THE ANFIELD LOCK-IN

A reasoned plea for common sense, from Mickey Blue Eyes

There are times when you shake your head at human nature.  There are also times when you get outraged at the sheer stupidity and/or evil of those who want to control our society.

This issue is one of them.

Last season, we won at Anfield.  Luckily, the fans were too elated with the result to get more than irritated when they were suddenly told they would not be allowed to leave and go home or celebrate the win in a pub.  There was no advance warning.  We were kept behind for about 20 minutes.  Incredibly, we were surrounded by a posse of thuggish-looking stewards and police.  I can’t imagine the sheer thick stupidity of whoever arrived at the decision and how he thought it would look other than vindictive in the light of the result.  Had we lost, it might, just might, have spilled over into something worse than mere irritation.

The upcoming derby game has an even worse edge to it with all the nonsense over Barmby’s transfer to the redshite.  Good sources have told me that there will be special measures to ensure there are no "problems" because of the reaction of some of the fans to Barmby.  Me, I just think he was a dopey twerp for the way he handled it, that’s all.  Once a player says he wants to leave, in my mind, he’s already gone.  It doesn’t matter where he decides to go or why.  It’s his life.  Take it beyond that and you get into areas of human behaviour better left alone.

Now, with last season’s lock-in still fresh, and the Barmby nonsense still hanging in the air, we have at least had advance notice that the lock-in will happen again.  It’s enough to make you throw your hands in the air in despair at the mental processes going on in the responsible heads.  Less mature chauvinist fans are virtually guaranteed to take this as an anti-Everton measure.  The reaction would have been exactly the same had it been carried out against Liverpool fans at Goodison Park.  For Christ’s sake, what reaction did those responsible expect?  Has their single-brain-cell-between-them stopped working?

It needs to be said straight away that the measure is completely unrequired.  For years, much larger crowds have attended Anfield derby games in much worse conditions.  And we suddenly get all this nonsense in 1998!  All the traffic claptrap we’ve had from the Suits is just that: Complete and utter garbage.  Crowds gather much later and disperse much earlier these days.  That’s why a certain type of inadequate fan moans so loud and long about the lack of "atmosphere" at contemporary matches.  There have only ever been small incidents around this fixture prior to 1998 and certainly not enough to justify this kind of useless, inflammatory measure.

It needs to be acknowledged straight away that feelings between a minority in the two sets of fans have generally deteriorated since the Heysel disaster… which a very small number of Everton fans blame for keeping our club from entering Europe and the subsequent loss of Howard Kendall at his peak.  It is a useless argument but one which similarly behaved Liverpool fans react to in similar absurd fashion.  In this case, rivalry spills over into something much, much worse.  This has occasionally manifested itself into pub fights on derby match nights.  One or two pubs along County Road have been badly damaged on such occasions.  

Over the years, the only similar behaviour I can recall was between individuals fuelled by drink.  The rivalry was always very intense but never, never, led to that kind of nonsense.  But none of this excuses the proposed lock-in because the confrontations are between readily identified very small groups of mentally-challenged idiots who live in the same area.

The proposed lock-in is just about the most stupid and ill considered move it is possible to contemplate in the circumstances.  It is like throwing fuel onto a nigh-extinguished fire.  People start taking sides and that only makes it worse.  I am incredulous that anyone in a position of responsibility could think otherwise.

The fact is, if the Suits think it necessary (and I emphatically don’t) then all it requires is an after-match police line outside positioned half way down ground.  That way, the majority can be on their way to celebrate victory or sulk in defeat.  The tiny group of morons who want confrontation can try to breach police lines and see how far they get.  My safe bet is that it would be straight into the back of a Hurry-Up Cart and a short but extremely sharp shock.

Altogether it is reminiscent of the bad old days when Authoritarian Reactionary Plod helped to almost destroy the game – precisely the kind of systemic ineptitude we will face from the north-east police on the road to Newcastle this weekend.

But if Inspector Knacker at his worst cannot be expected to think and act like a responsible human being then it surely isn’t asking too much to ask Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs to take a lead in the matter.  Instead, all we get are two sets of Club Suits wringing their hands in compliant silence.  We need to ask what we pay both Plod and the Suits for?  Is it beyond them to make sure we return this fixture to its former status?  Have they really forgotten those three epic Wembley Finals when we transported tens of thousands of fans hundreds of miles and back with scarcely a trace of misbehaviour?  Does the presence of four thousand Everton fans really constitute some sort of insoluble crowd problem?

Or have Chief Constable Bettison and the Liverpool Suits paralysed themselves so much they’ve also scared the Everton Suits into a measure which can only make things potentially worse, not better?

In the end, it is merely an illustration of what happens when the fans won’t take organisational matters into their own hands.  Then again, we never needed it in the past.  So why do we need it now?