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... 50 years ago today, Saturday December 13th 1975 I attended my first ever football match, Everton v Birmingham City at Goodison and the day is one of the great memories of my life. I was just 6 years old and had only recently got excited about football. My much older sister had convinced me to be an Everton fan, whilst my dad had no interest at all being a passionate rugby league follower. In spite of that on that morning as we walked to the shops he asked if I would like to go and see Everton play in the afternoon and I couldn't have been more excited. I have so many memories of the day even though I have never met anyone else who remembers the game at all and given there were only 20000 there in an era when crowds often dipped in the Saturdays before Christmas and the game was not televised that is perhaps not surprising. I remember catching the bus to the ground, I remember stepping off the bus at Walton church and walking for 15 minutes or so to reach the stadium, I remember feeling a little underwhelmed when I saw the stadium for the first time which to me looked a bit like a factory from the outside but then the tremendous excitement of stepping out into the Gwladys Street stand and seeing the elegant goalnets and the swathes of green grass stretching out in front of me, I remember it was a crisp sunny day that became ever so slightly misty as the darkness set in and I remember Everton's 5th and final goal being scored in the dying minutes of the match in a 5-2 victory which was our best in an otherwise disappointing season. A couple of other interesting details of the match that I have learned since are that one of Everton's 5 different scorers that day, Bob Latchford, scored his goal passed his brother Dave who was in goal for Birmingham and one of Birmingham's two scorers was none other than Howard Kendall. With my dad's fairly recent passing and the loss a few weeks ago of a friend who I had been attending Everton games with for the past 30 years the memory of that day feels a little bittersweet currently but it is one that I will cherish for the rest of my days.