On a Facebook group recently someone summed the situation up precisely:
There are two sorts of football fans.
The first are those who support their local team, they pay their hard-earned money and go to as many home games as they can and the occasional away games too. They follow their team through the bad times, whatever level they reach, and they are overjoyed when the few and far between good days come.
The second pledge allegiance to one of the big teams, no matter where they live, and only ever watch games on TV, often in a pub wearing the latest replica shirt. They have in many cases never seen “their” team play live. They have big mouths and big opinions, usually a load of BS that is just regurgitating what the pundits have said. They do not realise there are any divisions outside the premier League.
Sadly the media, and Sky and BBC in particular, pander purely to the latter.