HOW DID YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH CARDIFF CITY ?

How did you fall in love with football, and particularly Cardiff City? Make it however long as you want!

The best ones will be in the first issue of the fanzine.

My 1st game at Ninian Park I could not believe how intense the atmosphere was, I fell in love with the club from then on.
When the place was rocking, it gave me goosebumps!

Moved to Cardiff in 1987 and met and fell in love with a Cardiff born and bred girl whom i later married.I then started to take my stepson to Ninian Park to support the City and I instantly fell in love with the place, the passionate atmosphere created by the most passionate fans of any club in my opinion.Started to follow City home and away and thats when I met the mates that I have now, the best set of lads that were it not for the City I would not have found.

We all have one thing in common and that is an unbreakable bond created by our love of C.C.F.C. We know its like a rollercoaster ride with some incredible highs and more often some desperate lows but nothing will stop us from following our great Club.

got taken to my first game as a 6 year old impressionable female and wow was i impressed! dad had me kicking a ball before i did anything else and love the game with passion.was hooked as soon as i saw the city run out and heard and witnessed the noise and passion of the fans.was treated like a guest of honour by dads mates and still stand in awe at the amount of characters city have.as the years progressed i realised that city actually choose you its something you have in your blood.its a lifelong commitment.guess you could say it was love at first sight.love of a beautiful city,that has produced a team for us city fans to follow.wonderful memories of days and escapades gone by.from the dungeon days to current days whenever you go away with city you always bump into a character that youve come to know and love.will always believe that the camaraderie experienced amongst city fans is unique and second to none.living in kent helps me appreciate how fortunate i am supporting city they are not on my doorstep and to watch them as often as i do requires effort but it certainly tells me that a long distance relationship can survive,as long as you keep plugging away,and although currently hurt and dissapointed that our season ended the way it did i shall return next season full of the usual love,passion hope and belief because if i didnt i really dont think i could cope with the emptiness.your never notice how much i love you so please dont take my cardiff away

It was the first time my dad took me to Ninian Park I was 9 and the game was the Cup Winners Cup Semi Final against Hamberg the atmosphere was incredible but in the last minute Hamberg scored from a goalkeeping mistake and you could hear a pin drop.

It was incredible to witness and I remember looking at my dad who was a real bluebird fanatic and he was crying it was the one and only time I ever saw my dad cry and it upset me. I asked him why he was crying and he said to me one day you will understand and he was right because that day was 22nd May 2010 and I felt the same and so did my 9 year old grandson.

Thats what it means to be a Cardiff City fan disappointment with the odd special moment inbetween but we still keep coming back for more.

I had only previously been to Saturday games with my father, then in the early sixties, as a teenager, I went to my first evening game at Ninian Park, something about the atmosphere was different, the floodlights illuminating the stadium as you walked towards the ground down Sloper Road created a feeling I will never forget,the tingling on the back of my neck in expectation of seeing the Bluebirds in full flow, need I say anymore?

was taken to ninian park around the 1974/5 season but can't remember the experience now but a few years later went down to watch city v wrecsam with a crowd of around 27,000 , then against hereford with a crowd of around 36,000 and then remembering a south wales 11 playing man utd to raise money for newport county .Loved the whole ninian park experience from those moments on

been a regualr from 1979 on ( with a few years of juggling in and out when playing )

I'll keep it brief as it is quite simple:

Saw my first game in december 1964 and fell in love!

I fell in love with city..due to the grange end terrace...i remember watching my first game a few years back in the bob and saw the grange end bouncing and the atmosphere it was producing...I was intruiged straight away...wanted to be part of it and have never looked back...

I was hot air ballooning around europe during my gap year when i was four.i stupidly forgot to check my stock of werthers originals and ran out over port talbot.
By the time i landed i was on sloper road where i met a lovely man called eddie may.he took me in and provided food and shelter until i could restock my supplies of those loveable sweets that i can remember my grandfather giving me for the very first time.
After three weeks my delivery arrived and i was sad to have to leave cardiff but my trusty postman was supervising my goats and had faxed me to tell me that they were being constantly bothered by mags from a-ha and three of the cast of eldorado into buying a broken speedboat.hence i had to get back to the foothills of hungary immediatly.
A few months later i discovered that i was expecting my sixteenth child and that the father had to be eddie,as a result of this i knew that one day my boy would grow up to play for cardiff and a few seasons ago i was proved correct.
This is how i grew to love cardiff and i will never forget those stolen moments on sloper road in the basket of my balloon with eddie (and sometimes rick wright)

Yours with love

linda fortune west

when I grew up and stopped being a plastic.

