TFT meets…The Gloryhunter

Meet Spencer Austin.

Two Footed Tackle regulars will already recognise him as The Gloryhunter, from ITV.com’s digital documentary series of the same name.

If you’d like to see more detail about what he’s doing, click here.

In short, Spencer picked a team at random - Grimsby Town - and began to follow them. He’ll do so until they lose, at which point he switches allegiances to their conquerors. Simple, no?

“I actually had the basic idea while sitting on a bus in Burkina Faso about five years ago,” he told me. “Most people have their best ideas while in Burkina Faso. Don't they? Then early this year I fled England after selling my TV production company and intended not to come back. I was sick to my guts of it.

“Then I saw Spurs v Chelsea on the telly in Vietnam and on came twinges that suggested maybe I should give my homeland another chance. And The Gloryhunter idea seemed the perfect device to try and learn to love my country again, on my own terms: football, winning and random travel.”

Random doesn’t get close to covering it! So what’s the aim? For Spencer, it’s about using football to fall back in love with Blighty - and having a bloody good time while he does it. I hope to join him at some point on his journey to take in a game, and not only because I want a name-check in his book, due out in June 2009.

“Being a Spurs fan, I want to avoid anyone from London in the Premier League.

“Apart from that, I'll embrace whatever's dealt to me. Even Barnet. I really want to get to places that not only have I never been to before, but also that I couldn't pick out on a map. It makes the whole thing feel more adventurous and idiotic.”

Idiotic it may be, but it’s bound to be one hell of an experience for a man who clearly loves his football. He’s already making a splash. In episode three of the online documentary, we see Spencer helping Grimsby’s groundsman. Closer to home, the name Spencer Austin is beginning to earn some traction.

“A BBC Radio London presenter called me a lunatic today. I like that. I'm a professional lunatic.”

Beginning in League Two must have its benefits for a man trying to get back in touch with England and football. It’s earthy, it’s real. The Gloryhunter has found this already, and is uneasy about the likely progression up the divisions coming before he can get a real taste for the lower leagues:

“It's kind of inevitable really. But I'm keen to stay in the lower divisions for a while because the people you meet are so interesting. To remain loyal to a club that perpetually does badly takes a certain type of character, a certain type of devotion that fascinates me. I'm in awe of them, even if it is in a way a bit like when you slow down to look at a car crash where someone's got a limb off.”

Spencer has obviously enjoyed Grimsby, and the Mariners’ draw at home to Rochdale means he will return to Blundell Park on Tuesday for the visit of Tranmere Rovers. How did he feel about his first game as The Gloryhunter finishing level?

“Bit of a shame it was goalless, but I'm like a carrier bag in the wind this season. Like that one in American Beauty, but probably more of an Asda Value bag. So I'm happy to go with whatever happens.

“I'm definitely not sad to stay in Grimsby...the place has its problems like anywhere else, especially with industry, but the fans I've met have been brilliant - so accommodating and keen to see that their town comes across well. So I suppose my thoughts at full time were on the Tranmere game and more immediately how quickly I can get down the Imp for another pint.”

Eventually, Grimsby will lose and Spencer must leave the town and, of course, Cleethorpes. The self-confessed ‘sentimental wally’ already has fond memories of his first Gloryhunting club, but he says he’ll have a soft spot for all the other clubs he follows this season too.

Why? Because deep down, us football fans, we’re all alike. And I couldn’t agree more.

“I expect I'll get a bit glassy when I leave all of the teams I visit. Football fans from all clubs have more in common than they realise. We all have the same hopes and fears and irritations, albeit in relative terms, and already I'm realising through Grimsby that football is a language that binds us rather than divides us. Even if there is the odd punch up in between.”

Speaking of which, Spencer has one over-arching fear for the season: having to support Arsenal. Nothing else, it seems, is likely to phase him.

“The Arsenal predicament is the biggest fear, of course. I've already had my car window put through by thieves who got NOTHING. Ha! Stick that in your crack pipe and smoke it, you morons.”

A little persuasion, though, and Spencer reveals another concern - one that may even dwarf the possibility of sitting in the boys’ corner at the Emirates.

I ask him how he would feel if he chanced upon a visit to White Hart Lane. As an opposing fan.

“I can't talk about it. It upsets me.”

I’m not surprised. You can watch The Gloryhunter’s adventures at ITV.com/football.

Spencer…good luck, mate.