Who do you REALLY support?

When somebody asks you "what football team do you support?", what do you answer? Think about that for a moment or two before answering. How many football clubs do you follow? Again, be honest with your answer. And, do you have a favourite Premier League (EPL) or English Football League (EFL) club as well as a favourite non-League club? Once more, you should be brutally frank with your answer. Of course, only YOU will see or know your answers, but the end result is how honest you are with other people when they ask you that question again, "What football team do you support?"

The wise person will always include each of the teams that they follow. The person that hedges their bets will always offer the EPL or EFL team only, while virtually nobody will ever think about mentioning the non-League side that they very often frequent to watch their games in relative comfort but which is not necessarily attached to a fashionable or well-known club. That is generally borne out of concern that nobody may have heard of your little non-League club and the impending conversation will grind to a halt there and then.

Then there's the other side of the coin. If you just say that you support an EPL or EFL club then the chances are that the person who asks you the initial question will have heard of that club and perhaps an engaging conversation will ensue, unlike if you mention a non-League club, where there is every possibility that the person asking the question may not have heard of them and quickly loses interest.

As a for instance here, I am always proud to mention to people when I am asked "what football team do you support?" that I support Cray Wanderers, because, especially in the past, I watched more Wands games than I did with my 'other team' which was and still is Crystal Palace. However, there were times when I went to a lot of midweek and Sunday games at Selhurst Park in the 1970s that, quite often people I knew at the time would associate me with supporting that club. As I was brought up to believe that it is rude to correct somebody who has already formed an incorrect opinion about something, I used to continue to let those people think that Crystal Palace was indeed my team.

But, was I misleading them? Sort of yes and no. They chose to believe that I was always attending Palace's home games when, in fact, I was more likely to be at Cray's games on Saturdays and some midweek matches when the occasions arose. Yet, if I had said to them 'I am a Cray Wanderers supporter', would it have made any difference?

I think that could be construed as an unanswerable question. However, as I grew a lot older and mingled with a number of football oriented people rather than casual enquirers, talking about football clubs we all supported became more open and widespread. In my own case, I was no longer labelled 'the Cray Wanderers supporter' or 'the Crystal Palace fan' but, I was recognised as both and conversations usually followed along the lines of whichever clubs popped up as flavour of the day. In my last job, for instance, I worked with a person who supported Tottenham Hotspur and Deal Town. Another of my colleagues supported Arsenal and Dover Athletic. Another supported Chelsea and Folkestone Invicta. And there were many more examples of this besides. We all had common ground in that we supported a top (or not far off top) professional side and also a non-League side.

Don't be afraid to mention your local non-League club if that is who you support most, because there may be a good chance that the person asking you "what football team do you support?" might just be a non-League aficionado themselves, or even a non-League groundhopper, both of whom would probably have heard of your non-League side. And then it can turn into a good old natter session.

Trevor Mulligan