Taking the Mrs to the Match

by Trevor Powell | 18/06/2020

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My first game as a young boy, taken by my Dad, was to see Everton beat Ipswich Town at Goodison Park early in the season of 1961-62. Ipswich had just reached the First Division for the first time and my Mum was an Ipswich lass now living in Huyton. Everton with Young and Vernon cruised through to a 5-2 win, lost 2-4 in the return as Alf Ramsey's debutants won the league! She came several times to games but I can remember her being more interested in knitting in the Upper Bullens stands than the activity on the pitch!

In 1975, I was teaching on the south coast near Brighton. I took my soon-to-be wife, Carole, to her first game at Goodison Park. To be fair to her, I think she only went to the game through young love and loyalty. It was the opening game of the season at home to Coventry City and I assured her that this game was a walkover in the making and then the Sky Blues won 4-1!

As the years rolled by, she was happy for me to go off to games in the south. In 1978, we went back home for Christmas and my hometown mate got four tickets for Man Utd at home on Boxing Day. Colin and I were on the Gwadlys Street terrace, and Carole and Colin's fiancee were high up in the Goodison Road stand. Man Utd were in the doldrums and the Blues were in a title chase with Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. Yet another home banker until we found ourselves 0-5 down at half-time, stunned and disbelieving like the Brazil fans against Germany! The second half was marginally better after Man Utd went 6-0 up, but two late goals were sarcastically cheered by the reds in the Stanley Park end.

Now, she had seen two home games with a total aggregate score of 10-3 against. We arrived at my family's Boxing Day evening party. My dad and two uncles had got home from the game earlier having been on the Prescot BICC Social Club coach! As she walked in, My Uncle Harry lifted a Dickensian index finger forbidding me to ever take her again. Needless to say, Carole took it all in her stride and gratefully never came again!

Forward into the eighties, and I was a member of ESCLA and went to many games with another Blue, Richard! Ahead of the 1986 FA Cup Final, I realised that I had never seen the Blues lose when I wore an old woollen jumper. My younger brother was working in Finchley and I went up to stay with him on the Friday. On the match day, we strolled out for a cooked breakfast, then came back to get ready for Wembley. Imagine my shock and horror on seeing that I forgot to pack my jumper. I phoned Carole at home in the vain hope that the sweater could be got to me in time. Off we went, and having bossed the first 60 minutes, managed to lose to Liverpool.

Distraught when I got back to the south coast, it was compounded exponentially when "Mrs 10-3" revealed that she thought if she wore the sweater during the gameâ€¦? All of its power evaporated. It was her that done it, not the skill of Liverpool!

In the 'Noughties', Carole and I decided to go our separate ways and divorced. I met up with an old college friend and it was a terrific omen that I married Lynne in Pembrokeshire in the afternoon, after watching the Blues destroy Liverpool 3-0 at Goodison on 9 September 2006! When we walked into the hotel for our reception, a group of workman from the LPG pipeline construction congratulated us! Even more so as they were all true-blue scousers revelling in the antics of Andy Johnson, Tim Cahill and of course Pepe Reina!

My two daughters attended both the main Mancunian Universities at different times, so I often went up to visit one of them and tied it into home games at Goodison Park. Unlike their mother, they were really keen and loved the noise and atmosphere. More importantly, at a time when results could have been indifferent, neither of them has yet to see the Blues lose over more than 20 games.

In September 2003, Lynne came to her first game at Goodison Park. She had never seen a professional football match and was taken aback by the noise as Z-Cars rang out over the ground! Everton had a young Wayne Rooney in the line-up who had yet to score, but goals from Gary Naismith and others put the Blues 3-0 up in the first 20 minutes against Fulham. We were sitting in the Upper Bullens/Park End in seats reserved for away supporters!

Suddenly, there was a clash of heads in the penalty area in front of us, trainers and paramedics were straight on and the game was stopped for at least 5 minutes. At this point, Lynne decided to make her first comment. Shouting as loud as she could so that I would hear, the crowd quietened, for the epic observation: "Fulham have got nicer shirts than Everton because of the Yin and Yang logo on their shirts!" Consternation at the inane comment was confirmed when heads swung around with looks of "Keep her quiet, mate!"

However, again she has never seen the Blues lose as well! Three out of four is pretty good, though!

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