Out of love with the game? Maybe.

I don't know if this belongs on the "Banter" Section or would be better in "Wandering Minds" but since it pertains to BWFC at least in part I'll stick it on Banter. If the mods want to move it I'm fine with that. Basically it boils down to one thing. Have I fallen out of love with football? Let me explain a bit further.

A couple of weeks ago we played Blackburn Rovers at home. I had tickets to the match for myself and my Rovers supporting brother but in every other season where this fixture has been played the approach of match day has been something I really enjoyed and I've always looked forward with great anticipation to the game itself. This time it was different, for one thing during the week before the match I found myself wondering if the effort of switching a shift at work, driving to Leyland to get my brother before heading for the flat iron car park in Chorley before catching the train to Horwich Parkway and walking up that hill to the stadium before doing the whole thing in reverse a couple of hours later was really worth it? I was seriously tempted to say no and stream the match from home or maybe even not watch it all. In fact I could probably have enjoyed a quiet afternoon with Wendy puttering about the garden or going out for a bar snack and a walk somewhere instead of what suddenly felt like all the faff and kerfuffle of going to watch the Trotters. By the way, I went to the match which was even more dire than I feared it would be and I wasn't alone thinking that. On the way home my brother told me he hadn't enjoyed it either although he was happy with the result.

But the malaise is deeper than simply being disaffected by what's happening at the UOBS. Normally I would make it a point to watch Match of The Day and any live football that's on BT Sport or the terrestrial channels plus of course the EFL show on Quest. However this season I've found it a chore and have on several occasions either forgotten to put the footie on or actually decided to watch something else. I don't talk about football with the guys at work the way I used to either and frankly I don't really care about which player is being sold to whom or how much they get paid. I used to, in fact I used to follow pretty much all League football avidly and whether it was the Lancashire Combination or the World Cup Finals I knew at least something about that league or competition and something about the teams and players in it. Maybe I'm just getting old or perhaps it's just the way football is structured and run now but I find it well nigh impossible to muster much if any enthusiasm for the game as a whole. My brother said this happened to him a few years ago but that he actually refound his love for Blackburn Rovers at least not long after Steve Keane got the boot.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else has felt a similar way here. I still love the Trotters and always will but I just don't know if it's worth all the time, effort and money I put into it as I have been doing. Maybe when going to a match feels like a chore it's time to stop for a while? What do the rest of you think?

Of course you should stop going if it becomes a chore to you Peter, it is a game and nothing more and people who somehow think their (and everyone else's) life should revolve around their local football club have clearly lost perspective on what is real life and what is escapism from it for 90 minutes or so every other week.

I've never bought into it that your not a real fan unless you go to every game, even if the football you are watching is dire. You might well be a sheep if all you do is simply follow the flock all the time and can't determine for yourself that football is not a punishment to be endured but an entertainment to be enjoyed.

I can only speak for myself but my interest in football revolves around BWFC almost exclusively in the last decade or so and I have very little interest in other teams (including when England play) other than what you inevitably see/hear on the news headlines.

I get my enjoyment these days by chatting about BWFC on Nuts with fellow Wanderers - it does for me and I couldn't care less if anyone thinks I'm a shit fan or not for doing so.

If they want to get a medal for going to every home match since Nat Lofthouse was a boy, then good for them, but it certainly as never been part of my life to do the same.

So my advice Peter would be go and enjoy your football (Bolton/Match of the Day/Radio Nuts/whatever) when you feel like it or alternatively do something other than that like your gardening or nipping off to the pub with Wendy, when that is what you would rather do instead.

Football to me is more about getting away from real life for a couple of hours, rather than it is your real life and somehow you aren't complete unless you are some sort of a slave to it.

Don't know if this helps you or not though?

