"But why do you want to go all the way to Sunderland on a Tuesday night?" That was the question I got asked by so many people when I answered their first question of "Are you going to go the replay" with a yes. After being part of an amazing travelling army of well over 6000 fans and witnessing a display of near total dominance from the team, how could I have not gone up to Sunderland?!?!
Quite simply, it was easily the best midweek away game in this country I've been to.
From start to finish everything about the day was brilliant. Leaving work at 1.30pm after being in since 7am and ending up getting a taxi that had Everton memorabilia all over it to take me to Goodison. This was surely a sign that it was going to be our day?
I met with the lovely ladies, Sandra and Lynne outside Everton One and it was like a match day around there, blues everywhere. Turning into Priory Road was a sight to behold, 50 plus coaches, all laid on by the club for free (a fantastic gesture by Everton) lined up down the whole length of the road waiting to transport hundreds of Evertonians up to the North East. I don't know if it was the gloriously sunny and warm weather (felt more like the opening day of the season than late March) but the atmosphere was happy, jovial and full of confidence, I felt like I was off to the Cup final itself and not just the quarter final. Fans were decked out in blue shirts, Fellaini wigs and carrying flags. Typical Evertonian wit was also in force with funny wise cracks aplenty as fans started to board the coaches. My particular favourite being from the fella who was on Coach 54, upon realising how far down Priory Road this coach was parked (practically by the entrance of the Stanley Park Car Park) remarked "you'd think the club would have put on a free bus to take us down this road to the coach, I'll be frigged by the time I walk down there and what's with them putting me on a coach parked so near to Anfield"
Coach one (the best coach of all 50 plus coaches) set off bang on half two and within minutes of departing we were being entertained by a DVD of Everton's greatest FA Cup goals (once again I saw this as being another "sign").
We arrived at the Stadium of Light just before 6pm, so me and the girls decided to wait for the team bus arrive. After managing to worm our way to the front of the gathering crowd (thanks to Sandra) and waiting for nearly an hour, the team coach arrived and me and the girls and the odd few Everton greeted Moyes and the players with cheers. Not sure why we burst out singing to Tony Hibbert when he got off the coach, but we did, we also did a rousing rendition of "he's got red hair but we don't care" when Moyes alighted the coach!! Kind of wish I didn't record this on my phone as playing it back and hearing my awful singing voice was somewhat embarrassing.
Once we'd finished our sing song at the players entrance we decided to enter the ground, we walked around the stadium, the noise levels increased as we approached our end, as "We're on the march with Moyes' army" resonated into the Sunderland sunset sky, even from the outside the noise from our fans was amazing. It was so loud, that it made me go shivery.
As kick off approached, my nerves started to get the better of me, but I still felt quite confident that we'd win. Not like me at all. As the teams came out the atmosphere was so unbelievably loud. Despite being outnumbered, our end was just as loud as the Sunderland ends as we hummed Z Cars to drown the entrance tune of Sunderland. There was such a belief coming from the Everton fans and we really got behind the boys. Each one of the lads acknowledged the away end and what a sight it must have been for them to see the whole end full of Evertonians cheering them on. It must have had an impact on them as we came out of the blocks flying, unlike the original tie at Goodison. We never gave Sunderland chance to get a foothold in the game, quietened down the crowd and created one or two decent chances of our own with the Sunderland hero from the first game Mingolet saving his team yet again. Our dominance was justifiably rewarded after 24 minutes when the impressive Magaye Gueye cut back a great cross for Nikica Jelavic to slot home with a lovely side footed effort. Cue pandemonium in the away end as "Jelavic, Jelavic, Jela, Jelavic" was sung as loudly as could be. It was a lead that we deserved for our near enough total dominance of play. Sunderland started to improve slightly after failing behind, but the ever impressive Johnny Heitinga and Sylvain Distin kept them at bay. When the Mackems did bypass these two, Leighton Baines was there to make an excellent block from Bendtner's shot. There was such a determination about the defence, that they wouldn't be beaten. The fact that Sunderland's best chance came in injury time shows this and even then Howard made the save.
If the first half was good the second was even better, we doubled our lead thanks to a gift of an own goal from the helpless David Vaughan, but praise needs to be given to Marouane Fellaini for pressurising the substitute into giving away possession so easily. If it was mad enough in our end at 1-0, it was beyond crazy once we'd doubled the lead. I was in danger of being swept along on to the pitch with the celebrating fans who made it down to front apron, so I did what I do best celebrated and then hid behind my mate, as she's in a wheelchair too, she wouldn't have been much of a protector for me, but we survived.
Even with just over 30 minutes to go, I really felt it was game over, Sunderland were lucky to be only two down, Jelavic missed an excellent chance to make it 3, Ossie's volley flew only inches wide and Gueye lashed as shot just over. The most danger for me wasn't a Sunderland comeback but from one of my boys. Darron Gibson's powerfully struck shot was flying right towards me; I've never been so relieved to see a ballboy in my life who managed to stop it coming into my face.
The atmosphere that was already excellent, was just unbelievable in the second half, our end just bounced it really did. We sang, we cheered, everything. Was the best away end, I've been in and I've been in a fair few. The best chant of the night came in injury time as we regaled substitute Tony Hibbert with "he scores when he wants, oh Tony Hibbert, he scores when he wants"
As the whistle went, I celebrated with people I've not met before in my life, as well as those mates who I see each week. It was brilliant to see the players celebrating just as much as the fans, led by celebrators in chief Heitinga and Fellaini. It showed that it meant something to them to back at Wembley and not just us fans. Even the posts on Twitter by them afterward showed how important it was to win and how they really wanted to win.
The journey home on the coaches was very long as the nice police force who had already incurred the wrath of Moyes wouldn't let the coaches depart, so it was just gone 11pm when we finally departed. I always tend to fall asleep on the journeys home from away games, but there was no chance of that happening as I was literally buzzing from the whole experience.I was on the phone to my brother who usually comes to the games with me, but because of work couldn't come, singing Jelavic's song to him and making him book train tickets as soon as I got off phone. I was getting texts of mates who watched at home, telling me how proud they were of the fans who went up there and how good it came across on the television and how good we played. Me and the girls were planning our Wembley trips and reading tweets from other fans who were all just as excited as us. How could I have slept while all this was going on?!?!
Priory Road was just as chocka with Blues at 2.30 am as it had been on 12 hours early and the atmosphere was still just as jovial as hundreds of tired, but deliriously happy blues made their way to their cars and got taxis home. As it was, I managed to get another bluenose taxi driver to take me home, it seems that fate was definitely on our side.
Lying wide awake at 6.10am with "oh Johnny Heitinga" "We're on the march" and several other Everton songs going around my head didn't bother me at all. The fact I was so tired and achy the next day (thank the Lord that I'm on flexi in work) didn't matter one bit, I was just so glad that I was able to be at the Stadium of Light to be a part of that. I was so proud of everything to do with Everton on Tuesday - the manager, the players and especially the fans and that is why I wanted to go to Sunderland. Being at home and watching that on ITV wouldn't have been the same and I would have been so pissed off knowing I turned down the chance to go. I'm an Evertonian, I have to go to the match!!
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