Loss, Loyalty and the Corinthian-Casuals Community

By Dominic Bliss

Any regular match-going fan understands that supporting a team is about so much more than a 90-minute game on a Saturday afternoon, or Tuesday evening. The fanbases of football clubs are also communities that bring people together who may not otherwise have met.
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The friendships we make on the terraces and in the clubhouse are unique. We don’t always know what’s going on in one another’s lives day to day, but we see each other as often as family in many cases. We talk about the games and the fortunes of the club, we celebrate goals together, we have a moan together, we drink together, we sing together. Life-affirming moments happen when we’re at the football and some of our closest friendships are formed there too. The next time someone ignorantly asks why you put so much effort into watching 22 men chase a ball around a pitch, remind them of that.

The last couple of months have shown us how important the Corinthian-Casuals community is to our supporters, in the most painful circumstances. We’ve lost two of the club’s most popular and loyal figures this summer, in Gerry Young and Keith Webb. They were part of the fabric of the place, and they felt every result as strongly as any of us. When you walked into the clubhouse in the middle of a winning run or a losing streak and saw Gerry or Keith, their expressions told you everything. They were like a weathervane for the mood around the club, and they had seen it all before – their words of wisdom stopped us getting too down when times were tough and encouraged us to enjoy it when the good times came around.

Mourning them has undoubtedly brought us closer together and reminded us why supporting this team is so important to us all. We can only imagine how proud Keith would have been to see so many members of his family at the Epsom & Ewell game, wearing club colours, and mingling with his mates from Casuals. It is why so many people who have represented this club speak first and foremost about the atmosphere and the spirit of the supporters, often before they even mention our history.
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We can take pride in that as we look ahead to the first season of Mu Maan’s tenure, and remember our departed friends, Gerry and Keith. They represented what’s best about a community club like ours and we’ll miss them hugely, but we’ll also raise a glass to them at the end of the next game – win, lose or draw.