Paul, you have captured the evening really well in this article and we realise that so much was going on it would be impossible to cover, it was nice that we could get the reds over and they said how much they enjoyed it, maybe we are a pebble in the water that will rise to a wave. Its the club officals that need to get on board with this and to be fair it looks like the goodwill is there. Well done Paul it was a pleasure to meet you again.
Paul Wharton Everton FC Shareholders Association.

Good piece Paul and I urge you to read Across the Park as soon as you can. A great book and very enlightening even for an Everton bore like me.

When you do read it, you will ask the question, "Where did it all go wrong?" — and another great piece to read on this would be Greg Murphy’s piece in WSAG about Bitter blues — it remains the best piece I have ever read about Everton — thanks Greg. (I do have a soft spot for Greg after his other Excellent piece on Neville Southall being the greatest ever Everton player.)

Anyway, Greg tries to answer the question of where things started turning sour and does so superbly. The question you are asking is how do we get back to where we were.

I think the problem is that not everyone wants to get back to where we were because they can’t even remember that it existed.

My own feelings are that I detest Liverpool as an institution and its captain who I know from personal experience is an absolute prick of the highest order. Others such as Carragher, who I think always has been horribly over rated, seems a decent enough lad. Torres is an absolutely exceptional player. However, I hate them and always will. Just watching Gerrard's face on Sky last night as he waited for the Fiorentina – Lyon game to finish was superb.

That hatred has to be taken into context though as some of my closest friends are reds. My 2 sisters are reds. My nieces and nephews are reds. Do I hate these people? — of course not. Do I hope they all have a horrible Sunday? Absolutely.

Songs about murderers and the like don't sit comfortably with me so let's get our own house in order first of all and let them shower worry about their behaviour.

I think it is only when you mature that you realise that, like it or not, it is only a game.

LFC TV Friday night 9-10pm they will show how the evening went.

I do think that Heysel (apparently it’s not even called that anymore, since being rebuilt!) casts a long dark shadow over inter-club relations & probably will do so at least ubtil Everton achieve some consistent success. Whilst the club remains a comparative failure some supporters will always harken back to Heysel as the root cause, despite the fact that other clubs emerged from the ban stronger rather than weaker or the fact that the intervening couple of decades are ample time for the club to have recovered from that set-back. However, I suspect that this shadow will fade out when the club once again has a period of consistent success to compare with the heady days of the mid-80’s.
My view of the Kopites is that, for many, there has been some comfort in being able to gloat & patrronise us "bitter blues" but that the further they get from their club’s own glory days the greater the bitterness they show towards the "small club" ’Across the Park’ (a book well worth reading, btw).
Many suggest the clubs shuld share a new stadium, but I do wonder whether that would ease or exacerbate the tensions between us.
Anyway, the City of Liverpool can be proud of it’s record as the only English city able to boast top flight football right from the inception of the Football League - I suspect the collective trophy haul for the city must be at or near the top of the pile for England as well!

Fascinating stuff. I love reading about our history from what seems like another world in many ways.

1985 semms almost like another world now, but who knows, with the Kirkby move shot down maybe some real common sense and goodwill will prevail and both clubs can share a super-stadium in Stanley Park, which would be a natural evolution in many ways