Everton have to be due a bit of positive Karma in the next decade or too. Deep down hoe jealous did everyone feel when you saw cities celebrations the other day!

One day, hopefully!

I was there. Yes, it felt like the start of something big but then factors outside our control stopped us kicking on despite the fact that 25,000 fans behaved impeccably in Rotterdam. Wondering what might have happened is just a useless pastime though - we've got to move on and experience those times again, somehow.

Anyone spend any time with the Celtic fans who came down?

Derek

I was in Rotterdam and didnt see any Celtic fans, and why should Celtic fans have been anywhere near Rotterdam that night.

As Ray has said the behaviour of the Everton fans was impeccable, I am sure most will know about the football game between the fans and the police. The chief of police for Rotterdam said it was a privalige to have the Everton fans there and he would welcome them back to his city anytime.

I watched the city boss talking of how Manchester has two great clubs... back ine 80s Liverpool as a city was in that position.

Liverpool city still has won more trophy's than ANY other city in England.

There were a couple of thousand Celtic fans there cheering the Blues on.

They had legitimately beaten Rapid Vienna in an earler round but lost a replay order by UEFA because some loon had thrown a glass bottle onto the pitch.

Brian (373), I was there in Rotterdam too. I don?t remember seeing any Celtic fans, but I do recall that our opponents, Rapid Vienna, had cheated Celtic in an earlier round. If my memory serves me right, I think one of their players had pretended he was badly injured by something thrown from the crowd, and their match, which had been won decisively by Celtic, was replayed. When Rapid emerged from the tunnel, they were greeted with a chorus of ?Cheats, cheats?. It therefore wouldn?t surprise me if Celtic fans had travelled to support Everton that night

Yes there were plenty of Celtic supporters there.

During the entire trip to Rotterdam, there was no bother at all, but many Rapid supporters did hear the word 'cheats' from sympathetic blues and Celtic supporters that day.

By the way, that night was the only night in my life (almost 53 years) I 'slept' in a concrete pipe (on a building site).

Becomes misty-eyed, sings "When you're smiling"

Hans Krankle, the Austrian scoring ledgend, stated after the match that he considered us the best team in europe.
I had my newly Duncan Mckenzie autographed cap whipped off my head when the second goal went in. DM was in the same bar where Radio City DJ Phil Jones attemted to conduct a live program amid the mayhem. DM was carried around on two lads shoulders as we all sang the "magic" song.
Happy days indeed.

I was too young to go but reemeber watching it with my Dad and him scaring the cats and my mum when we scored.

The usual woman comment ensued "Why are you shouting at the telly?"

My mates dad was there and ended in the paper when they had a footy match with the police.

Oh if only our redshite neighbours could have acted with such grace....hmmmm, here's wondering what could have been....(looks away from the computer and wipes *dust out of his eye)

I can't believe it was 27 years ago either. I travelled with a few mates by coach and ferry. I remember being told by some sort of official that if we had any alcohol left by the time we got back on the on the coach after the ferry crossing then it would be confiscated by the Belgium police at Ostend and the coach would be turned around and sent back home on the next ferry. I have never seen as much alcohol drunk in such a short space of time. The driver then warned us to pour any remaining alcohol down the coach toilet as we were about to be boarded by the Belgium police. I can recall grown men getting teary eyed as they watched their carling special brew being flushed down the toilet. When the police got on the coach we all had to show our passports whilst they searched the coach. We showed our passports ok, but the policeman just counted them from the safety of the coach door and then waved us on! There was no search, and to this day I don't know how the coach driver managed to survive the rest of the journey.
I don't see any of the lads that I travelled with on that day, I can remember the two chris's and John, all of them good blues. I can also remember visiting a kiosk in the centre of Rotterdam where the owner had a big map of the UK out and asked us where Everton was. I picked up a pen and crossed out the name Liverpool on the map and said That's us mate, just there, we were the first, we are the best and always will be.
Happy days indeed!

How great that night was, and how impeccable the Evertonian's behaviour was has already been mentioned.

However, we had a strange experience. Four of us caught a coach from Widnes about 10.00pm on the day before the game. We arrived at a little town called Breda where we checked into a Motel (all part of the package) We arrived there about dinnertime on the day of the match. Once checked in we left the Motel and went for a few drinks in the town before getting on the coach again for the trip to Rotterdam about 40 miles away.

