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1. Why you were looking forward
to going to the ground (or not as the case may be):
As this was a
massive match for my team Oldham Athletic, 3rd round of the magical FA Cup
a lower league team against a Premier League Team - a possible banana skin
in the making. Being an Oldham fan based in Northern Ireland and due to
the fact that Oldham have been playing in the lower leagues for a number
of years this was my first visit to a premier league teams ground hence
the excitement.
2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car
parking:
We flew into Liverpool airport from Belfast on the morning
of the game, and a friend from Oldham drove across and met us at the
airport. We drove into the centre of Liverpool as we got lost we stopped
and asked a more than helpful taxi driver how to get to Goodison. He must
have been from the red side of Merseyside as we followed his directions
and we ended up and Anfield the home of Liverpool FC. We knew both grounds
are located within touching distance so within 5 minutes we could see
Goodison in the distance. We drove past the main stand and parked our car
down a small side street we arrived at the ground around 11.00 so there
was plenty of available spaces.
3. What you did before the game
pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?
We went for our breakfast in a
small cafe located near the ground and to our surprise they served an
Ulster Fry and being from Northern Ireland this was ideal, so the 5 of us
got stuck into that. We then headed off to the Wetherspoons pub for a few
beers, the pub was empty when we arrived apart from a few fans kitted out
in Everton tops. We all had Oldham Athletic tops visible in the pub but
there was no trouble at all very very friendly, until it came to about
13.45 when the pub started to get busy and we started to get a few dirty
looks from a number of guys. We thought this was the right time to leave
so we made our way to the ground. In all the home fans where quite
friendly apart from the guys that tried to stare us out at the pub, but
you get these sorts of people no matter what ground you visit.
4.
What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then
other sides of the ground.
On approaching the ground it looked
quite impressive, it was very busy in and around the ground, therefore we
made our way to the away end. What a disappointment the away end was, our
tickets where for the Bullens Stand (Lower Tier) at the back. The view was
dire and as it was a 5,500 sell out for the away fans there was no spare
seats to move to. We had small wooden seats bolted to a wooden type floor
and hardly any room to manoeuvre. The rest of the ground looked okay
especially the main stand towering over the pitch. You can know understand
why Everton are looking to move to a new ground as parts of Goodison
really are not fit for Premier League footie.
5. Comment on the
game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, toilets etc..
What can I
say we won 1-0 against a team riding high in the premiership, Oldham mid
table League One Team - Everton 6th in the Premiership and still in the
later stages of the UEFA Cup. Everton did field an under strength team,
however they still had 7 internationals on show. Not to mention we had 6
players unavailable from our win at Leeds a few days earlier. The stewards
our the best I have encountered on my football travels, no hassle at all I
wish a number of other grounds I visited had the same type of stewarding
take note Nottingham Forest.
6. Comment on getting away from the
ground after the game:
We celebrated long after the game and this
allowed for the disappointed Everton fans to disperse. On leaving the
ground the police where out in force, helicopter circling above with a
giant search light beaming down on top of us and mounted police visible.
We covered up our Oldham colours and made our way back to the car just in
case some Everton fans took the defeat bad. On all quite easy to get away
from the ground we reached our car and made our way back to Liverpool
Airport for our flight back to Belfast.
7. Summary of overall
thoughts of the day out:
A great day out and what made it even
better was the Everton fans at the airport shaking our hands and saying
Oldham deserved the win.
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