Post by QPR Report on Feb 16, 2009 10:20:20 GMT
Impressive - albeit obsessed!
Fan who hasn't missed a Nottingham Forest League game - home OR Away since 1973. Not missed a FA Cup game since 1965 or a League Cup game since 1967.
- An example of the type of football fan that every club needs but for the most don't appreciate as much as they should.
Football League - FOREST SUPER FAN!
Nottingham Forest fan Stuart Astill reckons he is Britain's best football supporter - after watching more than 3,000 games over 53 years.
Stuart, President of Forest's Supporters' Club, has just received a framed, signed shirt from the club after clocking up an amazing 1,500 consecutive home-and-away league matches stretching back more than 35 years.
The 63-year-old fan last missed a league match on September 29, 1973, when he was 28, to be usher at a close friend's wedding.
He is thought to have attended more consecutive league games than any other football fan in the UK.
Stuart, who did miss a league game in 2002 when Millwall had placed a ban on Forest supporters, saw his team play for the first time in 1956, at the age of 11.
His 35-year run of 1,500 consecutive games has seen him:
• Travel something like 160,000 miles (around 4,500 per season) - almost enough to take him from Earth to the Moon
• Witness legendary Manager Brian Clough winning two European Cups in 1979 and 1980
• Watch as Forest tumbled from the Premier League in 1999 into League 1, before cheering them into the Coca-Cola Championship last year.
He said: "I saw my first game when I was 11. But after leaving school in 1960, I worked on the railways and got a travel concession - so I started going to away games.
"I just love the club. Before missing the game in 1973, the previous one I missed was in 1969 when I had a hernia operation.
"The last FA Cup tie I missed was in 1965, a replay at Preston North End, when I couldn't get time off work. And the last League Cup game I missed was in 1967
Stuart Astill
www.football-league.co.uk/page/LatestNewsDetail/0,,10794~1558308,00.html
Fan who hasn't missed a Nottingham Forest League game - home OR Away since 1973. Not missed a FA Cup game since 1965 or a League Cup game since 1967.
- An example of the type of football fan that every club needs but for the most don't appreciate as much as they should.
Football League - FOREST SUPER FAN!
Nottingham Forest fan Stuart Astill reckons he is Britain's best football supporter - after watching more than 3,000 games over 53 years.
Stuart, President of Forest's Supporters' Club, has just received a framed, signed shirt from the club after clocking up an amazing 1,500 consecutive home-and-away league matches stretching back more than 35 years.
The 63-year-old fan last missed a league match on September 29, 1973, when he was 28, to be usher at a close friend's wedding.
He is thought to have attended more consecutive league games than any other football fan in the UK.
Stuart, who did miss a league game in 2002 when Millwall had placed a ban on Forest supporters, saw his team play for the first time in 1956, at the age of 11.
His 35-year run of 1,500 consecutive games has seen him:
• Travel something like 160,000 miles (around 4,500 per season) - almost enough to take him from Earth to the Moon
• Witness legendary Manager Brian Clough winning two European Cups in 1979 and 1980
• Watch as Forest tumbled from the Premier League in 1999 into League 1, before cheering them into the Coca-Cola Championship last year.
He said: "I saw my first game when I was 11. But after leaving school in 1960, I worked on the railways and got a travel concession - so I started going to away games.
"I just love the club. Before missing the game in 1973, the previous one I missed was in 1969 when I had a hernia operation.
"The last FA Cup tie I missed was in 1965, a replay at Preston North End, when I couldn't get time off work. And the last League Cup game I missed was in 1967
Stuart Astill
www.football-league.co.uk/page/LatestNewsDetail/0,,10794~1558308,00.html