After the match the coach stewards allowed us to take our remaining alcohol onto the coach for the journey back to Breda with a sort of 'who gives a fuck now' smile and shrug of the shoulders!

Once back at the Motel we had a meal and then got ready to go out on the town. However, as we were heading out of the front doors we saw an elderly couple of blues being escorted back in to the car park by the local constabulary and then noticed that the motel was surrounded by police, supervised by a senior officer waving a big baton. He spoke English and informed the stewards that we would not be allowed to leave the motel. There was an ugly stand-off for about half an hour during which one of the stewards and my bolshy mate walked over and took the officer's number, telling him we were going to complain to the foreign office on our return home on the basis of false imprisonment! He didn't give a shit.

The whole situation was made worse because the motel had closed the bar for similar reasons and eventually the senior police officer negotiated with the management to open it for one hour during which only bottled beer would be served. I've never seen so many bottles of beer snaffled in my life! Everybody was going to the bar and buying six at a time!

On the way home on the coach, my bolshy mate (now sadly deceased) took it upon himself to get the whole coach to sign a complaint he had written. Even the driver signed it and he was from Newcastle and he couldn't have a drink anyway!

He (my bolshy mate) got his missus to type out the complaint and then a few days later we all know what happened at Heysel and he decide that, in the circumstances, he wouldn't bother sending it in!

As I mentioned, my bolshy mate has passed away and I lost contact with the other two over due course of time (mainly due to job changes) but the coach (or coaches as there were about 6 at the hotel) had started picking up in Liverpool before reaching Widnes and I would be very interested in hearing from anybody who was on one of them and who stayed at that Motel the night of the match.

We were all cheered up a bit though when we arrived back in Dover. We had to go through customs/immigration before getting back on the coach and all the staff, including customs officers, shop workers, cleaners, waiters in the cafes all gave us a round of applause!

Not quite sure why, probably a combination of good behaviour and being supporters of the best team in Europe and the team's performance.

What a trip, what a game and what memories. I hope I can experience it again before I join my bolshy mate!

Didn't stay in your motel but the French crew on the P&O ferry we got home wouldn't open the bar.

On the way out an English P&O captain had come onto the tannoy to praise the hundreds of Blues on the boat for our excellent behaviour (even though the bars were open) and wished us luck in the final.

I was only 15 so didn't go. It was a bit of a stretch to say to my mum that I was "just going the match". Did anyone play in the 20 a side game of footy v the Rotterdam Police reported on the telly?

One of the highlights of my life, that night in Rotterdam. Hope for the youngsters' sake it happens again

My abiding memory is being in a bar in Amsterdam the day before ringing my Chemistry lecturer to tell him I was ill and could therefore not sit my end of year Physical Chemistry exam. I'm sure he could hear our fans singing in the background but fair play to him, he let me resit at the start of the following year.
I also remember an impromptu game of football with some Rotterdam policemen, they were awesome and battered us, obviously devotees of Total Football.

Much of the rest of the trip is a little fuzzy due to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed and some unconventional sleeping arrangements which included a garden shed and a canal barge.
The trip was completed by hitching back straight to London for the Cup Final on the Saturday which unfortunately was the only blot on what was undoubtedly the greatest football trip of my lifetime.

Behind the goal we all were to our right was a fair sized bunch of "Tims" cheering us on good style. Left Liverpool the day before the game and got home the day after. Never slept one minute just drank!! We took on our bus a carry out we thought would get us to Rotterdam but it had gone by Watford. Fortunately the 2 drivers had a stash of booze they reckoned would get us to Rotterdam but that went by Calais. Stocked up at one of those hypermarkets in Calais which got us to Rotterdam and back to Calais where we stocked up for the trip to Liverpool.

I remember us driving through London ? for some reason ? and everyone waving and shouting well done to us. Mind you, we were so pissed, it could have been the "V" sign and telling us to Fuck Off! We didn't give a shit!!!

Great few days.

Went back down to Wembley the next day ? less said the better! Looking back I cannot believe the amount of drink I went through in 5 days. Now I'd be emptying my piss bag every 10 minutes!!

