FAN ARTICLES

What the FA Cup means to me

By Jonathan  Flack :  29/05/2009 :  Comments (6) :

I was born in Cambridge 1981, dad's a Man Utd fans and big bro is too. My Grandad is from Liverpool and an ex-Everton season ticket holder, and my uncle is a crazy Evertonian, so there was only one team they would let me support and that was Everton. Early games are going from the memory but watching Big Dunc score against the Man Utd to win one-nil is still fresh in my mind.

Having taken so much stick from friends over the years it was tough for my generation of Evertonians. The greatest day of all was the FA Cup Final in 1995. The family (excluding my Grandad) got tickets for the game so all headed down in the car. My Uncle had bought me the new Danka kit! Fantastic! Two Evertonians Vs two Mancs.

We won it in the car for me. From the moment we got into the car, it all started. My dad had a car phone which wasn't connected, so my uncle picks up the phone, pretends to dial a number and fakes a conversation with Joe Royle. "Hey Joe, it's Tony, is Big Dunc playing today" "He is?, well, we'll destroy them then!"

It went on and it was comical magic. He was a larger than life character. So final whistle, as I wasn't sitting with my Uncle, we all met up afterwards, my brother was gutted! He didn't want to be in the car on the way back with uncle Tony and wasn't looking forward to the trip back at all. I was there, a quiet kid, just smiling.

Then Tony comes back with a huge smile on his face, luckily for my brother he had lost his voice completely. The drive home was magical, cars with flags beeping as they drove past. As a 14-year-old, I was loving it. When my uncle got his voice back the next day, he said it was the greatest day of his life.

Four years later he lost his love to cancer; one year later he died in a car crash. Since then I've felt lost and I have had to fly the flag and try and make up for his character, but I don't think I can get anywhere near what he was as an Evertonian. God he would've loved Tiger Tim, I wish he had seen him play!

I know we are going to win on Saturday and he will be there. I look forward to see my Grandad's face when he sees me wearing my uncle's gold Everton chain that he let me have when he died. My Norwegian girlfriend (a converted Manc) will be wearing her Everton shirt and will be as nervous as she was in the semi-final.

My kids will obviously be blue noses, it's in the blood....... and I look forward to telling them about Uncle Tony and about the magical trips to Wembley. Who said the FA Cup has lost its magic? If anyone dares say this to me, I will headbutt them.

Only cos my uncle would've!!!!

COYB

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