I remember being at Ninian and the noise was immense. It felt good to be apart of. My uncle started taking me down there when we were in division 3 and I must say I loved those days more. Maybe it was because I was a kid and the atmosphere seemed louder because I only had minuscule ears. I remember it pouring down with rain and we drew, can't remember who it was against, I was more caught up in the emotion and was hungry. Then the following week I went to the Hartlepool game and we thumped them. It was absolutely amazing. Everyone was having a laugh and the whole week I was buzzing. Since that day I always had a soft spot for the City. I'll admit I was still a plastic though but I was still young to be honest. Anyway I stopped kidding myself and decided to follow City in full throttle. Best thing I ever did. Yes there are ups and downs but that comes within any family, and that's how it feels to be a Cardiff City fan.

Born in Canton to a Bluebird supporting family (some of whom were lucky enough to play for them but none you would consider 'stars' in their day)

Started going down 'occasionally' at the age of six and regularly from the age of 12

I can remember the magic atmosphere from night games and the exciting ecstacy when we scored a goal....

What a great feeling....and it's still there many years later!!

I hope you dont all think that im strictly a werthers original eater as ive also been known to enjoy the occasional chewit

Welsh Cup Cardiff versus Aberystwyth, came down to watch on a minibus which Cardiff fans stoned at full time. I was hooked.

1986.. v newport county

that was the first time i went. and shortly afterwards my dad was diagnosied with leukemia so i sort of took half a season from going down.

i guess it was him made me fall in love with the club, i remember the first time he went after having a bone marrow transplant.

He must have been nervous cos he had to wear a wig that looked nothing like his own hair, and a cap to disguise it. i nagged and nagged to go, so he gave in.

anyway city scored, and i remember looking down on the floor after celebrating and seeing what looked like a dead rat in the old family enclosure... it was the wig!! that was the day he decided that he didnt care how he looked

til the day he died it was a memory that we had, probably the first of many that city gave us.

i fell in love with the bluebirds at swansea strangley enough when my neighbour took me there to see a welsh cup reply at the vetch i was only eight years old at the time the strange thing was my dad owned a betting shop right next to the ground in paxton street i remmber to this day ronnie bird getting the two goals to win the game but what stood out for me was the blue shirts that they wore and the way they played my mother and father neighbour is still alive to this day and gutted im a bluebird .
my first visit to ninian park wasnt until the 73/74 season when city needed a point to avoid the drop they were playing crystal palace and a tony villars screamer kept us up ,i remmber the visit to ninian park it seemed a very eary place where ninian park was and the city fans seemed intimdating it was also a stinking night because it rained most of the night i was standing on grandstand enclosure near the canton stand end i was twelve years of age by then what a night it was when the ref ended the game all the fans ran on the pitch delighted city had stayed up .i was landed from that night on city were well and truely in my blood.over the years night games never changed at ninian park eary and intimdating place even i was scared of the place at times .when city had there open day before they knocked ninian park down i made a point of standing on the same spot when we played crystal palace on that night when we avoided the drop made sure i had a few photos taken while i was standing there looking at the pitch the memorise of that night came flooding black

Two occasions for me really, when i was about 6 (being youn and naive, i was a man u supporter) and i went to watch a testimonial game with my dad, i can't remember who but it was early 90's,

And i think and a year or two later the local team i played for got a half time game on the pitch! (i specifically remember one of my team mates fowling some1 and half the ninian park crowd chanting 'off off off!!!' all in good humour of course) I was forever hooked then going whenever i could with my dad!

First game for me Real Madrid as a young one in the Bob Bank with a hero uncle of mine who played for the legends that were Tynte Rovers. I will always remember that night for the rest of my life.

My next door neighbour was an avid CCFC fan and held a season ticket in the Grandstand. He asked my mother if I would want to go to the Cardiff v Tottenham Testamonial in the summer of 1997. I was 7, and then my father took me to the Cardiff v Manchester UTD friendly in 1998* (ish i'm not sure) because at the time I was a massive Man Utd fan. At that age you support the team that wins and the team whos shirt is in the nearest Sports Direct store. But I fell in love with CCFC when I was about 10. My father bought a half season ticket for me and himself as a Christmas present... and the rest is history....

Maybe it was luck that I was brought to the hallowed turf of Ninian in 2000 when the club started the metamophisis into the club it is today, but never the less I travelled away to some shitholes (and we lost) with my dad by my side. Because of the bad results and times I have endured with City, it makes me appreciate what playing in the championship really means. I will never leave CCFC even if we were a semi-pro ryman league team.

went to my first city game which was home to walsall i believe, we lost 2-1, and fell in love ever since

supported liverpool until i was about 12 when i went to my 1st game in the 1990s, stant, carl dale, cohen blakey, loved it ever since, Only one team for me now, dont care who wins if liverpool play man utd now

Im not in the mood for sweets today so i may opt for a bag of crisps.any suggestions ?

got taken down around 1997, ninian to me looked like a place i wanted to spend my saturdays at, the atmopshere and passion and you could also see the togetherness of the fans and that's something i wanted to be apart of. so got my first season ticket then and renewed it everyday since.
win or lose, promotion or relegation...i'll be there

Went to my first game with my mates from school in 1977 against Millwall at Ninian Park, just loved everything about it, the atmosphere was exiting , the crowd, the noise, and as soon as i walked into the ground i knew instantly that this was going to be a big part of my life, and it still is , both my sons have come with me over the years, my youngest son still does, and come's on the forum away trips with me.