Living in London at the time, I followed up a small-ad in the Evening Standard for a package to the match. Two days later was flying out of Gatwick on a rickety DC3 Dakota packed with other exiled blues and one Brian Glanville, then football correspondent on the Sunday Times. Apart from spending the whole journey complaining about his expenses (or lack of them, otherwise he would have been on a "proper" flight), he was very complimentary about the team and our chances. Didn't notice him on the flight back, but then I didn't notice many things after a grand day out....

The scenes at Rotterdam airport after the match were like something out of Exodus (sorry, showing my age for any film buffs out there). No departure lounges or check-in desks for us. We were all bussed to a huge hangar-like shed and somehow made it to the right charter flight. I also have vague memories (very vague considering the amount of booze drunk on the short flight home) of people at Gatwick giving us all a round of applause when we got back. Or maybe it was just Brian Glanville's mates...

Back in work the next day, I had to explain why I didn't make the business meeting I should have been at... funnily enough at a hotel down at Gatwick! Luckily I'd been able to delegate the meeting to my deputy, a West Ham supporter who appreciated why I really had to go, not to mention the free lunch that he got with the meeting.

I clocked up 50 years as an Evertonian last year but that trip is right up there among my happiest memories, probably even sneaking in at no 1 past the '66 Cup Final... well, it was my first trip to Wembley and how was I to know that Wembley would become my "home" ground in the '80s?

Still living down south near Watford and still threatening to get a season ticket again after so many years... maybe this time now I qualify for the OAP's rate!

Tony (#527) ? I unwittingly started that match!

We had heard that the Double Diamond Bar was the place to be, so rolled up there to join about another 500 or so Blues. There was no chance of getting in, but everyone started coming back from a local supermarket with cases of Heineken, so there was quite an outdoor session. I remember the canal being green, full of empty lager cans.

Inevitably a ball appeared, and after a few minutes someone booted it into the road and pursued it, narrowly avoiding being run over by a tram. One of the local cops picked the ball off and marched off with it, followed by a load of supporters like a scene from the Pied Piper.

The cop led us into a square, where an impromptu match broke about, probably about 20 aside but no police. I wasn't playing but was standing with a couple of mates watching, close to 3 cops. The ball came flying our way, and for the only time in my life I connected with a volley, straight into the face of one of the policemen. He was not best pleased, but his two mates thought it was very funny, with one of them then getting about 6 other Plods and starting a match against about 40 Blues. They were outnumbered, but they were toting batons, pistols and cuffs!

All the office workers were hanging out of the windows of the buildings around the square, cheering if a Blue shot went in the general vicinity of the goal (jumpers) and booing to disallow any police goals.

It was a great atmosphere, making the subsequent events in Belgium seem very sad and unnecessary.

Michael #604, I was also in that hangar, and my memories of it were not being able to get a pint, and the entertainment being a film of Blues Brothers - in Dutch!

Yes what a fantastic few days that was; a wonderful experience marred only by the Cup Final a few days later. The thing that sticks in my mind was a guy on our coach, I think he was from Dublin but can't be certain, decided to go to a night club. At kicking out time he crawled out and approached a taxi, opened the door and got in. The driver asked him his destination and he replied Hotel Central, whereupon the driver got out, went around to the other side of the taxi, opened the door and pointed yer man to the hotel on the other side of the street - all of 20 yards away ! I remember also that when we got back to the hotel after the match the staff reserved a private room for us and we saw a re-run of the game on TV + a copious supply of food "on the house". Nice folks the Dutch.

So John (734) - Just so I have this right.

You love Moyes.

You love Phil Neville.

Hibbert was possibly our best player after Christmas.

You're (takes deep breath) proud of Bill Kenwright.

You're proud of how the club takes care of the fans.

And Dalglish just lost his job because of...us.

Tip: Whatever your dosage, treble it.

I remember standing behind one of the local businessmen, waiting inline for a piss in a public lav in front of the main train station, a very smartly dressed chap in a pinstriped suit, we must have waited inline for about 10 mins to get in and when we got in someone had left a massive turd on the floor of the piss trough. He mutterd something under his breath in Dutch and fucked off without having a piss, cursing us all on his way out.

Just one small memory of many more from a fantasic trip with some great mates; back then in our early twenties we thought we would be touring Europe for years to come. Alas, thanks to our not so friendly neighbours, the moment was lost.
Twats!!!!!!!!