It does mate and thanks. I just feel so damned apathetic towards it at the moment. I don't even think it's because the football's poor since I was ever present through the 80's days including John McGovern's reign. It's just that the buzz I used to get from football isn't there anymore. It might be age, it maybe the way the game's changed or just that as I've got older my priorities have shifted to the point where watching grown men kick an inflated leather bag around a field is just not important enough to spend all that energy and cash on.

To be honest for the moment at least I'd rather be on the Portal on match day sipping a decent brew and having a banter with the other Nutters than sitting in a plastic seat freezing my butt off and getting a headache from listening to the various songs and epithets that surround me. I've got a season ticket but I've only been to four games this season and I don't even know when I'll go again whereas in previous years I'd have all that planned out for the whole season before the opening day kick off.

Sluffy wrote:If they want to get a medal for going to every home match since Nat Lofthouse was a boy, then good for them,

Where do I get this medal you speak of?

I can only speak for myself, but I watch Wanderers out of habit and nothing else. But my loyalty is being tested by Chorley FC.

Watching Bolton in the 90s and early 2000s was magnificent. The rise up the leagues, the cup runs, and finally reaching the promised land in the shape of the Premier League, and even Europe. Few other clubs can claim to have had such a fantastic ride over the last 25-30 years. But let's be honest, what else is there to achieve? Even if we somehow get back to the Premier League, we've done that before so it's not going to bring the same excitement as it did a few years ago.

Another factor is the pathetic atmosphere at home games. The ground is too big which doesn't help, but when was the last time anyone, hand on heart, can say they enjoyed the atmosphere? Notts Forest at the end of last season would be my guess. And before that? Probably Peterborough at home exactly a year before that.

Now let me tell you about Chorley. There is always a good atmosphere. Obviously the ground is smaller and tighter, so 1500 bodies can create one hell of a racket. And being stood up helps, Burnden with 5,000 people inside created a much better atmosphere than the Macron with 15,000 in attendance. I have no idea why, it just does.

Price is obviously a massive problem as well. Who wants to pay £25+ for a ticket? You could take your family to the cinema for that, or have a cheap meal out. I don't care what Ken says, your average fan isn't going to pay that to watch the dross on offer. Chorley charge £12, still too much, but at least you get a small amount of value for money.

I'll probably keep watching Bolton because it's in my blood, but if Chorley do get promoted to the National League I won't think twice about changing allegiance.

So here's my answer Peter. Forget the hassle and expense of Bolton, and walk to the next Chorley game.

Since my Mum's accident, and consequent hip replacement, the Wanderers have had to go on the back burner. We're still pretty busy doing a few alterations to her house, in order to make her day to day life easier, and I've missed the last few home matches. 
Having been a regular since 1959, it's more than a little odd to spend match days doing something else, but, needs must.
Travelling to the game is no problem, if I have my lift, but when that is unavailable it has to be a bus to Leigh, then the stadium bus. 
I can understand how Peter feels, but anyone who reads my posts on here will no doubt be aware that I have a mental age of 12, and this translates to my relationship with football, and the Whites in particular.
I still get ridiculously excited as any new season approaches, the arrival of my season ticket eliciting a trance like state of euphoria bordering on the psychotic.
I still collect programmes/memorabilia, much of it piled up on my desk awaiting its fate, and making the place look even more of a mess.
I can't imagine I'll ever change. I'll drag myself up to the WSU for as long as physically possible, and hope that I can reach the grand old age of 90, when my ST will be free. Happy days.
Whenever my life has gone tits up, and it has, I've always had the Wanderers to escape to. They're my very own panic room.
Long may it continue.

i still have a season ticket but missed quite a few games last season due to family commitments and other things. I may not be at the next 2 home games either but it doesn't bother me like it used to. I used to hate missing matches but things change and like the comments above i will always go the match just not as religiously as i did when i first started going 30 years ago.

Well, if Arsenal's 3 goals on Monday night don't rekindle love of the game, I don't know what will. Sublime attacking play, especially by Ozil. Sumptuous stuff..... If only our cast-offs and cheapies could conjure up just one similar.....