Random things you miss about the match

[RedKnight]

Dogs on the pitch.

[Faustus]

Not so much about the match, but I miss the rush to buy the Pink Echo straight after it.

[fivetimes]

Atmosphere.

[dave u]

The big crown paints tin in the centre circle, and big Jan pinging balls at it in the warm up.

 

We could have that now, with a massive can of carlsberg. Wouldn't have worked back then, big Jan would have tried cracking it open and sinking it.

[rargh]

Not so much about the match, but I miss the rush to buy the Pink Echo straight after it.

 

Deffo. Moreso after a decent home win. Get off the train, go the chippy for your pre-night out tea and pop into the corner shop while it's being cooked: "The pink in yet, luv?"

[The Virgin]

The whole day...

 

4 of us in a bright green Talbot Sunbeam.

 

Parking up by what's now the Maccy's on County Road.

 

The walk up to the 'King Harry', have a couple of pints watchin 'The Saint & Greavsie', dodging the dog & horse shit on the walk up Back Rockfield Road, the shouts of 'Golden Goal' as you got nearer the ground.

 

The BBC or ITV (not SKY) trucks just inside the gates, walking past the Kop on my way to bring the average age of the Kemlyn down by 40 years!

 

Sitting on a rock hard wooden seat right on the half way line next to a couple of old fellas from North Wales - who obviously left early!

 

Getting told to "Sit down lad" (this I don't miss).

 

Being able to walk down the cinder track towards the Anfield Road end to chat to mates at half time.

 

And all this knowing that you were going to win!!

[d.k.E.]

The Ronnie Whelan fan on the Kop!

[Mark P]

- £4 to stand on the Kop, after queuing for 3 hours

- £5 for "big games" and only £8 if you couldn't be arsed to queue in the kids line!

- Actually needing a physical ticket for the Kop for games against the mancs and everton...and making sure you got the appropriate voucher a few weeks before

- Sitting on a barrier as a kid, getting knocked flying when we scored, only to be rescued by a doxen people you didn't even know...."You all right, der, kid?!"...

- Open away terraces with no roof...Coventry 5-1 in 1992, anyone?

- Actually buying a programme and being gutted if you didn't manage to get one

- Burgers and hot dogs outside the ground for a quid

[Christian]

Jan Molby passes

Half Celtic (or Rangers)/Half Liverpool bobble hats

Ian Rush one-on-one's

[Dirk]

- £4 to stand on the Kop, after queuing for 3 hours

- £5 for "big games" and only £8 if you couldn't be arsed to queue in the kids line!

- Actually needing a physical ticket for the Kop for games against the mancs and everton...and making sure you got the appropriate voucher a few weeks before

- Sitting on a barrier as a kid, getting knocked flying when we scored, only to be rescued by a doxen people you didn't even know...."You all right, der, kid?!"...

- Open away terraces with no roof...Coventry 5-1 in 1992, anyone?

- Actually buying a programme and being gutted if you didn't manage to get one

- Burgers and hot dogs outside the ground for a quid

 

I was at a derby match when I was 13/14, the one where Watson scored and we immediately equalised and then Fowler got the winner. I was getting squashed against this barrier and a fella used his brut strength to push against the barrier, so people behind him were pushed back and he told me to duck under the barrier so I was in front of it and couldn't get squashed.

[Brownie]

- £4 to stand on the Kop, after queuing for 3 hours

- £5 for "big games" and only £8 if you couldn't be arsed to queue in the kids line!

- Actually needing a physical ticket for the Kop for games against the mancs and everton...and making sure you got the appropriate voucher a few weeks before

- Sitting on a barrier as a kid, getting knocked flying when we scored, only to be rescued by a doxen people you didn't even know...."You all right, der, kid?!"...

- Open away terraces with no roof...Coventry 5-1 in 1992, anyone?

- Actually buying a programme and being gutted if you didn't manage to get one

- Burgers and hot dogs outside the ground for a quid

 

All great shouts!

[The Virgin]

Mark P & Dirk, loved the Kop as a kid memories.

 

My first game...

 

Reds v Brighton, FA Cup (81?) Jimmy Case scored for Brighton. We got beat.

 

I was in the Kop with my Dad. Up at the top - Kemlyn corner. There was a brick wall that went across the corner which I had made my way to to get a better view - I was 8 years old.

