Day one covering Liverpool at the Post

Jul 2 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Derby County steward approached me for the third time and, as his puce face hinted, diplomacy and manners were off the agenda.

“Listen pal, I’ve told you. You can’t stand up. And you definitely can’t stand up and start a fight. Last warning or I’m throwing you out.”

To be fair I was on dodgy ground.

The piece of lard with the Noddy Holder head sitting two seats away kept bellowing abuse at John Barnes. Our ding-dong had lasted for a good hour during which time Liverpool had put three past Derby without reply including a typically clinical penalty from Barnes. He’d tried all the “get back to your Scouse slums to eat a dead rat” slurs to little effect. So he played his ace. “Will someone cripple that useless black ----!”.

That was it. I was over the side of the Press box trying to drag him out of the seat being pushed back by Derby fans. Two stewards grabbed me and frogmarched me out. The one who’d been trying to keep me in check all afternoon told me he had never seen such reprehensible behaviour for a journalist in 20 years of stewarding.

I told him he should visit the Cross Keys pub at the back of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo every Friday night but he didn’t get it and Baseball Ground gate was slammed in my face.