Why do I love Football so much?

As a 22 year old from Merseyside it will hardly come as a shock to anyone that I love Football. I can’t play the game to save my life but I must admit from time to time I do fancy myself as a master tactician the likes of which Jose Mourinho could be proud of.

I am an Evertonian- an allegiance I had chosen for me which I later accepted that comes with plenty of challenges.

Why do I support Everton FC?

First and Foremost I supported Everton as a child because it is the team my Dad supported just like his Dad before him. When I was very young it was just a case of that’s who we watched every Saturday as my Dad screamed bloody murder at the television trying his very best not to swear in front of me and my sister under my Mum’s watchful gaze.

From what I remember I started to engage with Football a little more around the age of 11, around about the 2004 /05 Season ish.

It was around this time it began to sink in that Liverpool FC were- on paper- statistically, the better Football team. It was around this time I began to wonder why I didn’t support the ‘Better’ team (Yes it must be in inverted commas because I cannot bring myself to say it in all seriousness). I was surrounded by Liverpool supporters, classmates, cousins, grandparents.

I cannot be certain what made me stick with the Toffees…

• Potential threat of abandonment from my Dad? Maybe

• I liked the colour Blue more than Red? Highly likely

• I enjoyed being different? Probably

  
  

Deciding Everton was the team for me couldn’t have come at a worse time! Liverpool Fans will know exactly what I’m talking about.

That Summer Liverpool won the Champions League for the 5th time in Istanbul after a huge comeback against AC Milan (back when they were great)- I mean well done I suppose but as a confirmed blue nose I was not prepared for what happened next.

One of my classmates had been at the final- they returned to school elated- almost as if they had scored the deciding penalty. Knowing I was an Evertonian they delighted in singing Liverpool songs all day at the top of their voice. This was what I had signed up to a rivalry I knew very little about other than the weekend was always that little bit better when Everton win and Liverpool lose.

The more I watched the more I learned-

• What’s the difference between a corner and a goal kick?

• When is it a penalty and not a free kick?

• what’s the offside rule? (yeah I know the rule- helpfully explained to me by my dad using condiments at the dinner table.)

  
  

For anyone who’s still unsure...

I began to decide who my favourite players and unlike many girls my age at the time I didn’t have the luxury of picking my favourite based on their looks – the Everton team were an ugly bunch!

The diamond in the rough was Mikel Arteta, I must admit, but he was only my second favourite to Mr Everton himself Tim Cahill. Who recently received his 100th cap for Australia because the man doesn’t know how to stop playing!

Goodison Park

My family could not afford for all of us to go the match every week so the first game I remember going to- I am not certain that it was my first game ever, was when Everton had a run in the UEFA cup- I think it was against Zenit St Petersburg, (2007) I don’t remember the game itself I remember going to the Everton Friendly Pub beforehand and walking to the stadium clinging to my dad’s hand the whole way I walked through the turnstiles nervous and excited holding on to my ticket as tight as possible. Age 11, I was fascinated, surrounded by lifelong fans for whom the excited/ trepidation had not waned with experience. After googling (I have not yet mastered the power of recalling games from memory, i can’t remember what i did yesterday for crying out loud) I’ve found the Everton won 1-0 in the 85th minute thanks to none other than Tim Cahill. Yay!

What I took away from the experience at the time was…

• My dad knows how to whistle- I do not

• clapping good passages of play is a thing (only at the match- doing it in front of the tv is weird)

• at age 11 or 12 it is very difficult to see what is going on when all the adult stand up!

• I Know you’re holding the roof up and all but you’re in my way!!!

• And finally… do not under any circumstances tell your mother how many knew swear words you learnt in the space of 90 mins.

  
  

That game against Zenit may have ended in an Everton win in typical David Moyes last minute fashion but the next game I went to was a loss to Fiorentina seeing us out of European competition for the foreseeable future. I was devastated, but I was also hooked.

And if you know your history…

The last trophy Everton won was the FA Cup in 1995, the year I was born, I’m still not entirely convinced that I’m not the jinx at this point.