February 7 2003

Liverpool FC

Lambs to the slaughter...that was Palace's supposed role in the Anfield scenario. But, as we know, events turned out somewhat differently, as Jamesey reports, with some delight

Why don't you go and see the replay in Liverpool? That was the reaction of Her Outdoors (she works, I don't). It could have been simply a ploy to get rid of me for a couple of days or not, but I seized the moment with some alacrity.

After the fiasco of getting a ticket for the Selhurst Scouser game, it was surprisingly simple to buy an Anfield ticket and away I was to go.

At this point, I must confess to all you solid and much-admired away supporters that I have never been one of you. My feeble excuses are that during a busy working life and many family commitments, the only Palace away games I ever got to were Brighton, Reading, Southend, Portsmouth and, of course, any London derbies.

So as I sped north-west from Euston on a Wednesday afternoon, in the womb of the Virgin, I was looking forward not only to the game, my first ever visit to a historic ground, and a return to Liverpool, a city not visited for 40 years when my job used to take me there quite often.

Checked into a cheap and cheerful hotel, I enjoyed a few pints and caught a bus along Queens Drive to Anfield, feeling grateful that I had not yet adorned myself in the beloved red and blue.

The bus was packed with quite aggressive looking reds and the piss-taking would have been unpleasant, I suspect, even for an aged geezer like me.

Disembarked I approached the ground along the road where the away coaches park. Three pre-pubescent scousesses, sitting on a park bench, chanted: "Crystal Palace, I wipe my arse on you". Ah, the wit and charm of those loveable Liverpudlians.

It was a great experience to be at Anfield and one, like many other CP fans, that will remain with me. A superb ground and a memorable experience that I will always treasure.

And to be honest I think even if we had got the right tonking that at the back of my mind I feared, I would have been overjoyed to have been there.

The Palace supporters were magnificent... couldn't even hear The Kop or any Liverpool noise at all where I was sat.

As usual, I have no comments on the game itself, covered by far more expert analysts then myself. But to see Julian Gray plastered on the back page of every newspaper as the new wunderkind makes me wonder how long he will be at Selhurst.

Still, for the moment, let's just luxuriate in the victory and anticipate the visit of Mr Vegetables and Leeds. An interesting afternoon in prospect there?

Email Jamesey with any of your comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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