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EVERTON AWAY 19-9-04
Written by Steve Goldby
If a day out can be memorable for all the wrong reasons, then this was it. It started for me in Cambridgeshire on Sunday morning at 0900. We had had a great night out on the Saturday and rather than drive back to London, we stayed over in Cambridge thinking that we had already covered a quarter of the drive to Liverpool. And in theory we had but there is no accounting for major traffic jams on the route to Norwich(?) and the entrance to the M6 being totally closed down with no preceding warning. So we took the 'diversion' which sent us back the way we had came and thirty miles later, we turned another road leading to the M6. We were now fifty five miles out of our way and I honestly thought that we were not going to make it in time for kick off.
At this point, I received an SMS from Andy who was in Leeds and complaining bitterly that the train to Liverpool had run out of beer. I ignored the message, put my foot down and thanks to the M6 toll road that bypasses Birmingham, arrived on the outskirts of Liverpool with just over an hour to go until kick off. I expect the speeding tickets to arrive in the post later this week and I may have to claim political asylum in Ostrava.
Time was so short now but quick thinking Andy, who we had arranged to meet at Lime Street had already arranged for Boro historian John Wilson to pick us up and drive us to the ground, as John knew exactly where Goodison was, having resided in Liverpool for many years now. John got us there with time to spare and with the stadium in sight, we set off to walk the short distance to the ground.
One of the reasons that I love away days is because of the banter that you have with the home fans but there was none of that this day. I found Goodison a slightly eerie place with an aggressive edge and the background comments from some of the Scouse lads drinking on the pavement added to the tension. I'm not a frightened person but with no red shirts in sight and five thousand people staring at you in a not so friendly way... well I would definitely have defended us all but it would have been futile and thank God it never came to that. Perhaps I was just being over protective of my dear lady friend who was attending her first ever football match.
I had to reassure her at the end that most Boro fans experience a losing debut but in reality, I found it difficult to hide my disappointment that the team had not put in a suitable performance because we know we can outgun anybody now. It was obviously a UEFA Cup hangover and I won't criticise the team because we were always going to have off days this season. Let's just hope we don't have too many and that the lads bounce back and make Chelsea suffer on Saturday. I think that they will.
I also hope that the truly god-awful songs that they played before and after the match stop reverberating around my head very soon otherwise I am likely to be writing my next column from the looney bin. Most people who go mad hear dark voices. I have a monotone Scouser backed by a 1950's style 'big band' singing "They're a grand old club to support..." with visions of the big screen showing footage of Everton lifting the FA Cup in around 1725. At least we have our future to look forward to.
FOOTNOTE: The journey home was tortuous, as we were stuck on the M6 for well over an hour in thick traffic that restricted us to no more than thirty mph. The things we do for Boro!
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