I try and get over to see Liverpool from Northern Ireland at least once a year. I'd love to go more, life and finances permitting but I'm delighted I got to see Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool this many times. There were much bigger games over the 9 years but these were mine and they tell a story of what it was like when he was our manager. Klopp achieved more in those 9 years than 8 Liverpool managers had achieved in the previous 25.
1. Man City Premier League March 2016
A few days after losing to them on penalties in the League Cup Final, I was at Anfield with my father in law, Ronnie, for an evening game against City. We beat City 3 nil. Raheem Sterling and his agent made such a big deal of getting out of Liverpool to go to City, this was his first time returning to Anfield. He was taken off at half time, such was the grief he was getting from the home fans. It was an evening game so we stayed overnight. The next day, Ronnie had me away up in Kirkby to see where he first worked as a teacher in the 1960's.
2. Dortmund Europa League April 2016
Liverpool were two down inside 10 minutes as Dortmund ran riot. Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Reus reminded Klopp what he’d left behind when he quit the club a year earlier. Two nil at half time didn’t feel like an insurmountable lead but still, if we were going to go through, it was going to take something special. YNWA was belted out again. Origi scored early in the second half after Can cut through the middle of Dortmund. Here we go. Reus made it 3-1 on the night to briefly take the wind out of our sails. Coutinho played a one-two with Milner at the edge of the box and fired a low curler into the far corner. You could feel it building, that certain je ne sais quoi of a great European night at Anfield. Sakho nodded in to make it 3-3 with just over ten minutes to go. The noise was now deafening and there was a feeling of being swept along by a wave of unstoppable energy. “LIV-ERPOOL, LIV-ERPOOL, LIV-ERPOOL”. It didn’t matter how long was left, there was only going to be one winner here. They made us wait though. The deciding goal came deep into injury time. Milner and Sturridge combined on the right, Milner hung a cross up to the back post, the crowd, as one, held our breath and Dejan Lovren rose to head the ball into the top corner. Anfield exhaled noise and celebration the likes of which you only get to experience on great European nights like these. Lovren ran to the corner in front of the Kop where six of the seven goals had been scored and did a flying karate kick before being mobbed by team mates and fans. I stopped for a second and looked around the stadium, 7/8’s of it were going absolutely ballistic. I embraced a man I didn’t know across the aisle from me. A lad came tumbling down the steps beside us, tripped by the back of the seat in front of him no doubt. He stopped tumbling about 10 steps below where I was stood and didn’t move. I ran down to see if he was ok. I helped him up. He looked a bit stunned then he started jumping up and down again, hugged me, screamed “COME ON” and disappeared back up the steps. The game ended. Dortmund didn’t know what had happened as they trudged off the pitch. The travelling Yellow Wall had been bulldozed. Klopp took his heroes to the Kop as he had done to celebrate a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with West Brom at Christmas and had been widely ridiculed for it. He was preparing us all for nights like this. DJ George put on The Beatles because you can’t have nights like this without the Fab Four. When we all finally made our way out of the stadium, half an hour after the game ended, I watched old men, who probably thought they’d seen it all, meet beneath the Kop. They laughed and hugged as they recounted how they saw it, from the different parts of the stand they were in.
3. Crystal Palace Premier League April 2017
My mate, Smiddy, who had been at the Dortmund game with me, took his oldest son, Tom over for his first game. He was only 7 or 8. We had a great day apart from the football - we spotted Ronnie Whelan outside and got a photo with him. The game was awful as Benteke gave Lovren a terrible time and rubbed salt in the wounds by celebrating the winner, with the on loan Sakho, in front of us in the new main stand. Afterwards at Manchester Airport, as we headed towards security, I was about to regale Smiddy and Tom about how I'd met Pepe Reina at this spot a few years earlier when the whole Palace team came walking towards us and we got pictures with all the ex Liverpool players including their coach Sammy Lee. I always regret us not getting a photo with Martin Kelly who was there but went unnoticed. Liverpool didn't lose a home league game for nearly 4 years after this.
