What a hit son!

“So, how do I get along with the locals here?” I asked my manager, so eager to make friends with the locals, just two days after arriving to London.

“It is quite easy if you are good at a few things” he replied with a broad smile.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Alcohol, sex and football” he said with a very straight face. The first two would very easily qualify as a big taboo in Indian society.

“Boy! I don’t have too much experience with alcohol” I told myself. Especially after looking at the shops that sell alcohol and the way they promote alcoholic beverages, I thought I could never compete with these guys in pubs.

“So, one down and two to go” I thought.

“Again, Though i have some theoretical knowledge on the subject, I have no practical experience in sex either” I thought and went deep into thought. It was strange. If a 24 year old Brit had said that, the entire nation would have given a weird expression. But, being a conservative South Indian, I knew taking up this option to get closer to the locals wouldn’t help.

“It has to be football” I decided.

“How does football help in knowing people here” I asked my manager after a minute.

“It is simple, you have to support the team they support and watch with them and I can guarantee that you will love you just for that” he said.

“What team they support?” I asked as there are various teams in London that plays in the premier league.

“Various” he said and smiled. “They even support teams from outside London” he added.

“Is there a game this week” I eagerly asked.

“Yes. Liverpool is playing Olympiakos tonight 8 PM” he said and checked the calendar to confirm.

“Go to the Gilman’s pub half an hour before kick off to ensure good seat”.

“To a pub? To watch football? It is quite strange” I thought. Being a Liverpool fan since 2001 I thought it would be great to make friends who are fans of Liverpool football club as well.

Exactly at seven thirty, I entered Gillman’s. All the windows were closed as the bartender installed a temporary giant screen in one corner of the pub. The screen was as big as Satyam cinemas in Chennai. They had a big projector and few flat screen televisions in all corners of the pub so that no one missed out on the action. When the bartender pushed the power button, the giant screen came to life with Andy Gray giving his expert comments about the game that night. Jamie Redknapp was the guest and both were going through the team sheet and were discussing the strategies both teams should adopt.

“Liverpool should win with a two goal margin to progress to the knock out stage” Andy Gray commented after looking at the league table.

Fifteen minutes to kickoff!

Fans wearing Liverpool colors and Liverpool scarf started coming in.

“Cranberry juice please” I said to the bartender and paid two pounds.

Small group of fans appeared ten minutes to kickoff and started occupying the tables in front of the giant screen. I chose to stand and watch from the last row so as to observe the fans’ reaction. Every table was filled with pint glasses of lager, mostly Foster’s. Almost everyone wanted to watch the game with alcohol. I wasn’t sure how many would stay sober at the end of the game. So, I was on full alert and stayed close to the door. The door would be my emergency exit in case of trouble. I had never seen so much of alcohol in one place before.

“My manager was so right about the locals’ preferences” I felt

Three minutes before the game started, the fans in Anfield started singing “You will never walk alone”. When the song started, people in the pub sang along with them, with their scarf held up high using both their hands

“Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain. Though your dreams be tossed and blown, walk on… walk on… with hope in your heart... and you’ll never walk alone” they sang.

I knew the song and so sang with them. The lyrics of the song don’t just apply to the game but to real life as well. I felt so inspired after the song and started to develop a sense of belonging with the group gathered in the pub.

The first half was very bad. Olympiakos scored in the 26th minute which made entry into the knock out stage very difficult for the hosts.

At half time, I managed to empty my coke but Liverpool did not manage even a single goal. The fans started to feel irritated by the first half performance.

“We need three fucking goals in forty five fucking minutes” said a frustrated fan at the bar.

I was under tremendous fear as I was not sure how many were sober and what would they do when they were not, and especially when Liverpool lost. I was getting ready to go back home but decided to stay on for the first ten minutes of the second half. All the pint glasses which carried numerous liters of beer forty five minutes before were empty but were promptly replaced by full glasses during half time.

The second half started. In the second minute of the second half, Sinama Pongole ran in through the center to collect a brilliant pass from Gerrard from right flank. The crowd in the pub jumped up to their feet for a second. Sinama expertly volleyed the ball past the keeper for the first goal. The crowd in the stadium erupted. The crowd in the pub erupted too. Lots of jumping, shouting, swearing were evident.

“Is it the passion? Or is it just alcohol?” I wondered

I decided to stay on for some more time.

“A foster’s please” I said to the bartender. Things were getting heated up in the pub and I did not want to miss the action.

After eighty minutes into the game, it was still 1-1.

“Ten more minutes to go. And Liverpool needs two goals. Will it go down the wire?” I thought

In the eighty first minute, Neil Mellor, a rookie, curled the ball in from just outside the penalty box to the left of the keeper. No one expected him to shoot from that angle, but he gave himself a chance. The ball went past the diving keeper and hit the inside of the post and then hit the back of the net.

2-1 and one more goal required to seal the promotion!

The crowd in the pub, which was so impatient for that moment, erupted yet again. People were jumping and punching the air. The celebration lasted only for a moment as Liverpool players regrouped for the remaining vital nine minutes left in the game.

“Are we in for something today” cried the commentator.

I was standing in the middle of a group at the last row now, vociferously cheering for Liverpool.

“Come on reds!” I shouted and a group joined me in shouting.

I felt so attached to the local people there!

Five more minutes went on. Liverpool was pressing for the all crucial third goal. Olympiakos was only contempt to defend and so put all eleven in defense for the last five minutes.

Carragher pushed forward from the left flank and crossed into the penalty box in the direction of Neil Mellor. Mellor, being surrounded by three men from Olympiakos, decided to head the ball back to Gerrard, who was twenty five yards from the goal and with a lot of space.

“Shooooooot…” I cried as I sensed an opportunity to score when I saw Gerrard with such space. I knew he was too good a player to be given that much space around him.

“…lovely cushion header from Mellor… GERRAAAARRRD!!!” cried Andy Gray from the commentary box at the same time.

Gerrard hit the ball fiercely from outside of his right foot with such a pace that the keeper could not stop the ball from going inside his own net, even after an extravagant dive.

“…You beauty! What a hit son! What a hit” Andy Gray screamed on top of his voice.

The crowd in the pub, who were switched off till that point anticipating a defeat, jumped up and down with the beer in hand.

I was jumping up too. For three minutes. The people near me were hugging each other like crazy and in the process, I was hugged too. By almost all the guys and girls near me. I felt like I were one of the locals there.

At the end of those crazy three minutes, I was so excited that I did not even realize that I was covered with beer head to toe. During the wild celebrations, no one realized that they were pouring beer out of their glasses and some of them were on me!

But, I was too excited to bother about that! Already one beer from the pub felt like ten vodkas with redbull for me!

“What a hit that was” I thought after looking at the replay. I was not thinking of Gerrard. I was thinking of how people accepted me as one of them and how football helped me to achieve it. “What a hit I was” I thought and felt so proud.

After the game, while looking at the replay, I heard Andy Gray saying “… with one swing from his gifted right foot, Steven Gerrard says ‘Champions league… knock out stage… here we come’”

“Champions league… knock out stage… here I come… to the same pub and watch” I promised myself.


PS: The same season, Liverpool went on to win the Champions league… in the most emphatic way ever possible. If this game was considered thrilling to the finish, the final was a cliffhanger! As the Liverpool FC anthem reiterates, “When you have hope in your heart, YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE”

Click here to see Gerrard's heroics on that day!