I was getting crushed a bit so decided to make my way back to where I thought my Dad was, but obviously couldn't find him. I started shouting for him, which then prompted what felt like 1000s of Kopites to start shouting DAD!! I was then passed over heads to where he was. I'll never forget it.

 

(I am trying to distance myself from the sport that I don't recognise any more, but threads like this make you realise why you love footy and this (once?) AMAZING FOOTY CLUB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Randy Marsh]

Dogs on the pitch.

 

Still get that twice a year when we play the blue shite. Used to love it how they would rest all the "dogs of war" players for a month before the derby, because they couldnt only last one 90mins every two months. Ferguson, Unsworth etc, haha.

 

Boss thread by the way. Im only 20 but i have got some very vague memories of the old kop. Walking in up the steps from the side, sat on one of the barrier things, with me dad and his mate holding me up. Must have only been about 4 or 5. Thats it really. But i feel honoured that i can say i stood on the old kop.

Ive had me season ticket since 95/96, collymoores debut against sheff wed, and i used to love the excitement of goin the match. parking up, me dad and his mate used to always have one in the derry club before and after the game, me playing footy down the front by the stage with all the other little lads. Stopped going years ago because me dad always said it was bad luck!

 

-Agree with what others have said, really miss the footy echo after the game. Criminal when they stopped that.

-slightly different but i miss actually looking forward to watching MOTD. Its utter shite now. Used to plan your saturday night around it, and then get up sunday morning to watch it again.

-Miss actually playing at 3 oclok on a saturday. Thats THE time to play football matches. hate all this 12.30 on a sunday bollocks.

-Miss the passion and hate for the big games. The thundering challenges early on, yellow cards, red cards. boss. Just dont get that now. My first memory of a manc game is the fowler 2-0 one at anfield. Pure hatred from start to finish. Non stop abuse all game. Thats how it should be. The manc/blueshite games are shite now, in comparison.

[Paul]

Done this without reading the thread, so sorry for any duplicates (I just wanted to make sure I recorded my own memories, rather than someone else's):

 

1. The walk up to Anfield from Sandhills station.

2. Seeing massive fucking queues outside the ground.

3. Going in through the lads' gate.

4. Arriving at your spec on The Kop (behind the goal, but just to the right about half way up).

6. The anticipation of kick-off for a big match - The Kop heaving at about half two, loads of songs, footies and balloons getting chucked about, flags everywhere, people getting passed hand over hand down to the front.

7. The sheer nutty joy of a goal celebration - leaping all over some bloke you've never met before as you surge about ten steps down the terrace.

8. Taking about five minutes to find everyone again after a goal.

9. The mad random swearing shouts from pissed up lunatics with fucked voices.

10. Winning every week.

11. Hearing "Dalglish", "Champions" and "You'll win fuck all again - Manchester, Manchester" at the match.

12. The feeling of knowing you've just watched the best team in the world.

[Brownie]

I'm loving the memories that this thread is bringing back!

 

I used to go with my dad and he'd park in one of the car parks down by the Aldi - just down past where the Everton Megastore is now.

 

We'd go up to the Red Brick for a bevvie before the match - I think it was a blue pub because when we went in on Derby day it was rammed with Evertonians. Me and my dad were the only reds!

 

My dad's mate was a butcher and his shop was by there. He was called 'Chicken Billy' and we used to get some food from there on the way to the ground.

 

We'd walk up the alley way by where the King George (?) pub is - the one with all the boarded up houses etc. My dad would get me some sweets from the shop on the corner and I can remember always being dead excited seeing the Kop from afar as I walked towards the ground.

 

Dad would get a Golden Goal on the corner before we went in. Don't remember queuing that much because we went there quite late - just for kick off. Our spec was behind the goal, more than half way up and slightly to the right. I could find it now if the Kop was the same....

 

My dad had loads of mates who stood there so we always had a spec and i'd sit on the bar eating sweets and generally being in my element.

 

All the lads around us were great with me. I remember shouting out once, 'spread it to Rosey!' when someone had a ball in the middle and Rosenthal was in loads of space. The player pinged a 50 yarder out to him, everyone clapped and then all the lads around me gave me some money for spotting the pass! I remember being loaded after that! There were loads of similar instances to that one.

 

When I needed a piss, i'd go alone as I knew my way around the Kop like the back of my hand even as an 8 year old and my dad KNEW i'd be fine.

