On Saturday, I went to Old Trafford to my first away game since we won the title at Norwich in 1987. I grew up watching Everton home and away with my Dad in the 80s and early 90s but growing up, being skint and moving away from the area meant that going to the match fell down my list of priorities.
10 years ago, work brought me back to the North-West and I have settled In Manchester. Over the years, I?ve always tried to get to Goodison Park when I can and have too frequently come away disappointed with the atmosphere, negativity, sheer lack of singing or all too frequently songs petering out. At times I?ve felt embarrassed to be barracked by away fans without any vocal response from our fans.
I keep reading from Moyes, managers like Wenger, the players and some journalists about how intimidating Goodison can be, but have continually come away from Goodison disappointed. Then I listen to Everton?s away games on the radio or watch online and realise that this vocal support does exist among the away fans. So I?ve been plotting for a while to get to an away game but various events have got in the way until I managed to get a ticket for Saturday?s game in the Everton end.
From the minute the boys came out to warm up, the Everton fans made their voices heard and really started warming up as the clock ticked down to kick-off. Throughout the game, the Blues fans continued to out-sing and overwhelm the United fans. Even at the end, it was our fans who could be heard loudly claiming their pride in our club.
Despite the disappointment of the result and the performance of some of our team, I came out of Old Trafford buzzing and feeling like I had when I used to go the games when I was a kid. To spend 2 hours hearing and singing songs I haven?t heard since the glory days, and newer ones, was great and reminded me of why I used to love going to the match so much.
I guess what?s inspired me to write here is to pay a tribute to the Everton fans for their passionate, inspiring, positive and sheer bloody minded support. It really felt like we were the 12th man and you could tell by the players? reactions at the end how important our support had been to their effort. I felt like we came away from that game with our pride well and truly intact and I, for one, was proud to walk out of that ground as a Blue.
After that experience, my mind is firmly made up: I am an away-day convert. Bring on Wigan
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Saying that though, this is often the way with a lot of teams, perhaps down to the journey to the ground and the "behind enemy lines" feeling etc...
As I watched the match in the pub, I could hear what our fans were like. Actually I have come round to agreeing with you that atmosphere does largely depend on what's happening on the pitch. I wish our fans certainly did stand up and support the team for every game, but unfortunately that's just a dream.
The atmosphere at Chelsea was excellent but most fans that I know have said our away fans have been poor this season with the exception of 1 or 2 games. But we're still better than Liverpool and United fans.
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