Fans Comment
Chris Jones

Band of Brothers .....
10/05/2005

Smells like team spirit

As the curtain comes down on another season, the warm glow of joy, pride and achievement fills the skies over Goodison. I was one of the privileged forty thousand to attend the home game against Newcastle United to see the completion of the mammoth task that had started with an opening day defeat at the hands of Arsenal.

The preceding summer a shadow of doom had hung over the stadium as apathy, desertion and political unrest within the club had Evertonians on their knees like a punch-drunk prize fighter. Blues fans who usually looked forward to the season with renewed optimism felt a terrible sense of foreboding, as the salivating pack of hyenas commonly known as the gentlemen of the press surrounded the wounded and bleeding animal that was Everton football club.

I still recall scanning the endless websites searching for some morsel of comfort, some message that would renew our hope, some words of wisdom that would calm the stormy seas. But alas all that I found was mockery, stinging criticism of a club whose best days were behind them – David Moyes tipped as the first Premiership manager to lose his job, Everton odds-on to be relegated, the insinuations went on and on …..

At this darkest hour, it was difficult to reason how we could emerge from this turmoil, particularly when David Moyes tried to sign players who then preferred clubs that would historically be perceived as “also-rans”. The truth was that this was now how Everton were being professed by the press and other Premiership clubs.

I remember Birmingham City calling Everton “pathetic” after a low bid was placed for Robbie Savage.The message from Birmingham was,“Why should Robbie want to play for a club that has under-achieved, has no money for investment and stands an excellent chance of being relegated this season?” On and on it went, clubs like Middlesbrough invested heavily in new players, Birmingham paid a large fee for Emile Heskey and even those clubs coming from the championship splashed the cash enthusiastically. Thankfully we kept a dignified silence to all of the criticism, our response would come later …..

Would this be the end of our time in the top-flight? Would the grand old lady finally have to take one last bow before departing for the championship …?

After watching the opening game of the season on TV, I personally didn’t think that we played too badly – even though Arsenal seemed to score at will they would probably have destroyed most teams on that form, and let’s not forget their confidence was sky high after that amazing previous season.

Imagine our surprise then when we confidently swept aside Crystal Palace, the goalless draw with Man United at Old Trafford and the resurgence that each new game gave us. Evertonians clung onto hope as the scything criticism of the so-called experts tempered the blade of our resolve, and the team stared steely eyed at our opponents vowing to fight for their own professional pride and to dis-prove the words of the football journalists.

The spirit of belief flourished within our ranks as the players stood shoulder to shoulder, David Moyes was constantly asked by TV reporters “Is this just a flash in the pan ……. ?” and calling upon his Scottish wit and guile he would often answer dryly - “Och aye, I expect us tae get hammered nine nuthin’ next week …….”

Even after a dozen games, I remember reading a piece in the Sun saying “ expect neighbours Liverpool to leap-frog Everton over the next few games and condemn them to mid-table mediocrity “ (At this stage I must point out that I don’t normally read the Sun but the “Andrex Quilted” had run out and it was the only thing hanging on the nail during a particularly virulent bout of gastric flu. )

Changing track slightly for a moment, why is it that the Sun newspaper feels that a headline involving the letters “Roo” instead of the word “you” (such as “Roo’ll never learn “) will make its readers collapse on the pavement guffawing with such mirth that the resulting bladder leakage will raise the level of the River Numpty ? Having looked I couldn’t actually find the word “Roo” in the Oxford English dictionary, can anyone enlighten me on its meaning ….. ?

(Roo v. a person or persons who swear undying and consummate loyalty to their people and then decide to alienate those who nurtured and loved them for personal greed – as used in “ Fuck off you fat twat ………”)

After the euphoria of the Merseyside derby we then hit our usual disappointing period where we couldn’t buy a win for love nor money, again the press claimed that the bubble had burst, the train had come of the tracks, and we’d lost the plot and all of those other tired and done to death analogies.

Despite the slump in form, we somehow battled back – again no doubt motivated by the persistent doubters, rescuing a draw from the jaws of defeat at Southampton, the away win at Aston Villa and then the confidence inspiring home win against Palace.

Bizarrely, on the day of the Man Utd game I awoke with a warm feeling inside of me, call it gut instinct, a 6th sense or just the wide-eyed optimism required to be an Evertonian, but I felt sure that something good was going to happen. Needless to say on a night reminiscent of the infamous Bayern Munich game we fought toe to toe with the Red Devils and emerged triumphant from the battle.

The most pleasurable site was David Moyes verbally sparring with a ruddy cheeked Sir Alex Ferguson and the picture of them in the newspapers and on websites the next day, suggested that the teacher was now being outfoxed by the pupil.

After this game, I personally then started to believe that we now could go on and hold fourth spot, however, as proved on many other occasions Everton don’t like to give their supporters an easy ride so a hard fought draw with Birmingham was followed by defeat at Fulham.

I suppose at this point we should thank Liverpool themselves for failing to capitalise on the opportunities presented to them on the occasions that we stumbled. Some say that it was luck, fate or providence – well whatever entity the helping hand came in we were glad to accept its good fortune to balance out the many years of injustice against our beloved club.

And so it came to the final home game, months before a friend and I had chosen to attend this game as we believed that it may be instrumental in the destiny of our Champions League dream. I should explain that living on England’s south coast I am unable to regularly attend home games but always endeavour to make the journey north at least a couple of times a season.

On the Wednesday before the game we were given bad news that due to the importance of the game it had been sold out for a week and a half beforehand and tickets were scarce, we couldn’t be sure that they would be forthcoming. Oh no!! We had waited all season for this and now we’d miss the crowning glory of our struggle. Our fears were allayed when we got the thumbs up on Thursday night as our dear friend Mr Riley and his contact Leo were able to save the day (cheers Leo!!)