4. Middlesboro Premier League May 2017
Smiddy, Chops and I were back over for the final game of the season against Middlesboro. We needed a win to guarantee a top 4 finish in Klopps first full season. We were stood outside a Beatles themed pub just up from the King Harry and got talking to some local fans who told us they saw King Kenny coming walking down an alley in his club suit heading for the ground. He could have just been some supporter caught short the way he just wandered out like he wasn't one of the greatest players and managers the club has ever had. Smiddy tried to match his story by saying we'd met Ronnie Whelan last time we were over but that was like meeting a disciple and this guy was telling us he'd just seen Jesus! I was bumping into ex Liverpool footballers all over the show at this point. Harry Kewell was in my gym in Belfast the week before. He was over to do his coaching badges. Liverpool made hard work of beating Boro. Lovren almost gave away a penalty at nil nil but Coutinho took the game by the scruff of the neck to score the decisive second goal and finish the season as top scorer. Mane scored 13 goals in his first season and was club player of the year. Lucas played his final game for us ahead of a move to Lazio. More importantly, Liverpool were back in the Champions League. I was due to go to the final Champions League game against Spartak Moscow but I was struck down with stomach pains that October and ended up in hospital for 2 months following double bowel surgery. I kept asking the doctors if I would be fit to go to the game in December and at the start they were saying we'll see but as things failed to improve they were telling me to forget about it. Liverpool won the game 7 (seven) nil with Coutinho scoring a hat trick in his final European appearance for the club. The brilliant Brazilian had asked to join Barcelona in the summer but Liverpool refused to sell. In fairness to him, he knuckled down until Christmas then declared he wanted to be sold or he wouldn't play. Liverpool got up to £140m for him which is obviously not to be sneezed at but also highlighted how absurd the money in football had become.
5. West Ham Premier League August 2018
The first game of the 18/19 season was at home to West Ham. As usual I was travelling over and back the same day. A couple of hours before kick off, I arranged to meet a friend of mine called Seany in Liverpool. He had already been in the bar for several hours. He's another pal from home who'd emigrated to Australia. He was taking my other ticket on the Kop. Alisson was making his league debut and he got an almighty cheer from the home fans. Was this finally the final piece of the jigsaw? We hoped so. Fabinho was also signed as a designated defensive midfielder. We probably hadn't had a proper one of these since Mascherano. Standing on the Kop for the first time, Seany was very emotional, this was a big deal and then he was very hungry. He disappeared after the first 15 minutes and missed the first two goals. I don't know what or how much he ate but he was remarkably sober when he returned at the start of the second half. Liverpool went on to win 4 nil. Salah, Mane and Sturridge with the goals. I spoke to a man on the way out who looked like he'd seen it all "This team good enough to win the league?" I asked and he gave me a look like "you never know!".
6. Man Utd Premier League December 2018
I took my wife Emma over for the United game on my birthday in December 2018. I wanted to witness us win against our great rivals (having watched us lose to them in Gerrard's final season) and this was the day. Clyne was a surprise inclusion at right back as Liverpool took the lead through Mane. Lingard equalised against the run of play and despite Liverpool totally dominating the game, we couldn't find a goal until Shaqiri came on and scored a couple of the most beautiful deflected goals I've had the pleasure to see live. The rain was absolutely torrential but nobody cared, we were so delighted to be top of the league with a victory over them'uns. Even better, this game got United manager, Jose Mourinho, the sack. A nine game winning run took us to the top of the league at Christmas and into the new year.
7. Wolves Premier League May 2022
In the end what happened was what everybody thought would happen - Liverpool would win but so would City, though that only tells part of the story of one of the most exciting final days in Premier League history. A few days later I was in Paris for the Champions League Final against Real Madrid.
