Quite a strange one for me. Have absolutely no family connections to City and always lived in Kilmarnock so It's a bit of a strange one for me. My dad used to buy me different football tops as a kid, remember owning a few City shirts, a forest shirt, a west ham shirt, a villa shirt - all as a very very young kid.
At this time, and for around 16 years of my life I've had a season ticket for Kilmarnock, my local club, hating all things old firm.
As I got older obviously I stopped wearing every football top under the sun, bar the odd foreign one I'd get on holiday sometimes...but I did continue to get some City tops.
The first time I can remember watching a game and actually supporting City was Gillingham in 99. I remember being at my mates, I picked City because I'd had a few tops and he picked the gills. Anyway, when Horlock scored (I was still only 10 years old at this point, had never set foot in Manchester) I found myself praying we got an equalizer. When Dickov scored I was completely took in by the passion of our fans and indeed the players. From that day City were officially my "English club".
Growing up supporting them has been difficult at times, as I say no family supports them and as you can guess most mates are rags/Liverpool etc etc. Obviously still being a young kid I never got to go to a game.
The first game I managed to get to was Sunderland away in 09. I hate it. I hate the fact I wasn't able to go years earlier for financial (and age!) reasons. Even still I only get down to the odd game, but I thoroughly enjoy it. Drive down myself on occassions, and look forward to it. But any person who calls me a glory hunter I take with a pinch of salt. I remember quitting a game of footy down the park with my mates just so I could go home and listen to City games on the radio - most memorably Blackburn away on our promotion to the PL. As a young kid doing that 200 miles away from Manchester with no family influence, I wouldn't ever think of myself as a glory hunter.
Come to think of it, when the rags won the CL in 99 my mates in primary school were all teasing me about it I remember, so I probably started supporting City even earlier - but Gillingham is the first one I can officially remember.
