Ryan Morgan, who runs the team’s social media accounts, said he’s had tweets about when the final punishment was written and saved for months, with a number of different possibilities, depending on match situations.
The team’s fans are mostly happy about the phenomenon, he said, but they are “very, very aware of it.”
Paul Binning, a 45-year-old Cardiff fan, said Bristol City fans had plenty of reasons to feel sad. A four-decade absence from English football’s premier league will make it happen: Binning admits, being a fan of the City of Bristol, requires a certain sense of humour.
“There is an element that makes us feel that these things are against us and these things are not happening to us for whatever reason,” he said.
About 130 miles north of Bristol in Stoke-on-Trent, there is a group of fans who understand that feeling.
Mark Porter, president of the Port Vale Supporters Club, was in the stands October 8, 2022, as his seemingly cursed side ended a 73-game streak with not one but two penalties. He said: “Although the team succeeded during the penalty kick drought, winning promotion to League One, “the longer it lasted, the worse it got.”
When the referee blew the final whistle, “the fans were overjoyed,” he said. But, deep down, everyone knew what was coming: The penalty missed the post.
