You'll Never Walk Alone

Hello my dear reader friends,

You may be wondering what this blog will be about. Well, it's a serious one.

24 years today, 96 Liverpool fans went off to the FA Cup semi final between their team and Nottingham Forest and did not return home. They will not be forgotten.
Some of you who know me will know that I don't support either of those teams. In fact, I support Liverpool's neighbours and biggest rivals Everton.

Now:

There is the rivalry between the two sides.
They want us to lose every game and we want them to lose every game

There is banter between the two sides.  There are the jokes about one team said by the other and vice versa.

The following is a text conversation from I had on Saturday with a Liverpool supporting fan. Everton had beaten relegation candidates QPR 2-0 while Liverpool had drawn 0-0 with another relegation threatened tean, Reading.

Helen: You've been restrained with any abuse over the football

Me: Would have been like shooting fish in a barrel! 5 points and a game in hand ;)

Helen: I retract my previous statement haha. U wait, Liverpool will have an amazing finish, Everton will eat our dust.

Me: I'm sure seventh will seem like a great finish. It wouldn't be that good if you were Everton mnd you. Higher standards you see. :)

I'm sure similar conversations were had between Everton and Liverpool fans all that evening. Actually ours is probably rather restrained

But here's the thing:

When things like this happen to either Everton or Liverpool, the two sides unite. When one gets knocked down, the other picks them up, dusts them down and will say "right, you've got both of us to deal with now".
The recent Hillsborough charity single sums it all up with the title : 'He ain't heavy, he's my brother'. (The idea for which came from the song being played at Everton's ground when a report on the disaster was released which exonerated the fans.)
I was on holiday in Tunisia a few years ago. It was a Solo's holiday so there were single people from all over the country. One evening we were all having dinner and another chap and I were happily chatting away and getting to know each other and we got talking about football. I found out he supported Tottenham and he was told about me following Everton. He then asked me about the Everton-Liverpool thing and whether I had any friends who were reds. He seemed genuinely surprised that I had good friends who were reds. He told me that he didn't think he would have any mates who were followers of their rivals Arsenal. Their's is a bitter rivalry and while I  said the Everton-Liverpool rivalry could get pretty cutting at times, it was easily the 'friendliest' bitter rivalry in football that I knew of. Maybe things are different down in London, I don't know.

I don't know what this means, and my words are probably very poor, other than that when it gets tough then the two sets of fans become one.
But from this one blue to all and any reds reading this, let me just say:

You'll never walk alone.