1. Palace. Dad, brothers, local. Because.
2. Bury. Could never remember how to pronounce it as a kid (was it burry or was it berry) and somehow that made me notice and look into its rich and surprising history.
3. Union Berlin. The Palace of Germany. Went to see them once. Incredible.
4. Le Red Star. Lived in Paris and, as a Palace fan, had to find an underdog.
5. Shrewsbury Town. My missus is from there. We've lent them a fair few players. And in a sick way I enjoy the curse.

What are yours?

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

1. Palace. Family connections with the original Crystal Palace and the football club supported by grandad, his brother and dad who took me along every other week.
2. Sunderland. Mum was one of 13 kids and her father worked on the docks there, so felt obliged to keep an interest in their results.
3. Tunbridge Wells FC. Spent 30 years living in TW, including a period when my employer was their sponsor and I represented them at matches and functions. Also, the club's manager was a Palace fan and he arranged my tickets for the ZDS final
4. Chelsea. For no other reason than I had a customer who was a season ticket holder in the directors box and he entertained me grandly there many times.
5. MK Dons. I spent the last years of my working life at a small firm based at Milton Keynes and became interested in the club's results while I was there.

No club other than Palace has that special place in my heart.

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

Palace……..I grew up in Bromley and I dodged a couple of bullets when I was a kid back in the 70’s, I wanted to go Millwall but my dad wouldn’t let me because “they’re mad b******s” and my grandad and uncle took me to Charlton games before palace, but my grandad died and my uncle moved to Peterborough, so it ended up Palace for me once I was old enough to make my own mind up

Bromley…….grew up in the town as stated, so I’ve been there a lot over the years and every Sunday League club I played for back in my youth used the training pitch there and had all our Xmas and end of season do’s in the bar there

Sittingbourne FC……Ive lived down here for quite a few years now and a mate used to work on the turnstiles and let me slip through for nothing. I don’t go anymore because it’s a bit grim up there, but I still look for their results

Pompey……when I was at school a mate of mine started supporting them because his dad was based in the navy down there and when visiting his dad most weekends he used to go to games, they were division 4 back then and I admired him for supporting a s*** team(palace were division 3, so I couldn’t exactly lord it up over him) and I’ve always quite liked them and there great support ever since

Celtic……simply because when I was a kid in the limited TV coverage of the 70’s they used to show old firm goals Saturday dinner time on ‘on the ball’ and Kenny Dalglish was banging in the goals for them, also I just love the old firm games, so I had to pick a side

Edited by monkey (21 Feb 2024 5.37pm)

Love the answers!

If you want to live in a world full of kindness, respect and love, try to show these qualities.

Palace
Palace
Palace
Palace
Palace

beyond that, i could list the top teams i truly hate....chelsea, ManUre, Athletico Madrid, PSG, Galatasaray, plus our obligatory enmity with our neighbours Charlton, millwall & brighton.

Kayla did Anfield & Old Trafford

Palace - both parents' families from Croydon/Penge; baby clothes were all red and blue; first teddy bear was named "Tel" after TV who was manager when I was born. Need I go on.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle - same colours as Palace (especially on Championship Manager games). No other obvious reason. Great to see Duncan Ferguson up there whom I quite liked as a player.

Roma - wonderful place, wonderful people, passionate fans, based in the capital but rarely winning much, talismanic loyal players (Giannini, Conti, Totti, De Rossi). I guess I saw some similarities with Palace with players like AJ, Wilf, Cannon, Geoff Thomas etc.

Croatia - fell in love with the way they played in France 98. After England got knocked out I was cheering them on and felt they were unlucky in the semi against France. To this day I'm amazed how many top players they (1) churn out and (2) get a tune out of in the international side.

Nigeria - in laws are all from there. Most still live there. Also, I lived there for a while and it's a football mad place. Secondly, I was a massive fan of some of the 90s flair players they had (Okocha, Kanu).

Edited by RubinsCube (22 Feb 2024 4.05pm)