Saturday 18 April 2015

Finding football

This will hopefully begin the story of how I came to be a footy mad girl and how I sit here now at silly o clock in the morning writing this blog. Tonight my husband showed me a Barclay's Premier League promotional video of an Everton fan from South Africa being given the gift to go to his club's ground Goodison Park and watch his very first live game against Newcastle United. The joy and exhilaration you could see coming from the man just made me remember how amazing I felt when I realised football was my passion. Obviously I was a biased viewer to this particularly piece of viewing entertainment and could relate to the game and location but any football fan will know the feeling of passion you get from the game.

When I met my husband just five years ago I was a passive fan of football, I had a mild interest in the game with very few real role models around to look upon as real football fans. My only match going relative was a Manchester United fan who promised to take me to a game but never ended up fulfilling this promise. We had a footballer in the family, professional too! Played for Tranmere Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday and Southport. I got to go to a few Tranmere Rovers games as a teenager but at the time the aftermatch opportunity to scout out good looking boys was more my thing.  This same family member was also an avid Manchester United fan, I say avid loosely I'm not sure how many games he ever got time to go to live but nevertheless if he liked them then that is who I would like. For my eleventh birthday I managed to coax my Liverpool fan step dad into taking me to Old Trafford, he got me the grey shirt with Giggs and the number 11 printed on the back I thought I was the business. For those of you who know how many times the first team ended up wearing that shirt you will understand why I say me and MUFC were really doomed from there.

So fast forward 13 years when I met my husband. The day after we met my most vivid memory is him shooting off to watch the match with his dad, an occasion I would be very used to in years to come little did I know. So our second date to the pub and he is telling me that he is going the match tomorrow (what did I tell you) but he is going on his own as his dad can't go and he can't get rid of the ticket. I felt excited at the prospect of live football so I cheekily asked if I could go with him. I'm not sure I have ever seen my husband as dumbfounded since that day as I did in that moment. He agreed so off we went. 

Now here come the cliches, when we got to Goodison Park it was swarming with people, more people than I'd ever seen in one place (well maybe other than when I went to watch steps play at the MEN but best we don't talk about that). There was a buzz about the place I could feel it in my bones. I was excited, in fact very excited, but nothing at all could prepare me for what was coming. Yes they won, they beat Fulham. But that wasn't it. We walked into the ground and went up the many storeys of stairs to get to our top balcony seats, when we got to the top of the last set of stairs off he went to get his pre match pint of Chang and there I was stuck, feet cemented to the spot I stood in. I couldn't believe it, the sight from the top balcony was amazing I was in a Premier League football ground and I felt like I was on top of the world. I won't go as far as to say I was in love but boy it was close. When he realised I was still stood there he came back and got me. I remember my husband said to me he forgot how amazing the place was, when you come every other week it's easy to I guess.



The game went so fast, but it was full of excitement. Z cars leading the team out, the crowd cheering, singing, buoying their teams to do well. As I said earlier Everton did win so I think that will have helped with the atmosphere and it was Fulham so I would say it wasn't in comparison now probably one of the best atmospheres of the season but it felt it to me. I wanted more! I was like a puppy with a new toy I just didn't want to put down. It had got me, sucked me into its crazy world. I always wanted something to be a part of, something that I felt I could take an interest in. As a primary aged child I would play football with the lads but I was told at the time (mid nineties) that I wasn't allowed to play in the boys teams I was made to play in the netball team, a game I tried to enjoy but never really did. Now it was like my passion had been found. I could follow the scores, learn about the players, learn their numbers, their stats. I read through the programme like I imagine an 8 year old boy would after his dad had took him to his first game, I was discovering my passion the ways those young boys do on the bus on the way home from the match. And now hopefully young girls will do too!


After that game my husband took me to a few more games at Goodison before we discovered my love for grass roots football, but we will leave that for another day!

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