Lost the Love

Completely agree. Going to the deva has become a chore. After every game in 2017 I thought why do I bother

Excellent post. I am in exactly the same situation.  I'm just relieved there are only 2 home games this month!

Maybe go to away games then? 😉

My daughter started coming with me last season and has been 3 times this season.

She's 6 and loves going, results are irrelevant to her, she just enjoys the whole ritual of wearing a shirt, buying a programme, having 'the world's greatest hotdog', shouting at the top of her voice, cheering on her favourite players and as my partner said 'she enjoys spending time with her Dad'. So yeah, I still have the love for the game and it's worth every penny, as frustrating as performances/results are most of the time.

I think this is a real concern. The home performances have been so poor for so long, that even serious fans are really struggling to motivate themselves to give up the best part of twenty quid and a Saturday afternoon.

I always think the word "entertainment" sounds a bit naff and Americanised when talking about football, especially at this level. It's not something like the cinema or theatre where we should be slouching back with popcorn and fizzy drinks, but we do need something that stirs feelings of passion, excitement and belonging. Just three points from the last possible 42 at home is enough to test the patience of a saint.

I'm a "pick and choose" games fan rather than an every-gamer, and I like to think it's my availability and finances that dictate whether or not I attend games rather than how well we're doing. What I would say though is that I'd be slightly embarrassed to bring a friend to the Deva at the moment. When we're so reliant on what we take in through the turnstiles, we've got to be offering a bit more than this. It might not matter so much at the likes of Forest Green, Fylde and Ebbsfleet where when they're spending has little to do with their gate receipts, but at Chester it's very harmful to our progress if actually attending home games is in any way unpleasant.

Been going since i was 4 or 5 years old, and 20 years on i still enjoy the thought of the match, but not the experience itself. Granted, i do have to drive a 4 hours round trip to attend, so it's already an arse, it's just a crap matchday experience. I'm actually looking forward to Solihull as it's not as far as we may actually get a result! It's frustrating to think, that myself and other fans would rather put money into Solihull's coffers in a bid to see some entertainment and a performance worthy of us fans attendance.

I can't imagine non ST holders views, they must genuinely have to force themselves down to the Deva, unless they want to go for some peace and quiet as that's what they'll get after we have to endure 5-10 minutes of sheer dross at the start of games.

We need some excitement around the place again, and i'm sorry, but JM is the main reason that excitement has been drained. Nobody doubts his intentions, nor his work ethic and personality, but he isn't a football manager.

That's a word that's cropped up a lot in the last couple of seasons - disinterest and apathy, and they're dangerous feelings.

When we had Vaughan, Gutterman, Smith etc, there was anger, frustration, injustice. At the moment, we're not a club in crisis like we were then, but things are a bit rubbish and it feels like there isn't much we can do about it. I find it hard to even get angry with anyone or point the finger at anyone, because I do really think that everyone, manager included, is doing their best and has good intentions.

Depends how your outlook.....I turn up knowing that its likely to be a drab/frustrating match but at the least its a chance to catch up with my old man, get a bit of a break from home life, some fresh air.....and even though I know its likely to be awful I don't think I'll ever lose that slight bit of hope that this could be the game where we win. I missed the Macclesfield match and was gutted that I couldn't make it as I thought it would be typical that we'd go and win with me not being there, but afterwards I was quite happy I couldn't make it!

But I am someone who has watched Chester all my life and its in my blood. As others have mentioned, you'd be embarrased to ask a friend to come and pay £18 to watch this football at the moment, and that's something else Mark McGuire will have to consider when deciding to persist with this manager. We won't attract any new fans playing like we are, apart from perhaps kids who are more bothered about haribo and hotdogs rather than LRT blowing out of his arse after 20 mins.

Agree on Boring Wood and Eastleigh, but Ebbsfleet and Bromley seem to have more of a proper fan base and can be vocal.

no need to boycott i'll get you all a win tomorrow 6-4-0 formation sit back so deep then i'll get them to catch on the break gooooooooooooooooal we score then we all go back to happy clapping

Have to agree with this, unfortunately football has changed so much with all the money around these days, for those of us who are a little older shall we say, it was Fulham, West Brom, Bolton, Wolves and the likes who we could hold our own against, now we have to put up with despicable clubs like Eastleigh and Boring Wood turning up and waltzing away with 3 easy points.
I'll still be going along to support my team but it's more out of habit than anything else these days I'm afraid.

I don't get to see the Blues as often as I would like, living in Nottingham, so when I do get it's just fun to be watching them. I have since times just as bad over the years and have also had times when watching the team hasn't been as important as other stuff in my life.

I know I will continue to support Chester and see them when I can with my young lad who,proudly wears his Chester kit at football training amongst all the local Forest, County and Derby fans.

I'm not deflated to the point I've lost interest, quite he opposite, I'm reading everything and wishing I was at the game. We will soon and urn this around and some like Rio will be able to say they were there. It may need a new manager to achieve this though.

I can empathise with many that are becoming disinterested, this run of home form together with the football being played would test any fans patience.

I too take my young lad and his mates to home games and to be honest the result doesn't really bother them, they just like the experience strangely enough. However, after witnessing 13 of the 14 winless home matches I have also begun to ask myself why I bother.

The reason I keep coming back is because it's in the blood, it's also in my sons blood, fathers blood, brothers blood and grandads blood. It's why we stay loyal to our club through thick and thin.

Although it doesn't feel like it at the moment, the fact of the matter is that we WILL win at home again at some point, but I wouldn't want that to be the game that I decide to miss. It would also make attending all of those winless games seem such a waste of time.

Sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the fans will still be there long after the manager and players come and go. We don't have a millionaire owner, but we have an array of enthusiastic volunteers that are working wonders behind the scene with the youth and community.

Whether we keep the manager is down to the board, but the fans must keep the hope and faith with our club.

It's shit but it's our shit and I wouldn't change it. My walk from work to the game on the evening of Tuesday March 8th 2016 felt as long and as depressing as ever but two hours later it felt like I'd flown home. It's nights like that that are getting me through the last nine months at the moment, though Christ only knows when we'll see something like that again.

Now I've got my three year old lad hooked, as a poster mentioned above, on the routines and the rituals of going to the match. He's only ever seen us win once (the last time any of us saw us win a home game) but his enthusiasm remains. He even wished for James Alabi to return twice when he threw two pennies into a wishing well the other day - completely unprompted. Haven't got the heart to tell him he'll be depressed watching Chester in 15 years. That's something he'll have to find out for himself. We'll still be partaking in the ritual though.