Ste Gerrard, Gerrard....

As a child supporting a team you dream of growing up and playing for that team. You buy the shirt, maybe get a current players name on the back & wear it with pride. Playing with your local team or at school or with your mates you pretend to be that player. If you are playing your computer game your decisions are always biased and always based on the team you support.

Now imagine you are from the same town as that team and get to play for that team. Imagine you've scored for that team & done everything in your power to win games against your greatest rivals. And enjoyed it. Imagine you get to play and train with players that were your idols. Imagine you become captain of that club. Imagine lifting the greatest club trophy there is in a legendary way and you were the inspiration behind that win.

Not content with that, the next year you drag your team from an embarrassing position and score an unbelievable goal, a goal that finally broke the oppositions heart and belief. You lift another trophy.

Time after time you are the heart and soul of that team. You get offered chances to leave but the pull of your childhood dreams convinces you to stay, that winning trophies with your team means more than winning elsewhere. The club always comes first.



Today, the man who made us Liverpool fans believe for so long, the man who told us to "go again", the man who carried our dreams on the pitch, the man who felt our pain when a result didn't go our way, decided to call time on his Liverpool career and made a decision for himself.

Much will be written about what he didn't win and opposition fans will always make reference to him not winning the Premier League, but what he did win, he won. He was influential in our treble winning season in 2001; scored in the League Cup win in 2003; Istanbul in 2005 is the stuff of folklore; FA Cup Final in 2006 is named after him; 2012 League Cup he dragged us through the Semi Final; last season assault on the title.

Players are often asked when they retire about their best goal and I struggle to pick just one. Some players go for the goal that has the most importance - but how does he choose? Olympiakos, West Ham, AC Milan, Utd....maybe technique or distance? Aston Villa, Everton, Utd....what about against rivals? Again, Everton and Utd will be glad to see the back of him.

It's sad that he may never have a Premier League medal as a player but that should never, ever be used to tarnish his legacy or reputation. He played in teams that were in the main, mediocre, as painful as that is to say and he made those around him better. Owen, Torres, Suarez were all better players with him behind. He made other players appear better than they were, he was that good.

Gerrard can pass a ball like few others; he can score goals - long, short, tap-ins, thunderbolts; he can head a ball like a striker; tackle with power; he has determination and a will to succeed and win that drove the club on.

Legend is an overused term these days but he is one and always will be one. Liverpool's best ever? Possibly due to how he drove the club on when others around him faltered. Too many ignorant people make reference to him this season and deride him, forgetting what he done for them over the last 15 years since he made his debut. Personally speaking, I don't think we'll know what we had until he leaves next July.

I'm looking forward to watching him for the next 6 months because we may never see him in the red shirt again.

2013...that was that year

Well, 2013 is over. Not a spectacular year or great one but suppose some key points:

1. I made no posts last year on this blog. I'll change that
2. My wife has set up her own business & it's brilliant - http://www.a-nu.me
3. My son is amazing and turning in to a lovely little, caring human but with a great giddy side (he is my child, after all)
4. Work got shit but my head got sorted. I'm in a better mental position that I was this time last year
5. I'm more at peace with myself

I'm sure 2014 will be better. I wish you all a very happy, safe and prosperous new year.

A proper emotional roller-coaster

I do love BBC4 on Fridays. They always have some interesting music programs on and last night was no different.

Last night gave us the excellent George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Martin Scorseses portrait off George Harrison. Three hours of great tele. It brought us right through from Beatles to death. Much of the music on the program had me thinking. Has there been another band - or indeed even as single artists - ever whose music could bring you right the entire emotional roller-coaster of emotions?

Sure there are songs that when you hear them trigger emotions. As a Liverpool fan, You'll Never Walk Alone always gets me going, but that's due to the association with my club as much as the song. Nessun Dorma is another but again due to the 1990 World Cup more-so than the song itself. But watching that program last night got me thinking.

They played While my guitar gently weeps and it just takes you over. Something, Yesterday and A Day in the life are other songs that seep into you. Then the early Beatles music can just make you feel happy and want to dance, Sgt. Pepper and Yellow Submarine make the mind wander and chill you out. Some are just plain fun tracks. Again, I have no moments to associate with many of the tracks but what they do to you just shows both the power of music and also the power of their music.

To me, its truly astounding. Feck the begrudgers, I love 'em. No one nowadays comes close to that power.

Stop and think, then click the link

Imagine your 15 year old son or daughter, niece or nephew got up on a glorious Saturday morning. They were excited because they were heading to a football match. A massive game between two of the biggest teams in the country at the time. Nothing appeared untoward of sinister initially, but they never came home. Read that again. They never came home. From a football match.

