Gerry Quinn can’t really remember when he was last at Goodison park but one game from over 40 years ago seems lodged in his memory... and he’s paying a very special return visit.

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Tahir Abdullah
1 Posted 08/04/2014 at 18:54:06
Gerry, super contribution. Best wishes to you and the missus for the trip and hope you have a great day. Our blue boys will be up for it on the day I’m sure. NSNO...
Paul Johnson
2 Posted 08/04/2014 at 19:02:55
Great read, Gerry. Made my heart sing. All we need is another three-nil scoreline and it will have been heaven for you. You won’t recognise Liverpool now mate but you will love the place. Have a great time...
Bill Griffiths
3 Posted 08/04/2014 at 20:43:33
Enjoy your visit Gerry, I really hope we win for you.
Anthony Lewis
4 Posted 08/04/2014 at 21:05:42
Bloody hell mate. Goosebumps at the thought of beating them 8-0 :). There’s an omen for Man U in there somewhere...

Hope you have a great day (I know you will)

George McKane
5 Posted 08/04/2014 at 21:50:47
It was my 22nd birthday on that day — never ever forget it.
Jamie Crowley
6 Posted 08/04/2014 at 22:32:10
Absolutely
Utterly
Fantastic

Gerry I hope your trip is one of the best moments of your life. And I mean that most sincerely.

Brian Denton
7 Posted 08/04/2014 at 23:22:20
Great read Gerry. I remember that game well - it was the first season I had a season ticket, aged 13/14. Gwladys Street stand, £13 for the season with a programme for each game thrown in.

Have a brilliant time!

Mike Gaynes
8 Posted 08/04/2014 at 23:39:47
Superb, Gerry. Have a wonderful time.
Derek Thomas
9 Posted 08/04/2014 at 23:25:26
Snap (crackle and pop) Gerry, here I am in sunny Brisbane I click on to find the sad news of Sandy Brown, indeed was it really that long since his OG. Which I’m sure, based on his reception a year or 2 ago, not one Blue holds an ounce of resentment in their hearts about, it was a classic, historic, iconic and all that stuff, stuff of legend.

I too am on the way back for probably the last time, a bit like like you my initial target was OFM, TGT and the Man Utd game, but flights and stuff plus a feeling before Christmas that we were going to Wembley made me move my time forward a week or so, just in case... As it is, I will be here for the Man City and Hull City games and will have to explain to the Mrs that the special weekend break to London I had planned for her and me (coincidentally over the Cup Final weekend) has been cancelled.

I toyed with the various Lounges/ ticket options and, without a suit and tie to my name, not being an office wallah, and being no big lover of large meals in the afternoon (it was still a 3:00pm KO then) I decided to take the more down market option of spending 3 hrs or so walking around soaking up the atmosphere aka Ken Buckley’s fat wagon for curry and chips and various ale houses. (Just where is this famed ’Room of Nonsense’?? )

My last game was the Rooney/Arsenal game in 2002; the one before that was Joe Royle’s first Derby in 94... plus all the others both big and small going back to 5th Nov 1960 (or was it 61, the old memory again eh) and Bobby Collins squaring up to a grokish WBA defender... and the defender having the good sense to not get involved... wise decision.

I keep meaning to write it all down (especially the 18+ X-rated bits) all this football and bygone days memory stuff, when the world was black and white TV, at 45rpm, and beer was 1 and 8 a pint, that pop in your mind when a trigger goes off ( like that 8-1 game )

That’s basically it then, we’re on the downward slope and you never know the day.

So will we ever see the good times roll again? even if it’s just on tv?

Well I’m a lot more confident now with Martinez than I ever was with Moyes.

But hey this is Everton and you sign up for life...and as they say...

If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t of joined

Karl Masters
10 Posted 09/04/2014 at 00:53:54
Great stuff, Gerry. I really hope it’s a match to remember.

It’s a pity you only have 4 days as Liverpool has changed one hell of a lot. For a start, many pubs around Goodison are gone and the Winslow is one of them, unless it has reopened since I was last there earlier in the season. I think you will also be surprised at how many non-Scouse voices you will hear compared to back in the 70s when that was very rare.

Hopefully you might meet some other ToffeeWebbers, I’ll not be there as it is Mrs Masters’ birthday (shared with Hitler, as I remind her when suits!) so I’m going to be at the Palace match, but maybe you’ll spy the lesser spotted Tony Marsh taking a pop at Moyes.

There must be some relatives from 12 uncles and aunts offspring still left in the City, or did the whole family leave Liverpool like so many others?