 

After the game, we'd stay for all of the scores and then walk down and drive home whilst listening to Stuart Hall with his brilliant match reports.

 

Fuck me I miss it so much...

[RJ Fan club]

4. Arriving at your spec on The Kop (behind the goal, but just to the right about half way up).

 

That brings it flooding back. Mine was left to the centre, just under half way up. With your back to barrier obviously.

 

Not that you stayed there for long after kick off.

[Bellflower]

That articulated hydraulic tunnel UEFA insisted all teams playing in European competitions must have , but we seem to have been the only club that had one......................

[Caramac]

- £4 to stand on the Kop, after queuing for 3 hours

- £5 for "big games" and only £8 if you couldn't be arsed to queue in the kids line!

- Actually needing a physical ticket for the Kop for games against the mancs and everton...and making sure you got the appropriate voucher a few weeks before

- Sitting on a barrier as a kid, getting knocked flying when we scored, only to be rescued by a doxen people you didn't even know...."You all right, der, kid?!"...

- Open away terraces with no roof...Coventry 5-1 in 1992, anyone?

- Actually buying a programme and being gutted if you didn't manage to get one

- Burgers and hot dogs outside the ground for a quid

 

.....kinell l must be gettin on...........it was 80p to stand on the kop the first time l went to Anfield.....1978.

[Mr Moustache]

1. The heat in there on a cold winters night

2. Being a bit scared near Bommy night when bangers and rockets would start going off

3. Singing 'I remember those Everton bastards' before a derby pointing down at me blue mates huddled with all the other invading blue shite near the stansion towards the Main Stand End.

4. Walking up those steps with your mates when you're 12/13 and the only thing you cared about was the result and what girl you where gonna try and box off in the jigger later that night

5. Flares (not the ones you were) being lit before the European Games (more of a 90's thing I remember)

[aws]

kids on milk crates

 

the sways of the crowd

 

enjoying the pressure of a big crowd round you in the days before you understood

 

jumping the queue to get on the bus after the game

 

learning to tell the time in regional accents as an insurance for aways

 

random shouters actually being funny

 

the tension of infiltrating the home end on aways

 

having your own spec

 

getting in early and enjoying it

[L19red]

double clicking, higsons paper cups, standing with your mates, Hitatchi - but not when you were on the telly, decent singing, political incorrectness, dalglish curlers, Zico.

[EVO VIP BUNKER]

This thread is great!!

goin down the walkway halfway up the Kop then pushing and shoving your way down towards the middle!

Celtic / Rangers!

Jaffa!

You never boo the reds! (good one for todays lot!)

"who the fuck are england" in reply to "where were you in Italy" from every club in the country over Digger!

Sun hats / bobble hats (no bobble)

Semi flares and Trim trabb.

Kenny and Rushie

Always knowing youd win, even if we went behind because it made the atmosphere better!

87/88 and the best team ever!

were on th march with Paisley / Fagin/ Kenny's army!

"Bring on the Champions" before every home game

 

Wish I had a Tardis!

[melons]

Trying to keep up with me cousins as they were pacing ahead from where we parked the other side of stanley park... and it only being a quid for a kid to 'watch ya car mate' havin my stubs knicked by the same cousins for the big games.... that as a girl i wasnt allowed to go to....and on the few occasions i was stood on the kop, seeing school mates fly by over peoples heads!

 

Flag days... first time one went over my head.... feck.... class....

 

actually getting to games and it didnt criple me financially.... :-(

[joey54]

Higsons Beer in a paper cup......getting back to your original spec every 15 mins with the movement of the crowd ......or when it was really packed that feeling as your feet left the floor as you were carried about in the surge [unreal that one ] getting hit by a flying packet of Wrigleys.....from the lads with the trays down front.... heaving out the ones who fainted in the crush over your heads [ happened quite a lot that ]

Chanting "Walrus..Walrus ..Walrus " at the white haired copper with his swagger stick as he walked up and down behind the kop goal.....and on a few occaisions when the kop was a bit quiet the high pitched voices of the "Boys Pen" as they tried ....and usually managed to get us all shouting and chanting again....got to stop now to wipe a nostalgic tear away..............

[EVO VIP BUNKER]

Having the same "Savaway" ticket for the train all season, back in the days when they trusted you to rub out the date on the day of purchase!! Must have cost BR a friggin fortune!!!