Tim Carey is the long-haul fan. "I flew via Hong Kong. He says. “The plane was full and I haven't slept for 36 hours." He has just flown to London from Japan, and plans to take a bus up to Scunthorpe to see his side crowned League One champions this weekend. "They'll probably lose." he moans. This is Tim's second ever visit to Scunthorpe, despite being a fan for many years. A native New Zealander, he grew up in Christchurch were he first became an Iron fan in the late 80's. Despite having no connection to North Lincolnshire he started to support United. "I heard a guy on the radio taking the mickey out of them, saying even Torquay could beat them. I liked the name: very British. Ian Botham used to play for them too." He goes on to explain from this snippet, an image of Scunthorpe United as a hard working, no nonsense underdogs emerged. "Archetypcal ne'er do wellers." But at the time, being a long distance fan was a case of bare numbers and a rich imagination as he explains. "The newspapers in New Zealand had just the results, but no match reports. I could never tell if they played well or badly." In 1999, Tim moved to Nagoya, Japan to teach English, at the start of the internet broadband revolution.
"There was no coverage in the Japanese papers, but I started going to internet cafes." The internet revolution had truly started in the 90’s and Japan, always a forerunner in new technology, allowed anxious fans to get reports on their mobiles and PCs. As the internet has evolved to Web 2.0, it’s now even easier to follow the team you love, not only catching up with match reports, but downloading podcasts of fan phone-ins and watching goals on video sharing sites such as Youtube. But for Tim nothing can compare to the excitement of matchday and real interaction with the local fans. "They're all so friendly. After my first visit, the club sent me a scarf to Japan. They tracked down the hotel I was staying at, got my address back home and also sent a letter signed by all the players and manager." You don't get that just by logging on, do you? He has a banner he's made: a Japanese flag with Up The Iron printed in black and to the side Believe in Japanese. As about the enviromental aspect of his trip he has a novel response. "I've traded my carbon allowance from not having kids, to flying here to watch Scunthorpe!". This article was written by Kwok Wan a friend of Tim Carey from Japan. | 