Anyway, I’ll be thinking of you when I’m watching it on TV. I’m sure you are going to enjoy welcoming OFM back!!!

Kevin O'Regan
11 Posted 09/04/2014 at 10:00:04
Thanks for that, Gerry – special memories of a special day, special club which linger for decades and mingle with other stories from family and friends and work and everything else, but the common factor in all such wonderful stories seems to be a love for EFC and all things Everton.

Enjoy every minute of it, Gerry, I love your wonder-filled ’childish’ anticipation & excitement. Brilliant.

Now, as for the Missus following Partick Thistle ’cause of the name and then being dumped for expense reasons, or Karl’s Missus with same birthday as AH - made my day. Thanks.

Tommy Davis
12 Posted 09/04/2014 at 10:24:33
Brilliant read Gerry, (I didn’t realise, or had........erm forgotten, we are neighbours as such, Fort Worth here, lol.)

RIP, Sandy Brown (Yet one more thing to make us feel older, Gerry, sadly, just a baby meself at a mere 62 and holding till later this year.) So many of our idols have passed away over the last decade (or longer) or so it seems, Bally (My idol), Brian Labone, Westy, Royston Vernon, Bobby Collins, Davey Hickson, Gary Speed [sigh].

That Southampton match, as I recall, we had snow that day & for some reason me & the mates ended up in the Bullens Rd stands, instead of our usual spot in the Gwladys St; why we did, I have no earthly idea, but the view we ended up having of the 8 goals was a treat for sure, with Big Joe Royle 4, Dave Johnson 3 & Bally I think doing the honours!!

What I didn’t remember was, Gerry, that was the last home game I saw Bally ever again in a blue shirt. Truly one of my saddest days as an Evertonian, I never did forgive Catterick or the board for selling him for a paltry 220,000 pounds – it could have been 2 million quid, it wouldn’t have mattered.

I remember me & some of the mates going to the ground before he left for Arsenal, to see if we could say thank you & goodbye to the maestro, but as I recall somebody had laid down in front of his car refusing to move & the bizzies were very... busy in dealing with the many Evertonians who had similar ideas as ourselves.

All I can recall is Bally crying his eyes out & unable to say much of anything to us, but wave as he finally was allowed to drive off..... OMG, I still tear up thinking back over 40 years ago to that awful time in our history as a football club re: Alan Ball, truly an Evertonian & greatly missed to this day!

Didn’t we also stick 7 past the Saints some 25 years later too, 7-1 perhaps in the mid 90s with Gary Speed bagging a hat-trick, along with some cracking players like, Andrei Kanchelskis, Hinchcliffe, Graeme Stuart, Barmby (yuk), Horne, etc??

Ajay Timothy
13 Posted 10/04/2014 at 01:11:44
I remember the game like it was yesterday. Big Joe scored half of his entire season's goals in that game as he was injured for most of the year. I think Bally also said that, as the reigning Champions, he thought that this would kick-start our season.
Gerry Quinn
14 Posted 10/04/2014 at 02:51:43
Many thanks all for the best wishes and great replies. Thought I'd let you know that we actually started packing our cases – 6 days ahead of the flight from Houston!!!! Are we keen to get there, or what? Only kidding!!

We actually check in to the Adelphi on the Thursday before the match, so if you are in the vicinity, by all means drop in to say hello and then you can buy me a Stella — and always remember the Gerry Quinn motto...

"If Everton were predictable, they would cease to be Everton!"

NSNO - COYB

Paul Ferry
15 Posted 10/04/2014 at 03:27:58
The Adelphi! Get you! Have a wonderful time and I have more than a hunch that there will be more Quinn visits to The Old Lady to come after this one (you are not exactly old mate!)

You'll see a much changed city but one with lots of familiar loved places. You will love the new Pier Head. (Next time, stay in the old Cunard Building, now hotel).

I guess you might not have the time to head down to Central Station to get a train to Crosby, but the Crows is still the Crows, George and Angelas is still George and Angelas, the beach isstill the beach, the Volly is still the Volly .......

Enjoy!

What a match to pick mate. I'll be there too and might even make it to the Winslow if the lads want to bevvy there – we usually bevvy in the Mons and County before the match.

Have a great time mate and the very lovely Mrs Quinn.

Gerry Quinn
16 Posted 10/04/2014 at 10:26:03
Smashing, Paul – much appreciated – and Mrs Quinn says you are a lovely guy but is sad that you've spelt your name wrong... her maiden name was Catherine FERRIE!!!

I will go out of my way to visit the Crows Nest and the Blundellsands (BS) to name a couple as I want to soak in the old haunts. I'll draw the line at knocking on the door of 60 Victoria Road though...

