Personal Ramblings about Football Shirts

My Football Life Chapter 1.

As a little kid, It's fair to say, I didn't know anything about football, I'd lived overseas till the age of 7 and football simply didn't play a part in my life. On moving to Wiltshire my folks bought me a white football shirt to start at my new school. I was mortified, "football teams wear red or blue shirts" I proclaimed. Now it's also fair to say that football had played no part in my parents lives either, so the following day my Dad asked his colleagues at work what teams played in white. That evening I was presented with a list that included Preston North End, Leeds, Tottenham, and England. For some reason I chose Leeds.

By age 9 I'd became obsessed with football, I was rubbish at it, but loved it all the same. We moved overseas again, I joined the LUFC fan club and with my pocket money bought the badge, which Mum diligently sewed onto my white football shirt. 

I didn't even know where Leeds was.

My Football Life Chapter 2. 

I 'moved' back to the UK in 1977, to boarding school in Sussex, all the kids seemed to be either Man U or Liverpool, I was the only Leeds fan.

One day, in school assembly, a long haired chap came and did a talk about football, his name was Eric Steele, he was a goalkeeper, he played for Brighton. I had to ask my friends, "what is Brighton?" I'd never heard of it. "It's the local football team and they're going to get promoted this season", well, that was that, I decided I had to support my local team, and at the age of 11 changed my allegiances and became a Seagulls fan.  

I sneaked out of boarding school to attend my first ever match, 27/10/79, a glorious home defeat to Norwich City, Steve Foster and Gerry Ryan scored for Brighton, I was hooked. I stayed living in Sussex when I left school, and I've stayed following Brighton ever since.   

Much later I learned to use Photoshop!