• last year
Meet Britain’s most dedicated football supporter – who hasn’t missed a single game for almost 50 YEARS.

Rob Shannon, 64, has watched his beloved Birmingham City more than 2,300 times in a row, both home and away, since they beat Derby County 3-2 in 1974.

Before that, he only missed a game because he was too poorly to get out of bed and just the Covid pandemic has stopped him attending matches in recent years.

Dad-of-two Rob has lost count of the money he has spent following the Blues up and down the country but knows it's running into "plenty of thousands".

He has watched them in the old Divisions 1, 2 and 3 as well as the Premier League and Championship - plus every League Cup and FA Cup game in between.

Rob, who works as a driver, first went as a four-year-old boy during the 1962/63 season and soon fell in love with the Blues, going every week.

He even admits his infatuation with the club could be to blame for his divorce - from an Aston Villa fan.

Category

🥇
Sports
Transcript
00:00 I'm Rob Shannon, I'm 64 years of age but this month I'll be 65. It's a pleasure to be and
00:20 an honour to be a Birmingham City supporter. My dad took me from a very early age and I
00:48 was fortunate to be mascot for the Blues for several seasons from about 64 to about 1970ish.
00:56 Through school I was still fortunate to go to most of the away games, just progressed
01:02 from there. I just don't know anything different on a Saturday or midweek when they're playing.
01:08 I mean you walk into St Andrews and you meet so many people that you know and they're obviously
01:30 there for one reason and that's to watch the Blues. We're all there to watch the Blues and
01:35 sort of cheer them on and it's great. You can see the anticipation on their faces and
01:41 the joy and the smiles. On a match day sort of walking into the ground is always a bit
01:49 special because you've arrived. It's great. Now the new regime has taken over, I just
02:04 wish I was 20 years younger because now these kids now with big things I think are going
02:10 to happen to this club which is fantastic. So I'm looking at the younger kids and I'm
02:15 thinking blimey I wish I was that age now because the things that they're going to see
02:21 I think are things that probably we've not seen before. So I'm thinking the kids now
02:29 have got something to look forward to. We're not any suburb, we are Birmingham and that
02:41 carries great weight and I think all the fans will sort of agree that having the name of
02:51 the city is something that they are proud of.

Recommended