Another Red Letter Day

I was offered a (paid for) ticket for the Liverpool v Havant game after a mate relinquished his seat after getting bumped up to a cushy corporate box, with food and booze on tap.
Due to the rollacoaster nature of the game - one down after around seven minutes to the plucky part-timers, behind again after taking an age to draw level - the atmosphere at Anfield that afternoon was warm.
The need to back a clearly struggling side (us), coupled with some good natured banter from the admirably supported non-leaguers, made for a rip-roaring mood, and not altogether positive, inside the ground.
Add to that some angry dissension on The Kop between anti Hicks and Gillett protestors and others demanding only football-related songs, it was a colourful climate.
Sitting in the Main Stand, it was frustrating to look around and watch my neighbours treating Anfield like a library.
Not a word was uttered, apart from the times when the Reds, usually Yossi that day, found the back of the net.
Being a keen chanter, I had to be content with going solo when I joined in with The Kop on a number of occasions, but a single voice sailing lonely on the breeze disheartens the most hardy of fans.
Where’s the life and the passion on the terraces gone?
I think if you’re under 40, it should almost be a REQUIREMENT to make a modicum of noise when you come to watch us play.
To make matters worse, it was mainly blokes aged 15-40 who were sat in my immediate vicinity who insisted on staying mute.
No wonder others cackling visiting fans sometimes make accusations about the famous Anfield atmosphere being on its last legs.
Fans can’t decide to only bring their singing voices when we are playing Inter, Juve or Chelsea in the Champions League.
You’re paying £34 a game, so you might as well have a bit of a laugh and singalong to go with it.
Contrast that to the performance of The Kop recently, which has something of a rennaissance in the last couple of years, Anfield might as well be two different stadiums.
To hear of fans leaving the ground on Tuesday night with cuts and bruises on their legs, sustained following chaotic goal celebrations, brought a smile to my face.
Of course, safety is paramount, but a bit of a harmless semi-mosh is not just acceptable, but essential.
Again, the atmosphere on the Kop a few weeks back for the Monday night Villa game was a triumph for fan participation.
Yes, it was fuelled by the voices of protests aimed at the Americans, but it was the sound of supporters engaging themselves, not just sitting back and swallowing up ‘the product.’
The Daytripper fans always get the Scousers' goat.
You know the ones.
Those who think that Riise is bang in form because they still remember him breaking the net against the Mancs with that free-kick.
And others who stand there inanely calling on Crouchy to chuck a few shapes out with his ‘robot’ dance.
During Villa, I was sat in 305, next to a Chinese bloke who took up half my seat and basically studied the programme all game trying to tally the numbers on the back of shirts with the teamsheet.
The only time anything resembling emotion passed his lips was when the 6ft 7ins giant he’d come to see, swept a last gasp leveller into the Kop net.
I know Liverpool tickets shouldn’t just be reserved for Merseysiders, but I couldn’t help feeling his seat would have been much better served going to someone with a real interest in the club and a working pair of lungs.
I don’t know about you, but a rip-roaring atmosphere leaves me content in the knowledge that visiting fans have seen Anfield at its bristling best.
So, let’s not JUST get up for it on Wednesday European nights.
And let’s do away with this nonsense that everyone but The Kop and parts of the Anfield Road can’t sing.
Form an alliance with your neighbour. If he starts singing, you join him. You stand and fall together.
That way you don’t get a red face.
And people will feel they’ve had a good day out even when we struggle to a 2-0 win over 11-men-behind-the-ball opposition.
I wonder if we should shame the quietest parts of the ground and set particular blocks challenges for up and coming matches?
You’re next up 106! Let’s hear you!