Don’t forget the true fans amid hurly-burly of change

May 21 2007 by Larry Moran, Liverpool Daily Post

Liverpool fan Larry Moran reflects on 30 years of Euro adventures

HERE we are again. Yet another Champions League final. For all Liverpool fans the memories of the Miracle of Istanbul are still vivid.

In truth, that final will be remembered throughout the world. The greatest comeback of all time? Probably. The greatest drama in a Champions League final? Certainly.

For many other Liverpool fans, though, 2007 means an anniversary that stretches back 30 years. The present squad had mostly not yet been born when Liverpool’s love affair with Old Big Ears began in 1977. Looking back, I’d not long started working and I used every penny I had to travel to Rome.

Everyone remembers tales of the magical night against St Etienne at Anfield when the noise of the crowd shook the stadium to the very foundations but who also remembers beating Crusaders and Trabzonspor along the way? Remember the semi-final against FC Zurich that was a non-event as the Swiss were swept aside?

Rome ’77 certainly deserves its legendary status in the history of Liverpool FC as we were crowned Champions of Europe for the very first time. At that point, any dreams of winning it five times to keep the trophy outright were just that, dreams.

On that beautiful warm, sunny evening Liverpool FC joined the pantheon of the giants of European football. Tens of thousands of Liverpool fans created a stunning backdrop to the achievement with their trademark red and white chequered flags announcing the arrival of the Red Army in The Eternal City.

I remember one of the famous flags of the time was ‘Paisley’s Panzer Division’ and I was certainly glad to be a foot soldier in the ranks that night. The tales of how people got to Rome in 1977 also became legend. Footy Specials leaving Lime Street Station, destination: Rome. A veritable Scouse air-force flying out from Speke. It seemed everyone was going to Rome.

Thirty years on and so much has changed in football and so many of those changes found their catalyst in events surrounding Liverpool FC. The dark times of Heysel and Hillsborough ultimately resulted in football as a whole reinventing itself with the aid of satellite TV money and suddenly the ‘working-class’ sport became shiny and new – and more expensive. All-seater stadia and live football available to all – at a price of course – all you had to do was nail a ‘bin-lid’ to your wall and off you went.

Much has changed but the thing that hasn’t is the true supporter. True, the violence that was in the game in the 70s and 80s was policed out of the new, all-seater stadiums. However, for me, it always was more of a ‘society’ problem that merely found an outlet in football. As the game changed, more and more families attended. More women go to matches than ever before. All of those changes have been good but at heart, all supporters remain the same. Especially Liverpool fans. We feel an affinity with our club to such an extent that it’s a virtual symbiosis.

‘The 12th Man’ is in danger of becoming a cliché but the effect we have is tangible. Even Jose Mourinho had to admit, after Chelsea’s defeat at Anfield in the Champions League semi-final in 2005, that he had “felt the power of Anfield.”