• last year
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".
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.

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