Went to my first game with my mates from school in 1977 against Millwall at Ninian Park, just loved everything about it, the atmosphere was exiting , the crowd, the noise, and as soon as i walked into the ground i knew instantly that this was going to be a big part of my life, and it still is , both my sons have come with me over the years, my youngest son still does, and come's on the forum away trips with me.

that's right...you and your son come on the dekel keinan express. 1977..no your not that old are you mate

March 1978. Cardiff City were home to Brighton and my dad I know always went to games even before I came along.
I didnt really understand why he bothered!!!!!!!!

Then he said to me come on son, we are going to Ninian Park to watch a football match! "Ok I said" and went along.
I was 5 yrs old, really enjoyed the match,the cheering, the atmosphere, my dad telling me info about all the players and to witness John Buchanans goal which won the game was amazing.

Was I hooked, Yes, was I in love with CCFC......probably not at that moment.
Then i went to all the remaining games at NP with my dad and hated it when the season finished.
So played football all summer and did nothing else.

The start of the following season was when "I fell head over heels in love with Cardiff City Football Club".
I had the kit, the colours in my room, pics of all the players and my dad had arranged for me to be a mascot a few games into that new season. That was it, I`d fallen on the football love wagon and didnt want to get off. Was then a mascot 3 other times, and a ballboy for 6 seasons before moving away to England. But my heart is and will always be down Sloper Road.

Like many of us I owe it to my Dad because he was the one who made it happen........

Coming to Cardiff for the first time in April 1990, I had my first taste of what Cardiff City is all about: PASSION

I was born in Offenbach (Germany) and grew up on the terraces of Offenbach’s Bieberer Berg Stadium. Visiting the Welsh capital as an 18year old, I felt very much home from the beginning. Cardiff those days wasnt exactly a tourist resort, just like Offenbach (which still isn’t) and the local footie team had a tough time with difficulties on and off the pitch, struggeling either not getting relegated or trying to bounce back – just like Offenbach.

On my way into Cardiff, I bumped into 2 City fans my age, wearing football colours. Being absolutely footie-mad, I enquired about who’s playing and in my naivity asked, if I’d be able to purchase a ticket at the, then unknown, Ninian Park. Yes I know... stupid question...

Meeting my new friends at Ninian watching a glorious 3:1 over Walsall, I soon had the “being home” feeling. A traditional footballground, extremely passionate supporters and a team, I felt I could (with a bit of training) play for myself...
Anyway, I was hooked. Dunno if it was the masochist in me, I followed the Bluebirds from that day and I never regretted it. I was always different that most of my childhood and teenage friends, who were gloryhunters. Bayern Munich could win the league 20 times in a row, I still wouldn’t follow them, and my local side Offenbach, who were down to the 4th league for some time, always saw me cheering them on. Same goes for Schalke 04, the team my Dad and Grandad always follow(ed), being a good son I followed the family tradition and had a softspot for the “Knappen”. I remember the kids at school laughing at me cos Schalke then were at the bottom of the 2nd league and Offenbach in the 3rd...

Who cares?

It was tough tho to keep up with the Cardiff scores as the internet wasn’t common those days, and the German sports magazines never focused on English lower league football. So I bought English newspapers and English mags like “Shoot” or “Match”.
This of course changed with the World Wide Web, and my interest in Cardiff City would start to bloom properly. From now on, I’d try to watch City during my holidaytrips to Britain, mostly away as I have good friends living in Sussex and Glasgow (where I watched Celtic too).....
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(taken from my chapter in "Diary of the Real Soul Crew" ( "Don't mention the war..."), published by Annis Abraham)

Went to my first game with my mates from school in 1977 against Millwall at Ninian Park, just loved everything about it, the atmosphere was exiting , the crowd, the noise, and as soon as i walked into the ground i knew instantly that this was going to be a big part of my life, and it still is , both my sons have come with me over the years, my youngest son still does, and come's on the forum away trips with me.

that's right...you and your son come on the dekel keinan express. 1977..no your not that old are you mate

I was very young in 1977

Actually it may sound very stupid, but I first found out CCFC through Championship Manager, it was very early version, like 3 or something, and that was around the time when I had found out that I have some roots in Wales supporting CCFC is just like playing the game, so frustrating, but also so satisfying