Goodison Park  - Everton
Saturday 19th October 2002
V Arsenal, Premier League 3pm
By Stuart Watson

1. Why you were looking forward to going to the ground (or not as the case may be)?

Having started Uni in Derby at the end of September I had inevitably missed a few games and was eager to get to a couple of aways. As I was half way there already, I applied successfully through the Away scheme and got a ticket for £23.  As with Chelsea I had never been to Goodison and was keen to get to another ground

2. How easy was your journey/finding the ground/car parking?

This was the weekend of lots of rail strikes all over the country. Travelling from derby I arrived at lime street at 1.10 having been delayed 40 mins. I was due to meet up with someone who was travelling up from London but he had a nightmare with all the cancellations and didn't get to the game till 3.30 pm.  So I got chatting to some Manchester based gooners and had a few beers in a pub opposite Lime St and watched the 2nd half of Leeds v Liverpool, with some pool fans.  Got a taxi with the manc gooners at around 2.20 and it was a reasonable £5 , so a trip of 2-3 miles only cost me £1

3. What you did before the game pub/chippy.... home fans friendly?

The home fans seemed friendly enough, directing me to the away end and having a laugh etc..

4. What you thought on seeing the ground, first impressions of away end then other sides of the ground:

I approached the ground with the newest stand the park end in front of me. When I got to the away end I was somewhat disappointed.  The catering was an absolute shambles, and I queued up for about 10 mins for beer before they just suddenly stopped serving, much to the annoyance of quite a few people!  I made my way to my seat and had to make do with some old wooden seat and a pillar in my way! I can sit in the North Bank for the same price and this was pathetic for an established Premier League club.  You would have thought they could afford to replace the seats by now.

 

5. Comment on the game itself, atmosphere, stewards, pies, toilets etc.

Well I'm sure you have all heard about that game that ended our unbeaten run! We started brightly enough with Ljungberg scoring in the 8th minute only for Radzinski to equalise midway through the 1st half. We just seemed too complacent and a few players weren't up to their usual standard.  Rooney's goal was genius and ina  weird sort of way I'm glad I saw it live.  In the summer break I had heard things about him and had seen some action of him on Everton's pre season tour of Scotland.  When he came on in the 80th minute a few gooners were saying "who is he?" etc.. and I seemed to be the only one worried having seen what he could do. As he brought the ball down and controlled it brilliantly I couldn't see it because of the pillar.  As I was on a aisle seat I stepped out just as he pulled the trigger, you could just tell it was going to go in and I just stood there flabbergasted at what had happened.  I wanted to clap such a good goal, but at the same time I was gutted that it had happened against us and in the manner it had happened.

The Everton fans were pretty quiet throughout the game and only seemed to pipe up when they scored their goals. The stewards were pretty relaxed allowing me to stand in the aisle when I couldn't see throughout the game.  As already said the catering was a mess. I darted out at half time straight away to get a pasty and pint, I queued patiently for 20 mins only to get screamed at me "Ales off" just as I got to the front ! The old dears behind the bar were just opening cans of Heineken and tipping them in the cups resulting in half lager half froth for £2.  I ended up getting a veggie pasty (which to be fair was quite nice) and a bottle of coke for around £2 which was decent value

6. Comment on getting away from the ground after the game:

Having arrived by taxi before the game i was somewhat confused of what to do.  I eventually walked up with a couple of other fans to a bus stop about 1/2 a mile from the ground and got the bus into the city centre (cost 85p) the driver gave me directions to Lime St, and I got on my 6pm train with seconds to spare.  It would be helpful if they laid on special buses from the ground to Lime St for people who don't know where they are going !

7. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out:

Generally I had a decent day out (apart from the result !) although I got delayed at Sheffield coming back for about 1 hour and didn't get back to Derby until 10pm

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