alonso14
Established Member
Liverpool didn't lose when I grew up, well not often anyway. When they did it was always down to to a couple of reasons....Keegan injured? Heighway out of form? Thomspon's perm not tight enough? no no no no...
There was a logical explanation for this and it had bugger all to do with players picking up knocks, the managers tactics being wrong or the opposition simply being better than us......no...If we lost it was down to me......well actually my dad, or the sweet shop owner (Mr Dhillon).....or my Mum....let me explain...
The first match I can really remember was in 1974...It was a remarkable game because we scored 11 (eleven, as the videprinter would say)...against Stromgodset in the European Cup...this wasnt my 1st game, but this first is the one I remember....For obvious reasons......
Now I am not a complicated man, and I wasn't a complicated boy...I was quite happy with my lot.....i would always wear my scarf (the one my Dad gave me...and I still have it...)..I would buy 1/4 of cherry lips at Mr Dhillons shop on the way to the match, and I would always pat a police horse on the way in towards our turnstile (always the same one....Kemlyn Road side of the Kop (Or the Flagpole corner...where, inevitably, the Champions Banner would fly from the said Ship's Flagpole)
Everything was in order....we battered the poor scandinavians and off home we went, fall asleep in the car, get a bollocking of my Mum because I had school the next morning....Well my Dad got a bollocking anyway!
The following Saturday we played Stoke.....Scarf on, Cherrly Lips in pocket, pat the horse, through the turnstile, win the game, off home via the Richmod pub, where I was put in the corner with a bottle of R Whites, a bag of salt'nshake crisps and inhaling about 40 capstans that every bugger was smoking around me!.....
The sun came up in the morning, the sun went down at night, i ate my cherry lips, patted the horse and Liverpool batter everyone in site...and dont forget the scarf (unwashed whilst undefeated at the game......went nearly two seasons without being washed until disaster happened, more of that later)
But then, one fateful Wednesday evening Anfield was rocked to it's foundations....well my bedroom was actually....My dad was late home form work...what is happening? he was never ever late....he always got home at 17.00 on midweek match nights, i was always ready (scarf on)...I always bought my cherry lips on the way to get the bus...The fact that the 11-0 game the week before was my first ever midweek match was irrrelevant...this 5 year old's world was being shattered....Does he know what the consequence of this mindless action is? Does he realise the forces that are at work? Our whole season, nay existence could depend on wether I get to Dhillons shop by 18.00 cause that's when they shut....But no....18.05 my father walks in...Any apology? no....explanation? "Overtime"...OVERTIME? whats overtime?
So off we go....no cherry lips.....but still I have the scarf, and I manage to brush my hand against a police horse as we try to enter the ground 5 minutes after kick off.....we'll be ok...after all it's only Burnley
Only Burnley...only bloody Burnley.....oh yes, I said, as the second then third goal rattles past the befuddled Ray Clemence....Only bloody Burnley.....0-3....at Anfield...Well I am sorry but things like this don't just happen....We do not lose at Anfield, never mind 0-3, and certainly not to Bloody Burnley (for thats how they have been known ever since)....
There was only one plausible explanation....One obvious reason.....it was the Cherry Lips.......it all adds up, we won 11-0 and 3-0 with the Cherry Lips....we lost 0-3 without them......Never again, I vowed, would I let this get in the way....Liverpool's footballing future was held in the hands of this 5 year old and his sweet fetish......from then on it was clear, no cherry lips I could not go, if I failed we fail.........But i never did.....I planned ahead.....if I knew a midweek game was imminent, I would buy two bags on the weekend....to ensure I had enough...
Look at out honours list from 1975 to 1988.......every game I had Cherry Lips........we rarely lost....If we did it was a fluke, apart from once when our two season unbeaten home run was ended by Leicester City......I had the sweets, I patted the horse and I had my clean scarf....yes thats right clean....My mother, in her infinate wisdom, decided that just because you could smell my scarf from Widnes, and that it looked Red and brown instead of red and white it was a good enough reason to wash the bloody thing......Brilliant, what happened the next game....1-2 to Leicester....."Think about it next time Mother", i advised her...... cherry lips were sent scattering as I evaded her deadly right hand.......
You may laugh but I have conclusive proof ot the magic at work.....
In 1989 Mr Dhillon died,....the selfish bastard......The shop was sold and they turned it into a Spar shop..in the process, getting rid of the Jars of sweets...no more Mojo's, no more cola cubes, no more pineapple chunks, no more Everton Mints (hurrah!) and worst of all no more Cherry Lips......