On 15^th April 1989 Kevin Williams was one of the 96 to tragically die directly from injuries sustained at the Hillsborough disaster. However his death is different from the rest. At the time, the coroner amazingly put a 3.15pm cut-off point for ALL the people who died in the disaster. He stated everyone who died was clinically dead by that time. The difference with Kevin Williams is that there are statements from different people stating they spoke with Kevin up until at least 3.45pm. The coroner refused to change the time & a massive injustice is ongoing.

On Monday night, 17th Oct, a debate of huge significance took place in England. Over 130,000 people signed a petition to have Hillsborough debated, the case to be reopened, and the files from the time opened to the public for the first time. These files are so important as they contain the actual minutes of meetings between Maggie Thatcher, her government, the Sheffield Police and other ‘interested’ parties at the time. The whole investigation has been one cover up after another (Police chief at the time lied to the FA about the cause, FA lied to government who told lies to the s*n newspaper who lied to the country).in Williams is that there are statements from different people stating they spoke with Kevin up until at least 3.45pm. The coroner refused to change the time & a massive injustice is ongoing.

Following on from the debate on Monday, Kevin’s mother Anne Williams has started a petition to have the 3.15pm cut-off reversed and Kevin’s case reviewed. At 3.15pm Kevin was alive and needed medical attention from an ambulance. Ambulances were not allowed onto the pitch. If they had been, he’d have survived.

This is such an important case for us that we need to get everyone to sign this. Please sign this. It only takes 2mins to sign (fill in the four fields online & then click the link emailed to you – if you don’t click the emailed link your signature wont count). You can fill this in for your partner/kids as well. You will need to note you are a UK resident or citizen.

The case deserves to be reviewed.

Petition Link

You can watch some of the MP’s speeches on the debates here

Information on the disaster here

Please sign & then post on yer Facebook, Twitter or whatever you use.

Run Update

Following on from my post the other day about the amazing run my friend is doing (http://bigsc.blogspot.com/2010/09/from-past-to-future.html), there is an update.

Here is the route we will be taking for the run tomorrow. Please come out and support this great cause:

"Brendan finishes his challenge in Galway on October 1st when he will run the last leg.

Starting from Blackrock at 3pm, he will run along the prom via Nile Lodge and St. Mary’s road to UCHG.

Brendan is asking anyone who might like to walk, jog or run to join him at Blackrock and support him to the finish line at the front door of UCHG, around 4pm where together with family and friends he will be greeted by Prof . Michael Kerins (Medical director of NBCRI) and the NBCRI research team who are based at Clinical Science Institute, UCHG."

The route: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Upper+Salthill+Rd&daddr=53.26956,-9.06565+to:53.276339,-9.067926&hl=en&geocode=Ff2mLAMdaTh1_w%3BFTjULAMdTqt1_ykjjZuQ-JZbSDEBXsv7pscAEw%3BFbPuLAMdaqJ1_w&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&via=1&dirflg=w&sll=53.270064,-9.069986&sspn=0.007571,0.038152&ie=UTF8&ll=53.267318,-9.07093&spn=0.007572,0.038152&z=15

Please come along...

From the past to the future

This coming Friday, October 1st 2010, my best friend Brendan McCarthy will complete an amazing challege to run 1,000 miles in 50 days. That's 20 miles per day, every day, for just over 7 weeks.

Why is he doing this I hear you ask? Well, its best that he answers in his own words:

"On the 8th of February, 2010, my sister Tricia died of breast cancer. It was too late for Tricia, but I felt that I had to do something to prevent this happening to other families. So from the 13th of August to the 1st of October (fifty days), I'm running (walking and crawling) twenty miles a day for charity.

The money raised will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Research Institute where it will be used in the fight against breast cancer".

You can become a fan of this on Facebook also: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=ff&ap=1#!/group.php?gid=145659082124810

The last leg of the run will take place in Galway where Tricia lived. The run will start in Blackpool at 3pm and we will run past Tricias home and finish at the University College Hospital Galway. He will be met by Prof Michael Kerins and the NBCRI research team for whom the money is being raised.

If you would like to donate please do so here: http://www.mycharity.ie/event/tricia_mccarthy/. If you'd like to join in the run and fun on Friday please do come along. Just leave a message on Facebook!!

Benji In the Snow

Took this picture down in Newbridge during the snow. This is my brother in law's dog Benji. Took him out for a walk.

Nice.

Any day..

Any day today, we'll see this little 'un in daylight.

Can't wait.