Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
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| jimmydriver1878: 27 | |
| Average Everton fan: 38.94 | |
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| 92 Club - 10/92 | |
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No. =P
My first match, to memory, was Tranmere v QPR, early on in the 96/97 season. I remember, because I'd chosen to go to that one, as I knew QPR had come down from Premier League the previous season, as it seemed like an attractive game for a Division One (now Championship) fixture. Not a smart choice though, Rovers lost 3-2!
My first Everton game came only several weeks (maybe even only a week) later, when we played Middlesbrough at Goodison. So long ago was this that Michael Branch was the hottest up-and-coming prospect of the Everton production line, and Southall still played in goal for us, with Earl Barrett infamously garbage at Right Back. Craig Short scored in the first few minutes if memory serves me right (I was only 6!), but we ended up losing 2-1, and I think Nick Barmby scored for them that day. He signed for us a few weeks later, and the rest, as they say, is history...
Easily when we beat Manchester United 1-0 in the 04/05 season, although many of the games in that season were fantastic (such as Crystal Palace and Newcastle - couldn't make the Derby though sadly!). I was literally choking and crying for delirium at the end, as Big Duncan Ferguson had served up our first win over the Mancs in 10 years, not since the '95 FA Cup Final had we beaten them. An electric atmosphere and a night I'll never forget.
Either getting battered by my local team, Tranmere Rovers, in the FA Cup in January 2001. I've been reminded of 'St. Steve's Day' ever since, even though they got relegated that year. Or the 'Clattenberg Derby', my only Merseyside Derby to date, where the ref (Mark Clattenberg) gave a number of stupid and biased decision against us, and helped Liverpool to a dodgy (at best) victory at Goodison, even if Phil Neville gave his own 'helping hand' in the last minute... but the less said about them games, the better. =P
Goodison Park (it won't seem to let me select it from the scroll down bar... hmmmm!). Ok, so it's a wooden 60's shack that's falling apart, and the back of the Gwladys Street looks dodgy at the best of times, but to me, it's home. It's not some 'state-of-the-art' plastic white elephant where the atmosphere gets lost , it doesn't look like every other new stadium in the country, it's a ground with character and an enormous sense of history. It may not be the most glamourous, but I wouldn't have Goodison Park any other way...
I would in theory have to say Gretna's Raydale Park, cos it was a total hole with 2 ok stands, a wall, and an open end. But it was just too funny to be bad, seeing as it was the home of a Scottish First Division club at the time, and the atmosphere was pretty cracking, considering it was just over 1,000 Scottish people in a 4-1 victory over Ross County.
But, Valley Parade I found to be the worst. In a horrible area of Bradford, the guy on the turnstile didn't believe I was a student (despite me having several Student cards out), a completely dead atmosphere from 13,000-odd Bradford fans on a bitterly cold Tuesday night in February. If it wasn't for the 800-or-so Darlington fans I was sitting with (I've got a Uni friend who's a massive Darlo fan), who made massive amounts of noise and were generally hilarious, it would've been the crappest game ever, as it ended 0-0, and the ground was a total dump. Hard to believe it was once hosting Premier League games!
