The Fulham Experience
Shaun Cox reports on the most distasteful activities of a minority of travelling Everton fans

20 Date 2004

The game at Loftus Road, Fulham versus Everton 2004 will live long in my memory, for all the wrong reasons. I have been to away games before, and enjoyed them but yesterday was a day that was shocking, cringing and made me very angry. On the coach trip down to London, many chants that were repeated were disgusting, racial filth by people in the age range of about 19-25, in the tracksuit stereotype everyone knows about and made my mind up that going to away games is not for me anymore.

Dont get me wrong, around 98% of Evertonians are a great, welcoming bunch but the other 2% are a low life, arrogant and witless bunch who go to games to cause grief and get those who just want to watch Everton into trouble and it is 2% too much.

A person, who sat next to me at the match at Loftus Road was chanting abuse at Kevin Campbell, which made me angry. Fair enough you can criticise a player for his poor performance, but not the colour of his skin or what he looks like and was rightly reported to the police.

There are people who are allowed to go to away games that are trying to intimidate others, even fellow Evertonians, into shouting abuse at supporters of other clubs, which happened to myself at the game but was not taken by it.

Of course, I am no idiot, this is not a perfect world and this sort of thing goes on at other clubs and other environments all the time but when you are speaking to a fellow Evertonian who is a black person and loves the Blues and a racist chant is heard by a so called fellow Blue then it becomes a very difficult situation.

One thing that also concerns me, do the players of Everton, such as Li Tie, Joesph Yobo, Kevin Campbell and Leon Osman hear these vile comments? Does it concern them and affect the way they perform at times?I suppose they are professional enough to ignore it but it would maybe disturb them at times.

As an Everton fan said at the game yesterday 'Everton are supposed to be the most racist club in Britain, we have to live up to that reputation dont we?' No we dont you mindless fool, we have to show exactly the oppositie and prove that Evertonians as a whole are the best and most loyal supporters in the country.

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Nick Armitage

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