This piece was first written on the request of Wivenhoe Town FC.

My first visit to Broad Lane was back in 1991. I was a regular for the next couple of seasons, but then stayed away for almost twenty years. It was nothing to do with the football - just the churn of life taking me from Essex, living in South London, and then a move back to Wivenhoe almost two decades later.

I haven’t looked at the club records during those ghost years of my time away. I like to think that crowds of 3,000+ cheered on the Dragons to the brink of Football League heroics.

Live the dream, etc.

And so why did I return in 2010 to a ‘challenging’ ground to watch a team mainly lose most of their matches?

Its better than the B & Q run every other Saturday afternoon to be honest.

Football is just something that football fans do. Watching Wivenhoe is not always going to be a life-defining experience. I can remember more about the 1991-92 season when compared to some of my Second Coming matches.

This may sound pre-historic in these days of the global game, but watching local football is something that my Dad did, and his Dad before him. You were dragged along to watch your local team, like it or not.

Most of the time I have enjoyed watching my local team. I’m not ashamed to say that I dispel the myth of traditional football fandom by mapping my teams alongside wherever I am living at the time - Nottingham Forest, Dulwich Hamlet and now Wivenhoe Town.

Not a lot of thought went into the decision to watch Wivenhoe Town for the first time in 1991; likewise for the return again when I was living back in the area in 2010. It was a Saturday afternoon, I was bored and there was a game taking place just up the road.

I still live in double-life spanning South London and North Essex. My time is divided between both locations, and so is my football. Dulwich Hamlet have been a pretty major part of my life for the past twenty years. I’ve no idea what the starting line up is for Forest these days…

I didn’t expect anything from my return to watching Wivenhoe Town. Finding a community club was a pleasant surprise; the cheap bar was an added bonus. Slowly, slowly I am finding myself being sucked into the Dragons habit.

If work leaves me dumped in South London over a weekend, and Dulwich aren’t at home but Wivenhoe are, I become slightly restless. I guess this all goes back to the argument that football fans just watch football. It’s what we do.

The atmosphere behind the goal at Broad Lane has been brilliant this season. The gallows humour of continually fighting relegation can only be stretched so far. Having a winning team makes your Saturday afternoon extra special.

I was lucky to watch the 6-1 home win just before Christmas. It was my football highlight of 2015. There seemed something special about the afternoon as the players and fans bonded as each goal went in.

I’ve forgotten already which team was on the wrong side of the spanking, but that’s not the point. A 6-1 home win before Christmas will remain with me as a very special afternoon down at Broad Lane.

My memories from the early ’90s have of course been written, and then re-written to suit my own narrative. I have played up in my own mind the cult status of Christian McClean. I also seem to remember a Dad and his young kid always playing with toys behind the dug out.

And so the passing down of football via generations continues. I wonder if that young kid is still causing mischief from behind the goal in 2016?