8. Brighton Premier League March 2024
When Jurgen Klopp announced he was leaving Liverpool at the end of this season, my plans to get my 9 year old son Arlo to his first game at Anfield were accelerated. My first attempt at getting tickets for a Liverpool game this season was the Brighton game on Easter Sunday. I've paid membership on and off for a few years in the hope of getting us tickets. We were eligible to register for Brighton and Sheff Utd a few days later. It took me ages to register both myself and Arlo as couldn't figure out how to add him to mine and he couldn't register alone, being a child and all. After a lot of help from LFC on X, I got us registered. A few days later, I was surprised to see I was number 85 in the queue and it appeared that I was able to buy a ticket. I tried to add Arlo too but I kept getting an error message. I panicked thinking I was going to miss out altogether and ended up only getting one for myself. I told Arlo when I got home and promised I'd do my best to get him to another game. Brighton was great. I met up with my friend John and his adult son Rhys. They had been going to games since Rhys was young but now he was living in Canada they only got to go together occasionally. I was 2 rows back on the halfway line in the Centenary Stand now called The Kenny Dalglish Stand. The players were right beside me warming up. I was talking to the two ladies in seats next to me who had been season ticket holders for 40 years. They said the seat I had also belonged to another season ticket holder who must'nt have been able to go and put it back into circulation. I'd at least got to see Liverpool play in Klopp's final season now the hunt was on for tickets to get Arlo over. We won the game 2-1 after going a goal down again but the turnaround was enough for Roy Keane to declare he was backing us to win the league.
9. Atalanta Europa League April 2024
I kept an eye on the twitter accounts all day and whenever any tickets came up I dm'd as quick as I could but no dice. After work, I sat on my laptop to see if I could reply any quicker but I wasn't quick enough. There were some hospitality tickets put up but I'd said I wouldn't pay those prices. Then I wondered if that wasn't the best option. I'd be sitting all the next day trying to get a pair of tickets which were even more difficult to get. On the Tuesday morning, 2 days before the game, I was on twitter from 7am, by 10am I was making an offer for hospitality tickets.
Although it was a more expensive option, it felt like it would be the one with least hassle. It turned out to be anything but. Not through any fault of the seller I might add. I made the bank transfer payment when I got home from work, this usually takes a couple of hours to process but by the time I was going to bed and after checking bank details etc again, payment still hadn't been received and I still didn't have the tickets. When payment still hadn't been received in the morning it was time to get on to the bank. There was still a big part of me wondering if I was being scammed because there was a lot of that going on but I felt I'd researched the seller well enough to be almost certain it was genuine. Indeed, the bank wanted to speak to me about exactly this and they confirmed they had suspended the payment pending a conversation with me to confirm I was happy to make the payment and would accept liability if it turned out to be fake. This wasn't a 2 minute conversation with the bank either, it was 20 minutes which all added to the doubts in my mind about whether or not I was being ripped off. I informed the bank I was happy to proceed, the payment was released and received by the seller who informed me tickets would be sent that evening. I don't know if it was buyers regret, mental exhaustion or paranoia but it was a long enough day waiting on the tickets. When I still hadn't received them by 7pm, I sent a message asking what time I'd get them as I still hadn't told Arlo we were going and I wanted to before he went to bed that. The seller told me he was on his way home from work and he would send them in about an hours time. He was as good as his word. The tickets were emailed and I showed Arlo the one with his name on it. It took him a few seconds to realise what he was looking at then he started shouting "ARE WE GOING TO SEE LIVERPOOL V ATALANTA?", I told him we were and he jumped up out of his seat, gave me a big hug and told me he loved me. I told him I loved him too and now get to bed because we have an early start.
There was one other Liverpool game I attended in the Klopp era. Ironically, it was in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, where the story was supposed to end with the 2024 Europa League Final. In August 2017, Emma and I went to a pre-season friendly in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin against Atletico Bilbao. I hadn't been in that stadium since 1993 when it was plain old Lansdowne Road and Ireland beat England in the rugby. Nearly 25 years later, it was now a beautiful modern arena. Sadio Mane was playing on the left in front of me, he was wearing number 19. After the game, Klopp and his players walked to all four sides of the Aviva to not only meet the fans but get into the stands among us. It really took me by surprise that he climbed over the advertisement boards and happily took selfies with the fans, his people. It just sums up the man.
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