the moment the football isn't a consideration.