Bittersweet memories, that is all I am taking with me

As I stood there last Saturday watching my team Ayr United lose 3-1 at home to Partick Thistle and continue sliding inexorably towards relegation, I thought to myself what is it that makes a football supporter pick his team and then stay with them for life.

There are several factors to be considered when analysing this relationship which lasts far  longer than most marriages

How do we choose our team in the first place?

LOCATION......Most true supporters follow their home town club. I grew up in Ayr so that was the team I went to watch

GLORY HUNTERS......the people who follow the 'big' teams because they win trophies. Even back then I knew these existed when I would see buses filled with Rangers or Celtic supporters leave Ayr every Saturday

FAMILY......many people support the team that their dad supported before them. My dad was not a huge football fan but growing up in Glasgow he had always considered himself a Clyde fan. Fortunately this was not passed down.
I also have two older brothers and one of them followed Ayr while the other went in for some minor Glory Hunting by following Kilmarnock. We don't like to speak about that. Everyone makes mistakes and apart from that he was an excellent big brother

However, once you have picked your team, sometimes they 'move the goalposts' . Take a team like the aforementioned Clyde. You become a Clyde fan, like my dad, because you grow up in the vicinity of Shawfield in Glasgow and then some years later they move to Cumbernauld. I have to say here and now if Barcelona were playing every week in Cumbernauld I would still struggle to go there. This is a town which is twinned with Sodom and Gomorrah and let me tell you there are more than a few pillars of salt around Cumbernauld

There are other changes which can occur to your team that leave you wondering, what is it about my team that actually makes it my team

Stadium.......even if your team does not move all the way to a new town, sometimes they move to a new modern stadium. This may sound like a step forward but if you have ever been to the Strathclyde Homes Stadium in Dumbarton and sat in the one stand looking at three empty sides of a ground you would know otherwise. You can cut the atmosphere there with a blunt spoon

Manager .....unless you are a Manchester United supporter then most supporters' mobile phones last longer than their team's managers

Players .....as with Managers these come and go and the good ones always go a lot quicker than the bad ones. There is also a trend by many supporters to boo players who come back to play against their old teams. This has always seemed a bit harsh to me but at Ayr there are fans who would boo a player even if he left us to join Real Madrid. Players who have previously played for your local rivals are also subjected to abuse. I recall watching a Newcastle United v Aston Villa game earlier this season and there were so many ex-Newcastle or ex-Sunderland players in the Villa team that the home fans booed for most of the game.
Good enough for them I say.

Name .....If you were unfortunate enough to be an Airdrieonians fan not only did you move stadium but you also changed names to Airdrie United after going out of business in 2002.
I was at their last game which happened to be at Somerset Park against Ayr. With Ayr leading 1-0 the Airdrie 'fans' invaded the pitch and broke the cross-bar causing the game to be abandoned. 'Leopard' and 'Spots' springs to mind

Not surprisingly my own three sons are all football fans. The two eldest ones are Rangers fans. Growing up in Eaglesham in the 80s/90s that was not a surprising choice for those Glory Hunters. My youngest son used to come to Ayr games with me but then realised there were better things to do with his Saturdays and subsequently went to Uni in Edinburgh and then a career in London just to escape the strong urge to return to Somerset Park.

For me however, the Odyssey continues. I have followed Ayr through the bad times and the bloody awful times and now it looks as if we are going to snatch relegation from the jaws of safety. We are at home to champions-elect Ross County on Wednesday. Two years ago we had a similar fixture against Inverness Caley. We lost 7-0.

There is an old saying "Adversity brings knowledge and knowledge wisdom". All I can say then is that after watching Ayr for so many years just call me Solomon.