Through Gritted Teeth #35: Liverpool 1988
August 9, 2011 § 15 Comments
by Mike Counsell
Occasionally in life, something happens that is so alien, so counterintuitive, so brain-jarringly wrong that it makes you question whether there can ever again be such a thing as certainty. It was May the 14th 1988, FA Cup final day, and I was in the pub. Nothing unusual or counterintuitive about that, as anyone who knows me would confirm.
(Incidentally, as a digressing disclaimer, there will be errors of fact and attribution in this piece. Football is a game of passions and opinions, and I prefer the kind of truth that’s refracted through memory and experience rather than the kind that reflects, you know, what actually happened. The date I can vouch for, but I’m afraid that that constitutes the full extent of my research.) « Read the rest of this entry »
Through Gritted Teeth #27: “Come On You Reds”
July 11, 2011 § 10 Comments
by John McGee
I’m sure many of you reading this will have chosen your favoured clubs as a result of childhood doctrine. My own brother, based in West Cumbria, is an ardent and undying Aston Villa fan as the result of a dogged and determined campaign by his godmother’s then boyfriend (now husband) which saw our shared bedroom littered with claret and blue relics and us using the combined wit of our 12 years in the world to puzzle over what exactly a ‘Mita Copier’ was. For his part my Dad was always fairly sanguine about our footballing allegiances and whilst he looked fairly on my decision to follow his beloved Leeds he hardly batted an eyelid when it became obvious (to him long before me) that Carlisle United had really stolen the portion of my heart reserved for that special type of heartbreak. « Read the rest of this entry »