Outside Goodison at 1.45pm on Saturday was absolutely unforgettable, you could feel the excitement crackling in the air, fans were queuing five deep with camera phones at the Dixie Dean statue to get their picture taken with the Goodison legend.

Blue shirts and scarves filled the streets, a sense of destiny hung in the air, once inside the ground we met a fellow Evertonian by the Goodison Diner who described his passion for the blues. He explained that he of course had an Everton tattoo on his arm, he was decked out all in blue and proudly wore the home shirt, he wore an Everton watch and his car number plate had the words EFC on it. He had been a house builder, and on the house he had built for himself he had chosen a small number of darker bricks so that he could use them to spell out the words EFC on the side of the house ……. This is what this great club means to the fans on the street …….

By the time the teams were ready to run out we had found our seats and the carnival atmosphere was at fever pitch. After we’d sung along to the familiar strains of “if y’ think yer know yer ‘istory ….. “and the Z-cars theme started the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the blue clad warriors marched out onto the greenery. The whole ground went ballistic and we settled into our seats to enjoy the game noticing that the great Neville Southall was sat behind us ……..

True to form Everton started bravely but within 15 minutes Newcastle were slowly starting to take control of the game, at the side of me I heard Mr Riley mutter “we don’t look like scoring …. ! “ Things got gradually worse and but for some last minute interventions from Nigel Martyn we could have been a couple of goals down. I suddenly got a very uneasy feeling, this can’t be right I thought, we’re all expecting the fairytale ending like in the movies …..

By now I was praying for half time, let’s let Moysie have a word with them, gee them up and lay siege to them in the second half, as the thought entered my brain we suddenly won a free kick over in the corner. After much shoving and bustling in the goal mouth the free kick was floated over and by-passed the bodies in the centre of the goal only to find Davie Weir at the back post and he stooped to head home with a diving header …..

“YEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssss” cue much shouting and glee, much hugging of strangers and a great crescendo of noise. The relief was tangible throughout the stadium and the perfect antidote to the pressure we had been under. Half time was then a jolly affair as we sat and caught our breath, surely now this is it I thought, surely we can go on to win from here ……….. can’t we …. ?

Dr Moyes had wisely administered “confidence suppositories” to the entire team at half time and we came out in the second half with renewed vigour. I had to keep checking the team sheet to make sure it was the same team that had played in the first half as we assuredly stroked the ball about the midfield almost with an air of arrogance.

Things improved even more when one of the Newcastle forwards was dismissed for taking a swing at Tim Cahill, within minutes of the dismissal a move around the Newcastle penalty area resulted in the ball breaking to Tim who confidently swept home the second goal

Cue a deafening roar from forty thousand ecstatic Evertonians …..

Once my hearing had returned and the melee had subsided we knew that the finishing line was in sight. We sang, we shouted, we cheered until we were hoarse and when the final whistle blew we gave a huge sigh of relief, around me grown men wept. Complete strangers hugged each other, great hairy dockers embraced like long lost lovers and we all stayed put to cheer our heroes on their lap of honour.

Our mate Leo invited us into the Joe Mercer lounge after the game and there was much quaffing of hooligan soup and merriment. Ex players were in attendance and for a short time Davie Weir made a brief appearance with his family, I have to say that he was a complete gent and spent time posing for photos and signing autographs for the fans.

And when we eventually clambered down the stairs and came out into the cool evening air, the same streets that were vibrant and packed with fans just a few hours before were now almost deserted with the exception of a few happy stragglers at the Wilmslow pub. As we walked back to the car, the sense of what we’d achieved started to sink in, at this point Liverpool had still to play Arsenal the day after, and yet deep down inside I knew we’d done it, I knew we’d be alright …..

I would never be so disrespectful to compare our team to war heroes as portrayed in the American tv series “Band of Brothers” – that was war, this is merely football. And yet the phrase seems to fit all of us –team and supporters alike. Because through all the adversity, all of the mockery and doubt, through all of the disappointment of the summer, we’d stuck together.

We hoped and prayed that things would come good, and with a little help at times from forces outside of our control we have now achieved what people said we would never do.

So it doesn’t matter about Wayne jumping ship, it doesn’t matter about other clubs calling us “pathetic” or critics writing us off before a ball was kicked.

It doesn’t even matter when the opposing fans would sing “Champions League – yer ‘avin a laugh!” to taunt us.

Because we’ve done it ……… we’ve achieved our aims and for the first time in 18 years we’ve finished above Liverpool. Some people are still saying we’re lucky, Graham Souness insists that it was the referee that beat Newcastle not Evereton, here are some of the comments from Alan Oliver who is a journalist for the Newcastle Chronicle ……

“They (Newcastle) absolutely outplayed a team, who will finish fourth in the Premiership, on their own patch in the first half only to squander chance after chance. In my years covering Newcastle United my philosophy has always been you get what you deserve after 38 games. But after looking at Everton I am beginning to wonder. Yes they have great team spirit and togetherness. Yes they are dangerous from set pieces which to be fair are part of the game. But after that what else have they got? Nowt.

Perhaps, unlike United, Everton have had bags of luck. How else do you explain the fact that they are the only team in the Premiership not to have conceded a penalty this season? In the two games at St James' Park and Goodison I would say Everton were one of the poorest teams United have played this season.”

I found his comments incredulous, amusing and sad … sad because we’re still not going to get the credit that our team deserves. However, let’s end on a positive note – exciting times are ahead, Evertonians have got back their pride … and the most exciting thing about all of this is … this is only the start of the adventure ……

Chris Jones

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