Chris Buckley, the owner of Pride of Nottingham, has been a lifelong supporter of Notts County Football Club. In this interview, he shares his journey from attending his first game with his grandfather in 1993 to starting the Pride of Nottingham website in 2009.

Growing up in Aspley, Nottingham, Chris was initially drawn to football through his father, a Derby County supporter, who would occasionally take Chris's brother to games. However, Chris was deemed too young at the time and they only had two tickets. Seeing his disappointment, Chris's grandfather Ray decided to take him to see Notts County instead. From then on, Chris became a regular attendee at Notts County games, making every Wembley visit except for the playoff final against Brighton and Hove Albion.

The concept for the Pride of Nottingham came about in 2006 when Chris decided to start a small forum on the domain notts-county.co.uk. However, it wasn't until 2008 that he started thinking more seriously about the project and decided to call the site Pride of Nottingham. The site went live in 2009 with a small number of posters, but it was only really pushed in 2013 when Chris's children and family gave him the push to hand out flyers.

Chris's background in websites comes from poetry and art – his first site was quite popular in the days of MySpace. He also had a site that gave tips on how people at home could make a living from various sites before it was common for people with good writing abilities to land remote jobs at home. Unfortunately, that site ended up being hacked by a cyber group that tried ransoming him for its release.

One of the biggest challenges he faced early on was dealing with negative comments that were abusive and threatening. He felt surprised that he would attract such negative emails and felt like he needed to win people over. Learning what interested fans and focusing on improving has been a rewarding challenge for him. He has always put effort into keeping fans engaged and the site grew throughout difficult circumstances.

Over time, he has learned to improve his writing and has enjoyed giving fans a platform where more than one person can have their say. He is thankful for the assistance of Joe Jones, a qualified journalist who helped him improve his writing skills.

His support for the club has evolved over time and he now sees himself as playing a role in representing fans and keeping a sense of togetherness within the community. He feels that it is important for the club, especially during difficult times. He has become more focused on helping other fans and has met some wonderful people online over the past 10 years.

Chris's advice for someone who wants to get involved with the club or make a difference in their community is to join an existing part of the community and get to know people while keeping an open mind about what the community around Notts does. He suggests joining Facebook groups, Twitter pages, and the Pride of Nottingham website.