Blues & Beatles by Neil Roberts

Author:Neil Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: everton fc, everton, football, soccer, toffees, merseyside, liverpool
Publisher: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Published: 2012-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Back To The Egg

Rovers Return

There was no time for a major celebration. At least, not of the ordinary kind. I was still working on The Evertonian. And Everton’s triumph meant I was needed in Liverpool the next day to cover their victory parade.

I drove back up north, straight to the point from which the team bus would leave. The team bus and the press bus. But I was cutting it fine. And when I got there, the Echo had also despatched my friend and colleague Martin Dillon to cover the parade for the next day’s paper. Now Martin is an ardent Red, so this seemed to me to be the cruellest and most delicious of ironies. Especially as he has relished every opportunity to lord it over me since. But on this sunny, late Sunday morning, the gloating opportunities were all mine.

It got better, too. Because we accidentally got on the wrong bus. Without even knowing, we were on the team bus, not the press bus. We just simply waltzed on to the wrong bus. The players were on the upper deck with the cup. And before I knew it, Joe Royle had climbed on board too. ‘Well,’ he told the driver, ‘are we going to get this bus moving or what?’ Martin and I looked at each other. Should we stay? Errrr. Yes. So we did. And we went up on to the deck to mix with the players and their families. And wave to the crowds. And touch the cup. And feel the euphoria. And join the celebrations. Well, I was celebrating. Martin wasn’t.

The bus pulled on to Queens Drive and began its tour of the city. Everywhere below us, en route, a sea of blue and white. There must have been more than 100,000 people with scarves, flags, banners and rosettes. Perhaps 200,000 Everton supporters. Young and old, babies and grannies, grown men and women. Teenagers and families. Imagine how Everton would transform the city if we won the league again. Or another European trophy. Or even the European Cup, as Peter Johnson had promised. I interviewed a couple of the players. I joined in the banter. I managed to pick up the Everton scarf that Dave Watson was wearing. The same scarf he’d been wearing when he accepted the FA Cup from the Prince of Wales the day before. Perhaps he’d never taken it off. Perhaps he’d slept with it. Perhaps I should find its rightful owner? Nah. Perhaps I should keep it, more like. Years later, I lost it.

Back in the office at Old Hall Street, I was immediately presented with a dilemma. Perhaps the same dilemma Howard Kendall was presented with after winning the league title with Everton in 1987. Or perhaps not. But the question was the same. Should I stay or should I go? John Griffith, the Echo editor, offered me the chance to stay on The Evertonian for the following season – to make it a permanent position. I declined. To this day, it’s a career decision I look back on with regret.

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