FAN ARTICLES

My Everton experience

The last time I stepped inside Goodison Park, I was nine years old... as you can imagine, at such a young age, you don't take in the whole experience. Now, 20 years on, I had the chance to go to Goodison with my mates, and what a match it was, against Manchester United, here's my story.

I'm from Ireland, we had booked a package deal with Thompson Sports Travel, £235 a head was the deal, I know ? very pricey ? it would nearly pay for a season ticket!! In that price, we got hotel (Premier Inn), matchday tickets and our flights.

Saturday morning arrived, 4:30 am. I headed down to the airport where I was quite surprised by the number of Evertonians knocking about the place. Of course, us Irish love our drink so the pints were in (5:30 am) and I got talking to some of the Evertonians. We were in good form, all optimistic about today's game for some reason; we all thought we would take the Mancs.

We landed in Liverpool at 8:00 am, straight to the hotel but for some stupid reason we couldn't check into our room till 2:00 pm (wtf?). Not to worry, after a few swift pints at the hotel, I wanted to head to Liverpool One to find Everton Two (great, that) so off we went. I was expecting Liverpool One to be one big building but we couldn't find Liverpool One... well, so we thought...

We asked a local, "Where's this Liverpool One?" The guy said, "You're standing in the middle of it, lad!" Feeling like a right twat, we marched on and finally we found Everton Two. Of course it had to be right beside the Liverpool megastore, which was double the size!! I decided to by the pink away top (I know, I know) and got Arteta on the back; I also bought a very trendy fleece top, scarf car freshener, me dad a keyring, them small boxing gloves for the car... so £150 spent and worth every penny.

It was kicking on 11:00 am and the match against the Mancs was at 12:45 pm, so we had another few in the hotel before getting a taxi to Goodison. We went so early too get a good look around and soak up the atmosphere. As the taxi approached, there she stood in the middle of an estate: old, rusty... but fucking fantastic!!!

First stop was to get a picture with the statue of Dixie Dean with my pink top on, and then we went into the ground for a pint and a pie. (Now I understand why Evertonians love the pies ? they were great, but pricy at £2.50 each). Our seat was in Row MM in the Main Stand and i was a bit disappointed to be honest because you couldn't see the full stadium because of the restricted views, not to mention those pillars!! Z-Cars rang out and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck!!! It was almost erie because, after watching on TV for so many years, to be here in the flesh was very hard to take in.

The match started and we were playing some good football, Arteta hit the bar with a free kick and a few long shoots had United on the back foot. To be fair to the United fans, they were giving it the big one ? very noisy lot, I thought. Just before half-time, Mickey burst through one-on-one but, damn, he was so slow... I think Vidic was catching him with every step, he took the shot which was saved but fell to Pienaar and bang, Goal!! Goodison went bananas. I was in my element, fucking great stuff!

Not two minutes later, Fletcher sneaked in, bang: 1-1; then it was halftime, a great game so far. One of the funniest moments of the game was United supporters singing "Rooney, Rooney" all game, then someone from among the Everton supporters threw a blow-up doll onto the pitch and all the Everton fans pointed at the doll and shouted "Rooney, Rooney"!!! ? laughed my balls off at that, great stuff.

Second half... bang: 2-1 down, Vidic with a header. Then 3-1, fucking gutted!! We could've been 6 or 7 to be honest. So I'm sat there, head in hands for 20 minutes, Everton doing fuck all... then a few minutes to go, Baines whipped a cracking ball in and Cahill with a thumping header, 3-2. Half the stadium had emptied (silly fuckers) yet another cross from Baines, a big scramble, the ball popped out to Arteta who thumped it... fucking get in, son! The place went mental, the stadium was really shaking, I couldn't believe what I was watching!

Then, all of a sudden, with seconds left on the clock, we were 4 v 2 on the counter, the ball slid into Jags who was one-on-one with Van der Sar but he makes easy save. The whistle went and we saw Moyes and Round going mental on the pitch, we didn't understand till later that day the ref had blown before Jags took the shot, which was a disgrace. The ref was awful all game, might I add.

So, game over, I was still buzzing. We headed to the Crown Bar, a few drinks in there which was cheap, then we headed out for the night. Someone had mentioned to us about Matthew Street which was meant to be good, so off we went, into a bar called Hardy's... very loud music but great craic. After another few, as typical Irishmen, we went to O'Neil's bar, great bar great craic, and ended up meeting a few girls from back home. To cut the story short, we all had a good time :)

Sunday: time to fly home. For goodbye drinks, we headed to the Pilgrim, a student bar, the craic was great and after a few sambucas later, we missed our fucking flight!! Off we went back to O'Neil's, another piss-up and, £85 later for another flight, we got home on Monday.

I laughed so hard at the airport after the security checks we had one more check, the guy stopped and said, "What do you work as?" I said "I'm an engineer." He asked, "Were you over for business or pleasure? As I was wearing my trendy new Everton top, I pointed to the top. He said "Get out." Ha! ? a typical redshite, eh... bitter!

Overall, £500, a great game, a great city, a great experience, great people... and I have to say, for all you Evertonians who don't live in the UK, it is a 'must' trip for you!! COYB

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