August 2007 Archives

From tonight's Liverpool Echo:
Rhys’s parents praise amazing Anfield night

RHYS JONES’S parents said Liverpool had done the city proud after rival football fans put their differences behind them in memory of the 11-year-old.
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard today joined the appeal to catch the schoolboy’s killer, after an emotional European night at Anfield on Tuesday.

This has just been posted as a comment on my blog by an Evertonian called Greg Murphy.
To be honest, it is far, far too good to be a simple comment and I think it deserves a thread of its own because the more people who read it the better.
Here you go:
Well done, Tony: not only for last night’s Z Cars tribute being chiefly down to your efforts (yes, it was) but for also putting this link up.
If there’s any silver lining to come from this whole tragic affair, it may be that it starts to dilute the poison that’s infiltrated cross-park (soon to be cross boundary, ahem) relations, which, IMO, is chiefly down to two similarly ignorant camps that exist on both sides of the divide: 1) those too young to remember the period between March 24th 1984 (first Milk Cup Final) and the 1989 FA Cup Final; and 2) those whose recollective abilities have either conveniently faded to suit their own agenda or perhaps never kicked-in to begin with.

They said it couldn't happen and then when it did they said it would fail spectacularly.
Thankfully, "they" were wrong on both counts.
The theme from Z Cars was played at Anfield and it was treated with nothing but the respect it deserved.
The idea may have started on here but that is all it was - an idea.
From that point on Liverpool Football Club were inundated with requests from fans who wanted to hear Z Cars played in honour of Rhys Jones.
Quite understandably, there were those who had misgivings about it, after all Z Cars isn't just any old song, it's the battle cry of our biggest rivals.

This doesn't need any further comment, you'll have to cut and paste the link tho:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYjJy_YyWQE

Liverpool Football Club have agreed to hold a moving and unique tribute to murdered Liverpool youngster Rhys Jones.
The club have been inundated with requests from fans for them to play the Z Cars theme tune in honour of the 11-year-old prior to tonight's Champions League clash with Toulouse.
Chief executive Rick Parry has been in talks with the Jones family following the suggestion and following that the club have decided that Z Cars - or Johnny Todd, to give it its proper naem - will be the best way forward.
It is totally unprecedented but Liverpool FC have gone out of their way to facilitate the requests of their own fans and to honour the memory of a local child who died in such tragic circumstances.

Z Cars - a tune which lets Kopites know you're in the home of the enemy and you're not welcome there.
The song which greets the Everton players as they charge onto the Goodison pitch in front of the blue and white hordes.
The song which, thankfully, I only usually have to hear once a year unless Sky are late cutting to the adverts before kick-off.
It is to Liverpudlians what You'll Never Walk Alone is to Evertonians, the song that you most associate with your most bitter rivals and one that I could never contemplate being played at Anfield.
Until today.

Rob Styles made a mistake on Sunday, admittedly a bad one, but when it comes down to it all he committed was a human error.
I've got no doubt that Liverpool will benefit from similar human errors this season, as will every other team that plays football.
In my opinion, Styles is not a very good referee but he is certainly not biased or bent and he doesn't deserve to be the victim of crass innuendo simply because he is "on the board of a company which once did some work on Roman Abramovich's driveway".
The hysteria which now greets every single high profile mistake made by a Premiership referee is now well out of control.

WHEN Steven Gerrard was made Liverpool captain in October 2003 he had played barely 100 league games for his club.
The then Reds boss Gerard Houllier had decided the time had come to reward his most talented player with an honour and responsibility which would reflect his growing influence on the pitch.
That decision was welcomed almost universally by Liverpool fans, many of whom felt the deposed Sami Hyypia was a bit too nice to be captain and with Gerrard being very inch the local hero Houllier seemed to have pulled off something of a masterstroke.

Shamefully lifted from Toffeeweb, written by the always excellent Greg Murphy:

News from the front
Here’s a little pick-me-up vignette for a gentle Sunday. A close mate of mine (a “yes� voter — and guess what? we still speak, shock horror, even though I’m a “no�) went to a wedding last night. Like many “dos� up and down the UK, it can’t be deemed a proper shebang unless the DJ slings on “New York, New York� at the end to signal just how classy the whole affair really has been.

"IT'S not a singing section," insisted everyone from the newly formed Block 1892 in the run up to yesterday's opening league game against Chelsea.
And then they spent the entire first half singing!
Every Other Saturday, We Don't Carry Bottles, The Reds Are Coming Up The Hill Boys, Red and White Kop and Liver Bird Upon My Chest all got an airing and, at long, long last, Poor Scouser Tommy was sung properly with no-one racing away with the lyrics.
The decibel levels were undoubtedly raised and it contributed to a cracking atmosphere which only fizzled out in the second half after everyone became increasingly bewildered by one of the most erractic refereeing performances you will ever witness outside the Liverpool Sunday League.