Coventry (H) - 10 May 1998

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I felt embarrassed at the end when both sets of supporters were singing 'we are premier league...'.
I was stood on my seat in the Park End watching the 'celebrations' on the pitch, and I get the whole relief thing, but we were so close, so, so close to going down I just kep thinking ' this isn't Everton, we shouldn't celebrate survival', and ironically or not, I think exactly the same now.
 
Thinking "[Poor language removed]" it's my 40th birthday tomorrow...how can I celebrate that IF we've got relegated !!

Sat in the best stand for the game...nerves shredded for the whole game...
The noise when we scored...the silence when they equalised...
The penalty miss that seemed to happen in slow motion...
The Vialli chants when the Chelsea-Bolton score updates were announced over the tannoys...
Watching the ref get as close to the tunnel as possible before blowing the final whistle...
The pitch invasion at the end & the mass chants of "we want Johnson out"...
The utter relief & joy at surviving in the prem...
Walking back to the train station after the game & buying the Echo sports paper to read the match report on the train...

Actually being able to celebrate my 40th the next day !!!
 

I remember it well, I’d been at Highbury on the Sunday and confident we’d get at least a point on the day. Looking back it was probably the lager followed by several shorts in the Drayton Park pub that had given me that confidence. Anyway, any hope of an away point was soon dashed as we were pushed aside and seeing adams do a one two before slotting past Myhre says more about how bad were were than big Tony’s great solo goal.

I’d actually bumped into Branchy in Allerton Road in the mid week and we’d been talking about what side Chelsea would put out against Bolton. He told me that he’d spoken to Jody Morris - they were both at Lilleshall together - and Morris had said he would be playing and that Chelsea would go for the win to keep momentum ahead of their Euro final the following week. How prophetic that turned out to be!

On the morning of the game we’d met early in the local pub ahead of jumping a cab up to Walton. We were on the shorts before lunch as confidence in our little group wasn’t the highest. We’d all been at the Wimbledon game and felt that we’d not learned anything and in fact this was a worse side. What made it worse was that the rain that had threatened started and it never stopped for the rest of the day.

I was in the Park End - still got the season ticket wallet from that year - who remembers the paper slips you used to pull out & hand over?

Looking back we were a poor side - Watson was immense on the day, as was Ball. Still remember the gash and blood coming through his sock but insisting he stayed on.

Farrelly’s thunderstrike and news of Chelsea’s goal gave some optimism but we’d seen us lose so many points that year nobody was confident even as we entered the last twenty minutes. Madar who’d scored some precious goals was not at it that day and had been subbed, record signing Barmby was taking corners and setting the trend of not clearing the first man, every time. Funny how that’s caught on at Goodison! So, why he took the pen was beyond me....no surprise he missed. What wasnt a surprise was Big Dion nodding in for his customary goal against the Blues...how many would he and Sir Les have slotted had they played for Everton will remain a mystery because every time they came to Goodison they always seem to score!!! Usually more than one in Ferdinand case.

We held on, was on the pitch by now, how greasy was that!!! Left via the Gwladys Street with one of the small blue stools emblazoned in white stencil - G. St - took it back in the boozer and shouted my order in stood two feet above everyone although six deep from the bar.

Probably man for man the worst eleven team we’d had in many a year but had still beaten Liverpool that year. Their hilarious Gone2One banners that had appeared in every pub in the weeks and had been out in force that day pending our arrival back had now mysteriously disappeared.

Never again....not sure our luck could hold out a third final day survival Sunday. Those Coventry fans who had been singing going down get no sympathy from me either.
 
Being utterly resigned to going down.
Usual spec in the Lower Gwladys
Disbelief that it was Farrelly who scored that goal.
The lad in front of us, season ticket with his family I think, kicking his seat into pieces at the FT whistle.
 
Was actually one of my best and memorable days as an Evertonian that day... Which is a sad indictment of how absolutely [Poor language removed] the last 20 years have been..
 

I remember being in the lower gwladys right behind farrelly. before he shot I shouted "don't shoot" then went bananas. Remember running on the pitch at the end and falling over covering my jeans in mud. Told all my mates I slide tracke tracked Duncan. Then ripping out some turf from the centre circle which I walked back to lime Street with and put in a locker. The woman behind the counter looked a bit puzzled when I handed it to her. Great day though
 
4737carlin said:
My main recollction, the first thing I always think of, is Gianluca Vialli. After there game when asked about the significance he said it was important to him that they won becuase it wouldn't of been fair on Everton if they rolled over, always respected him for that
Click to expand...
Look at that Chelsea team, look at the ground. Then look what they've done since....compared to us....


*sigh.
 
Hated virtually every minute of this day. Drove up from Leicester alone, I think my young lad had a tournament but I had not made much effort to coax him to go fearing the worst. I had put him through Sheffield Wed and Arsenal away so was expecting a call from the NSPCC any way!!! We went into that season having done little to improve the team from the previous rubbish and only HK would touch us with a barge pole iirc.

We were hopeless for most of the season and particularly spineless at Arsenal the week before although at least Mick Madar acknowledged my Allez les Bleus flag which was apparently filmed by Sky in the pre match warm up haha. Lad next to me got a call from his mate saying he and the flag was on what did it mean???!!!!

So many sub plots.... Dublin scored for them who we should have signed years earlier which ended HK's second spell. David Burrows RS crossing it to him!!!
The Bolton away game with the disallowed goal!!! Southall was fouled in the build up......get over it.
Farrelly scoring our goal... I think he had been our main or virtually only signing in the summer...cheap or a free from Villa where he had hardly played in the first team.... Memory hazy.

The terrible Gary Speed fiasco during the season and the obvious signs that poor Howard was struggling badly under the pressure.
Peter £&;)£& Johnson massive Red Nose owning the club for God's sake

To be so reliant on Chelsea saving our bacon because we had not even got the win ourselves was truly shameful.
I had missed the Wimbledon game because number three sprog had just been born but I just felt empty and angry at the end of this game. Too numb too celebrate, drove home alone and just had quiet beer in house watching MOTD..... Chelsea fans eh...still I think we might have relegated them once so all is fair in love and war. And in fairness this was now a very regular situation of us being poor. We did not deserve many favours or sympathy when we ran our club so badly.

Senior pros put to shame by young lads like Michael Ball and at least a sprinkling of grit and determination on that day compared with many others that season. We were just a desperately poor team short on quality or consistency in every department.

One positive though.... Some lad outside the ground had picked up a massive sod off the pitch so he gave me half!! It is still thriving in our back garden!!!!!!
 

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