FAN ARTICLES

Generations

By Michael Evans :  06/06/2009 :  Comments (8) :

I shall always be grateful to my Father for many things. Showing wisdom beyond his years, he decided as a young Shropshire lad that, in the late 1920s/early 1930s, he would begin his love affair with Everton.

I suppose you could say that he was an early glory hunter as the honours list for that period testifies to Everton's success. However, he would then continue to support Everton for a further 70 years.

My parents' marriage was a blue match made in Heaven. My Mother was from a Bootle family of Evertonians and she joined the Land Army in Shropshire to escape wartime bombing. They met at an Army dance and my father always said it was love at first sight ? whether this was before or after he discovered my mother was a Blue... I'm not sure!

I would like to think that 1963 was a good year for my father. His beloved Everton won another title and my mother gave him the son he wanted. The Championship-winning side of 1970 came a little early for me and it was at the beginning of the 1973-74 season that I attended my first match, at home to Arsenal.

How do you describe your first visit to Goodison? Words can't do it justice really can they? I remember that sheer visceral sense of excitement and that we won 3-0, with Martin Dobson oozing class with every cultured pass he made.

For my father, this was a special moment too. Father-and-son relationships are sometimes not easy, are they? So much we would like to say and yet can't find the words... With Everton, we could share a mutual love and speak with one voice.

My father's knowledge of Everton was fascinating and he could easily compare the merits of, for example, centre-forwards spanning decades with reference to Dean, Hickson, Lawton and Royle etc. He had seen the greats play and when he talked about them, his face lit up with the passion that true football supporters have.

And yet my Father was troubled by the Everton legacy that I was now sharing with him. Would the mediocrity of the Lee and Bingham eras and the initial failure of the Kendall tenure mean that I would just have to keep listening to how good the Everton sides of the past USED to be???

Travelling back to Shropshire together after the 1984 FA Cup Final against Watford, I remember my father was thoughtful for a while and then smiling said, "I think we'll be having a good season next year." I truly believe that he knew the foundation of another great Everton side was in place, and that this time his son would be able to experience the joy of success with him.

Twenty-five years on and the dust is slowly settling after the loss to Chelsea. I have found my thoughts have turned more and more to the younger generation of supporters, such as Joe Jennings and Adam Cunliffe who have written with such enthusiasm for the club on this site. Perhaps they too have older generations within their respective families who have more than "being proud despite defeat" to comfort them. Instead they have experienced the true sweetness of success when your pride is based on your club not just being "the best of the rest" but being simply the best.

The younger generation of Everton fans deserve to experience what we have experienced and must not be let down. Please take note, Moyes et al.

I write this on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. My Father was a sergeant-major in the Royal Artillery and landed on the Normandy beaches on D-Day + 1. Sadly, he died in 2005 and to commemorate his war service a Royal British Legion standard bearer lowered a flag at his funeral. Perhaps it would also have been fitting if an Everton flag had been lowered too.

God Bless Dad.

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