The greatest day in the history of Everton Football Club

Ian - I was one of the others at Dover, heading for Ostend and the onward journey to glory!

Sorry to introduce the Red Shite into this thread but ten years on from our glorious day, the Premier League trophy was raised for the one and only time at Anfield. By their beloved King Kenny of Blackburn Rovers!!!

Sadly, I wasn't there. :-(

I was, with my wife, on the cusp of moving into our new home. (First-time buyers, 125% mortgage – happy days!) I think we actually moved about 4 or 5 days later. So, I had to make do with 2nd hand thrills via the TV.

While the the of rest of family went via Ostend to Rotterdam, I went on a double giro blast on Hook de Holland ferry then London on the Friday for the FA Cup Final. I thought it was the first of many European finals for us until the Media's favourites put paid to that. The shite know we had them on the ropes and were ready to at least equal them, if not dominant the rest of the 80s.

I was taking my English O-Level exam! Gutted!

I was boarding an aeroplane to Rotterdam.

I was on a ferry to Holland, getting through half a sheet of ribs and a few cans of lager.

8,000 miles away – I was on a Royal Navy Frigate patrolling around the Falklands.

I missed everything – League Championship, FA Cup Final and ECWC Final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my dad's car, driving through Holland from Germany where we were stationed with the Army. We didn't have tickets and were hoping to either get in on the night or just soak up the atmosphere in the city.

Hit horrendous traffic just past Eindhoven and had to make the call to turn around. I was devastated but we made it home to Krefeld in time for kick-off on the TV and my sadness was soon reversed to ecstasy!!!

I was fortunate enough, to be in Rotterdam, although we left in good time, we arranged a flight from Luton, with a coach set to pick us up on Tuesday morning. In the days before mobile phones, the time ticked away as we waited outside the 'Legs of Man public house, people began to get twitchy as each quarter-of-an-hour passed, someone was sent to the phone-box and each time they came back with assurances that the coach would be here in a couple of minutes. Eventually, somebody more persuasive was sent to contact the organiser and lo and behold a fleet of taxis arrived to take us to Luton. From thereon in the whole trip was fantastic and we had an enjoyable couple of nights in Amsterdam, followed by a night near London on the eve of the FA Cup Final, after breakfast on cup final day, we passed a pub named "The Norman King" on the way to Wembley unfortunately the significance of the pub's name became profound after the match. I have since read that it was burnt to the ground in August 2012 - Not me Guv! Honest!

I was in a student house in Manchester. I really didn't have the money to travel to Holland, and I thought to myself 'there will be lots of other opportunities once I'm working'. Little did I know what was to unfold in Brussels two weeks later.

Imagine the moaning out of Klopp etc after a 42 game league season if the RS has to play a Euro final and then getting home late Thursday then going to FA Cup Final with one day of rest.

It was absolutely roasting on cup final day and then extra time... if we had had a week's rest between the finals, we would have won the treble as that season we absolutely smashed Man Utd at Goodison 5-0 and we're by far the superior team, it was just fatigue that stopped us.

The title of this article talks of the greatest day in Everton's history, but to my mind the one just 3 days later would have to be labelled the worst.

It was clear that on the Saturday of the FA Cup Final, the team was shot, as it had been the previous month when playing the semi-final just a few days after returning from Munich. Even before Man Utd scored, I was just hoping that we got the draw since, without a shadow of a doubt, we'd have beaten United after a few days rest. And that would have made Everton the first English club to have done the domestic double and won a European trophy in the same season.

Failing to have won the FA Cup allowed the media to class the 80s in history as another Liverpool decade, with Everton only getting a passing mention.

I remember a Dover crossing very early in the morning with a boozed up singalong as we went crashing through the channel I stayed in Ostend and was on the piss there all day before heading up to Rotterdam.

What a three-day trip that was – tired legs and complacency handed Man Utd the FA Cup. We would have and should have been the first team to get a treble – that might've shut those other fuckers up!

Need to be nasty bastards, not soft touches, it's all about attitudes – that's what makes winners.

I'm pissed off with being popular and a good old club. The red shite are hated by many but get the job done.

Take note, Everton: 25 years and counting... Sort it out!

Agree with that, Chris, good players with a good attitude can become so much better. I witnessed it again this morning when I finally got to watch Howard's Way.

And, just passed, almost unnoticed or commented on, was probably the day that destroyed our club.