alan ball
Player Valuation: £70m
On Sunday 21st October 1984 4 sad souls including myself left for a trip of a lifetime to a country then known as Czechoslovakia to watch our beloved Everton play in a European Cup Winners Cup 2nd round tie against Inter Bratislava. The game was sandwiched inbetween our famous win against Liverpool(Sharp) and the 5-0 drubbing of Manchester United the following Saturday. We travelled indepedently as the club (Everton) were only interested in looking after the ones that were travelling with the "official party" so therefore had to go to London to the Czechoslovakian embassey to acquire our visas. We were going to sort some accomodation out on our arrival as you needed a hotel stamp to leave the country so i happened to look through a brochure and just put a name of any hotel down on the visa just to get us in. Anyway we set off on our travels to a country we were not familiar with and was due to arrive in Bratislava on Tuesday 23rd around 4pm that afternoon but we had to make a change in Prague at 9am that morning and find the other railway station in 15 minuites to be succesful. As we were not familiar with the native tongue and vica versa we found the station we needed to make the connection to Bratislava only to find the train pulling off and knowing we would have to wait untill 4pm that afternoon for the next train. As the weather wasn't fit and not being in thr mood for sight seeing we just dossed aruond the station untill the train arrived. We finally got our train Bratislava bound and arrived at 9.50pm only to find that all the Hotels in Bratislava were all fully booked and also they had a curfew and had to be off the street for 10.30 or face being arrested and spending the night in the local cells. The four of us walked away from the City to avoid being nicked and came across a field in the middle of knowhere which we made our home for that night. It was freezing cold and we put down our Everton union jack and just lay there, we could'nt sleep, this was about survival and just in the the early hours of that morning we decided to go and wash and freshen up at the Railway station where we were greeted by a guard or jobswoth with a great big stick telling us we could not use the facilities or at least thats what we thought he said.
We later found the players hotel looking for Kevin Ratcliffe who we knew at that time only managing to bump into Colin Harvey, the late Mick Heaton and club secretay Jim Greenwood. we informrd them of our adventure so far only to be told that "we were mad" how's that for gratitide we thought. Our next visit was to the local police station to see if we could leave Bratislava after the game but was told if we attempted to leave without the hotel stamp on the visa we would be arrested. We went to the stadium to purchase our match tickets and found a friend of ours who decided to come on the last minuite and sold his motorbike to raise funds for his trip. He spent the previous night in a phone box in Vienna which was more comfortable than the field i would imagine. We managed to find a Hotel which was occupied by the Official Party that would be available that night as they were leaving after the game after spending one night there.
When we got to the stadium in the evening we met the players as they arrived and spoke to "Ratters" who had been informed of our ordeal who obviously told his team mates. several members of the team approached us, Trevor Steven, Bracewell and Mountfield to name a few and were fascinated with the details we gave them and couldn't believe the extreme we went through to watch our beloved team. We went inside the stadium and stood behind the goal as the Clubs party were seated only to be welcomed by the locals who wanted to know all about England, even the Royal Family, some had tape recorders which were later confiscated by the soldiers who were on duty for the game. Their locals were after buying our chewibg gum. English money even the jeans we stood up in. Bracewell scored after 6 minuites and we went on to win the game 1-0. After the game we went to the Hotel for our first nights sleep in 4 and was knackered, we left the next morning Hotel stamp on our visa and headed home to England. On reaching the Czech/German border were were greeted by guards who came onto the train looking for any illegal substance and whatever they wree looking for .We arrived back on Sat 27th October and went straight to Goodison for the mauling of Man Utd. I saw every game that season which was a total of 63 in all competition which i don't think many did and a record i am very proud of. I will never ever forget the day i went to Inter
We later found the players hotel looking for Kevin Ratcliffe who we knew at that time only managing to bump into Colin Harvey, the late Mick Heaton and club secretay Jim Greenwood. we informrd them of our adventure so far only to be told that "we were mad" how's that for gratitide we thought. Our next visit was to the local police station to see if we could leave Bratislava after the game but was told if we attempted to leave without the hotel stamp on the visa we would be arrested. We went to the stadium to purchase our match tickets and found a friend of ours who decided to come on the last minuite and sold his motorbike to raise funds for his trip. He spent the previous night in a phone box in Vienna which was more comfortable than the field i would imagine. We managed to find a Hotel which was occupied by the Official Party that would be available that night as they were leaving after the game after spending one night there.
When we got to the stadium in the evening we met the players as they arrived and spoke to "Ratters" who had been informed of our ordeal who obviously told his team mates. several members of the team approached us, Trevor Steven, Bracewell and Mountfield to name a few and were fascinated with the details we gave them and couldn't believe the extreme we went through to watch our beloved team. We went inside the stadium and stood behind the goal as the Clubs party were seated only to be welcomed by the locals who wanted to know all about England, even the Royal Family, some had tape recorders which were later confiscated by the soldiers who were on duty for the game. Their locals were after buying our chewibg gum. English money even the jeans we stood up in. Bracewell scored after 6 minuites and we went on to win the game 1-0. After the game we went to the Hotel for our first nights sleep in 4 and was knackered, we left the next morning Hotel stamp on our visa and headed home to England. On reaching the Czech/German border were were greeted by guards who came onto the train looking for any illegal substance and whatever they wree looking for .We arrived back on Sat 27th October and went straight to Goodison for the mauling of Man Utd. I saw every game that season which was a total of 63 in all competition which i don't think many did and a record i am very proud of. I will never ever forget the day i went to Inter
