Column

Move on

Having been born and lived within hearing distance of the Goodison roar, the stadium and its surrounding aura will mean I will always have great memories. Even before I was old enough to go I was infected by the match day experience just playing in the street. Once I was old enough to stand on the terraces I was hooked every which way.

However, in the immediate present; once it was accepted (by a significant majority it seems to me) that staying at Goodison was unfeasible, the focus of an increasingly heated debate has focussed wholly on whether a stadium located on one side or another of an artificial line spelt doom or glory for the Club.

Whilst for the aforementioned attachment I have to Goodison, I totally understand the desire to remain close to the centre of the city with which we are associated, I do not define my allegiance and active support for Everton Football Club on the basis that they remain in Liverpool 4,5, 6 or any other post code.

Those who were eligible were given the opportunity to vote on the issue and the majority of them did so. The decision by the Club to do this was unique and should be acknowledged as at least brave; for it could easily have backfired spectacularly in terms of the result they clearly wanted.

After much soul searching I voted "Yes". I am not proud of this decision, but neither am I embarassed. I have been a season ticket holder for 25 years and moving the ground five miles isn't going to change that. For all the chest beating currently evident on this site and elsewhere, I would hope that those who are now suggesting they will never go to Goodison again (let alone Kirkby) will quickly realise the folly of such a choice once they have calmed down. If they can't, then my honest view is that their passion for the Club is not as real as they would have us believe; else how could they make such statements (except in the heat of the moment when we all say things we immediately regret)?

The more rabid of contributors to this site, who use vitriol and spite to make their point when all else fails, who see the only valid viewpoint as being from those supporters who hold their own views and / or who live within the City boundaries, should be ignored. They lost the argument when they sought to divide the Club's supporters into an 'us and them'. Although he is not the only person guilty in this regard, I have been increasingly angered by the hysterical utterings of Tony Marsh on the subject of the ground move. I used to find Mr. Marsh's anti-Moyes rants occassionally pointed and sometimes amusing. However, his stance on this issue and his berating of fellow supporters has made me angry and sick in equal measure. Whilst I would not call for his exclusion from this site (it is not my site) I would suggest that he has overstepped the mark which allows him the title 'columnist'.

I will be at Goodison on Saturday as normal. Eventually I will be sitting in the new stadium too. I will, in both cases, be doing what I have done for more years than I care to mention: shouting myself hoarse and enjoying every minute of the roller coaster our team put's us through.

The decisions to move and to where have been made and I for one will be moving on from this issue now; getting back to supporting my team. I hope that is something we will all be doing.

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