Matt Traynor
17 Posted 10/04/2014 at 10:55:38
Good luck with the BS Hotel Gerry - went years ago I believe, in 2000? Plans to either knock it down and rebuild as a nursing home, or convert to one. Anyway of course there was uproar amongst the locals (who probably never drank in there) to save it, but it was eventually turned into luxury flats.

My first trip there was as a 16-year-old St Mary's pupil, in that basement bar that was soon closed, but it was a regular for many years on nights out with schoolmates as part of night out that always ended with a late one (or several) in the Old Boys.

Gerry Quinn
18 Posted 10/04/2014 at 12:26:04
Matt, I'm crushed about the BS and now you and the rest of the guys have me worried no end about what I will find when I return.

Is the Liver Building still there?
Have they filled in the Mersey Tunnel and built a bridge?
Is Lime Street Station now a Vegetable market?
Is the East Lancs now the West Lancs?
Is the Viccy Road Duck Pond now a Salmon Farm?
Is the butcher's shop still in Cooks Road, or did all my Mum's bitching and moaning about the excess fat cause it to shut down?
How many years jail did the Christian Brother's at St Mary's get between them?

David Kershaw
19 Posted 10/04/2014 at 15:12:33
Great story, mate. I get home at least once a year and the changes blow me away...

I didn't realize you were from Crosby; there's a great new-ish wine bar on the corner of Endbutt Lane (I think that's the street). It was only when I went home with an American and did the touristy things that I realized what a fascinating place we come from.

Toying with idea of getting home for last games (my better half has sussed that I always manage to get a game or two in when I go home!!) We are from the same era and your article really reminds me how innovative we used to be. What we did, other teams followed... When did it all change?

Have a great time there...
Cheers.

Gerry Quinn
20 Posted 10/04/2014 at 18:37:17
Brian - Gwladys Street stand, £13 for the season!!!!! Unbelievable, no wonder Everton started to go backwards and were eventually overtaken by the no-hopers of Chelsea and Man City. You could have bought a Ferrari for that in 1971 :)
Paul Ferry
21 Posted 10/04/2014 at 23:05:31
Matt the basement bar in the BS, I had so many nights there, so handy next to the station. Yep the BS is no more, like Alexandra Hall it is now 'luxurious' flats. That winebar on Endbutt Lane/Liverpool Road is quite nice. Crows and the bug and bite and volly are waiting for you. A big chunk of Crown Buildings is gone for redevelopment but Stamps - the old post office - is a good watering hole.

Is the Viccy Road Duck Pond now a Salmon Farm?

It's still there, still got all that green mange over it

Is the butcher's shop still in Cooks Road, or did all my Mum's bitching and moaning about the excess fat cause it to shut down?

Gone mate. That was Frank's place right?

How many years jail did the Christian Brother's at St Mary's get between them?

The sadistic bastard Carey was never brought to trial! They shuffled him off back to Ireland. Remember how when he strapped you it was not your palm but he skimmed your finger tips with the strap - agony!

Enjoy mate

Eugene Ruane
22 Posted 11/04/2014 at 08:27:57
Paul Ferry (147) - "The Adelphi! Get you"

You're kidding, you can get a room there (a big one) for thirty five nicker during the week.

Gerry, I don't know if you're a smoker or not (guessing if you live in America, not) but if you are and you're staying at the Adelphi, ask for room 254.

Big room, big bathroom and..you can smoke.

Karl Masters - "For a start, many pubs around Goodison are gone and the Winslow is one of them, unless it has reopened since I was last there earlier in the season"

http://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/everton-fc-news/1220826-iconic-everton-fc-pub-the-winslow-finally-reopens-for-business.html

Dave Lynch
23 Posted 11/04/2014 at 09:24:38
Aaaah Crosby, good memories.

I used to live in the little gothic cottage just inside Merchant Taylors boys school as I was a groundsman there.
Does the Marine still serve the worst pint of lager in the world?
Can you swing a cat in the volley yet?
Are Satterthwites sossy rolls still yummy?
Is the Ko Sing still open?
Does the picture house still stink of piss?

Happy days...

Karl Masters
24 Posted 11/04/2014 at 23:48:39
Good news indeed, Eugene! When the Winslow was shut, it made the whole road look run down and all the history that went with it was gone. I'll drop in there for a pint before the Palace game on Wednesday, first time I've been able to get to Goodison due to work since last August. Can't wait to be honest.

Many pubs have gone though, like the Stanley Park which is now some sort of noodle bar or similar.


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