How many titles since this disaster? One.......
Now where is that scarf again?
There was a logical explanation for this and it had bugger all to do with players picking up knocks, the managers tactics being wrong or the opposition simply being better than us......no...If we lost it was down to me......well actually my dad, or the sweet shop owner (Mr Dhillon).....or my Mum....let me explain...
The first match I can really remember was in 1974...It was a remarkable game because we scored 11 (eleven, as the videprinter would say)...against Stromgodset in the European Cup...this wasnt my 1st game, but this first is the one I remember....For obvious reasons......
Now I am not a complicated man, and I wasn't a complicated boy...I was quite happy with my lot.....i would always wear my scarf (the one my Dad gave me...and I still have it...)..I would buy 1/4 of cherry lips at Mr Dhillons shop on the way to the match, and I would always pat a police horse on the way in towards our turnstile (always the same one....Kemlyn Road side of the Kop (Or the Flagpole corner...where, inevitably, the Champions Banner would fly from the said Ship's Flagpole)
Everything was in order....we battered the poor scandinavians and off home we went, fall asleep in the car, get a bollocking of my Mum because I had school the next morning....Well my Dad got a bollocking anyway!
The following Saturday we played Stoke.....Scarf on, Cherrly Lips in pocket, pat the horse, through the turnstile, win the game, off home via the Richmod pub, where I was put in the corner with a bottle of R Whites, a bag of salt'nshake crisps and inhaling about 40 capstans that every bugger was smoking around me!.....
The sun came up in the morning, the sun went down at night, i ate my cherry lips, patted the horse and Liverpool batter everyone in site...and dont forget the scarf (unwashed whilst undefeated at the game......went nearly two seasons without being washed until disaster happened, more of that later)
But then, one fateful Wednesday evening Anfield was rocked to it's foundations....well my bedroom was actually....My dad was late home form work...what is happening? he was never ever late....he always got home at 17.00 on midweek match nights, i was always ready (scarf on)...I always bought my cherry lips on the way to get the bus...The fact that the 11-0 game the week before was my first ever midweek match was irrrelevant...this 5 year old's world was being shattered....Does he know what the consequence of this mindless action is? Does he realise the forces that are at work? Our whole season, nay existence could depend on wether I get to Dhillons shop by 18.00 cause that's when they shut....But no....18.05 my father walks in...Any apology? no....explanation? "Overtime"...OVERTIME? whats overtime?
So off we go....no cherry lips.....but still I have the scarf, and I manage to brush my hand against a police horse as we try to enter the ground 5 minutes after kick off.....we'll be ok...after all it's only Burnley
Only Burnley...only bloody Burnley.....oh yes, I said, as the second then third goal rattles past the befuddled Ray Clemence....Only bloody Burnley.....0-3....at Anfield...Well I am sorry but things like this don't just happen....We do not lose at Anfield, never mind 0-3, and certainly not to Bloody Burnley (for thats how they have been known ever since)....
There was only one plausible explanation....One obvious reason.....it was the Cherry Lips.......it all adds up, we won 11-0 and 3-0 with the Cherry Lips....we lost 0-3 without them......Never again, I vowed, would I let this get in the way....Liverpool's footballing future was held in the hands of this 5 year old and his sweet fetish......from then on it was clear, no cherry lips I could not go, if I failed we fail.........But i never did.....I planned ahead.....if I knew a midweek game was imminent, I would buy two bags on the weekend....to ensure I had enough...
Look at out honours list from 1975 to 1988.......every game I had Cherry Lips........we rarely lost....If we did it was a fluke, apart from once when our two season unbeaten home run was ended by Leicester City......I had the sweets, I patted the horse and I had my clean scarf....yes thats right clean....My mother, in her infinate wisdom, decided that just because you could smell my scarf from Widnes, and that it looked Red and brown instead of red and white it was a good enough reason to wash the bloody thing......Brilliant, what happened the next game....1-2 to Leicester....."Think about it next time Mother", i advised her...... cherry lips were sent scattering as I evaded her deadly right hand.......
You may laugh but I have conclusive proof ot the magic at work.....
In 1989 Mr Dhillon died,....the selfish bastard......The shop was sold and they turned it into a Spar shop..in the process, getting rid of the Jars of sweets...no more Mojo's, no more cola cubes, no more pineapple chunks, no more Everton Mints (hurrah!) and worst of all no more Cherry Lips......
How many titles since this disaster? One.......
Now where is that scarf again?
very good read
