The weekend

It's taken me a while to get round to writing this. It was a proper two match weekend for us. It felt like ages since we'd been down to Blundellsands...indeed the last Waterloo game we'd seen was down in Bedford! Coventry would provide a more realistic test than the full-timers we've been stacking up against of late. So with the gang assembled we saw the lads run out to into a sparcely populated ground (surprising seeing as both footy teams weren't playing and there was the 6 nations to lure people down to the clubhouse too).

In the end it was another defeat for our boys but there was no denying that Waterloo played really, really well...They should have won no doubt about it. The pack were immense and the backs covered brilliantly. They led for most of the game until a penalty edged Coventry ahead. Freeman Payne put in another true captain's performance and Martin O'Keefe hurt his shoulder in the first half but played on until he finally had to be helped off the field (to an ovation from Boozer's Bank).

They deserved better, especially given that one of the Cov tries looked suspiciously like it was grounded on the wrong side of the line and more blatantly a Cov player slammed into the side of our ruck (right in the front of the posts about 10 yards out) : No penalty (despite even the Coventry fans around us admitting it should have been).

Still, ultimately it'll not make much difference to our season and it was a really good game of rugby.

We spent St Patrick's Night in The Victoria having a few pints of Guinness and singing a chorus of Fields of Athenry. Nothing too crazy.

Sunday saw a fair bit of rushing around, not helped by having to assist with emergency repairs to Ronnie's church and car. Stopped off at my Mum's to give her her Mother's Day present before heading off to Goodison for Everton V Arsenal. Despite some folk saying it was a rotten game I enjoyed every second. We seem to have a knack of unsettling the Gunners and Sunday was no expection. Starting with Vaughan and AJ up front with a midfield of Osman, Carsley, Fernandes and Arteta we matched them stride for stride (admittedly at times we looked to be hanging on by our fingernails). Vaughan made his first league start and played the target man role pretty well. AJ did what he does but it was notable that he was up against very nippy defenders. Fernandes and Carsley were both tremendous...The latter put in a tireless Man of the Match performance, the former providing a couple of sublime moments, riding challenge after challenge and coming away with the ball to the delight of us bluenoses.



We'd hit the woodwork twice and although they'd had their chances too it just felt like our game. Late on in the game a vicious hail storm hit. Anne and I were truly grateful for our lofty, covered Upper Gwladys St seat. As the clock ticked into injury time a half cleared corner landed at AJ's feet and he drilled it into the Gwladys St net. Delirium! I just about remember seeing him diving into the Lower Bullens in between joyous hugs of the folk around us. One of those fantastic moments. AJ & Moyes's celebrations just about sum up how we felt. There really isn't any finer place than Goodison Park!






Just to cap things off the hail had just about stopped as we shuffled out of the ground.



From there our odyssey took us up to Our Lady of Lourdes church near Southport to see Anne's mum and the rest of the Southport Orchestra play a nice concert for us...I was glad of my scarf as it provided much needed padding on those hard, hard pews. Drove home along blustery Formby bypass and got back to south Liverpool just in time for Match of the Day...Perfect.