Oh We Do Like to Win Beside The Seaside

Brighton 0 - 2 Everton

Well, I was waiting for Paul Traill to post one of his usual great posts, but here's a lesser substitute...

What a day out, what a weekend. Coupled with a pay-back trip into London on Sunday with the wife and the son's Army mates being at ours for the Bank Holiday, that was a long, but fantastic weekend!

It started with my usual outing with the dogs at 6:30 am. On match days, I always stop and ask them about Everton. Now I'm not going to give them Paul the Octopus status, but although they haven't got the score spot on, they have given me the results so far this season.

Next was breakfast at the local Wetherspoons. You can take the boy out of Speke, but not the Speke out of the boy, as they say! Mrs Danny, bless her, drove me and my son there and, despite her insistence that I'm Danny aged 10 when it comes to all things Everton, she sat with us and wished us well. I think she gave up on the battle against the other woman in my life a long time ago!!

Train into central London and next stop Victoria Station. Wetherspoons again for the first beverage of the day. We upped our game and went to M&S for some drinks for the train, but underestimated how short the journey to Brighton was. But you can't leave a drink, right? So a bit of speed drinking was in order as we approached.

My brother had gone early and was waiting for us in a pub he found. I say 'found'; my suspicions were alerted when he told me he was in the Railway Bell near the station. So basically, he walked out of the station and zeroed in on the first place he saw. Now, I'm not a snob, but I'm always wary of pubs that are near train stations. To make matters worse, as we approached, it was clear it was a Brighton supporters' pub. It's a bit alien to us as we've never had this issue in my experience in Liverpool, but in London & the South-East, they're funny about away fans in so-called home fans' pubs.

The doormen asked us if we were Brighton or Everton. I ignored but then my brother came out having spotted us and, in his thickest Scouse accent, shouted me in, telling me he had a spot. We just walked in, the doormen ignored us back and we watched the first half of the Man City v Arsenal match before moving on to a much better establishment for the second half.

Absolute Uber chaos as we tried to get to the ground. I guess I'm spoiled living in London these days, so we opted for a very expensive Black Cab.

I'll leave the football aside. I've commented enough elsewhere on the threads. But the away support was amazing once it got going. A bit subdued in the first half but my word, absolutely fantastic as the game went on and the half-time party was great. I've said elsewhere, they couldn't stop singing that Demarai Gray song. I hope the lad continues to prove the doubters — myself included — wrong. He may not have made it at Leicester and only cost £1.5M, but so did Tim Cahill and the lad has something we've been missing: pace.

Game over, the players took the deserved appreciation and several gave their shirts to the adoring supporters. Benitez thought about it... but only came as far as the half-way line to congratulate his players. Time will heal and tell, I suppose, but I sense the fans are warming to him. Us Evertonians are more pragmatic and understanding than we think. As Howard Kendall once described us, the most knowledgable fans in football. Kopites or arrogant London fans we are not.

The trip back into Brighton was a nightmare. More waiting for cancelled Ubers before finally giving up and joining the controlled queuing to get on the train platform. After a long wait and 15 minutes of standing on the platform, we eventually realised we were on the wrong side, so had to go through the entire process again to get destination Brighton side! Two ex-Army and one current serving. You couldn't make it up!

When we eventually got back into Brighton, we tried a few bars to watch Liverpool v Chelsea, but it's a lively place and the pubs were heaving. So we made do with standing on the street with our drinks listening to the southern reds and Chelsea fans inside to get a feel for how the match was going, although I'll be honest, I wasn't really interested.

Back to the station. M&S sandwich (my only food since the Wetherspoon's breakfast aside from a half-time pie) and a few more drinks for the trip back into London. I managed a cheeky one in a pub near King's Cross, but then it was onto the Metropolitan line and sleep until Uxbridge. I didn't even both with Uber: Black Cab and bed. I say 'bed'; couch with the dogs! I think it was 1 am Sunday morning.

I haven't even looked at what I spent as I am afraid. And the wife has already taken another £500 off me in addition to the £700 she took for my trip to Goodison for the Southampton match. I haven't yet declared Burnley, QPR or Norwich.

But you can't buy happiness right? Massive thanks again to Martin & Peter.

What a day. Spirit of the Blues. Oooooh!

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