Everton and technical partner hummel are proud to collaborate to present My Everton, a weekly series of first-hand accounts describing the most-treasured memories of fans, players, and staff both past and present.
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A lifetime of memories of supporting the team named after the village where I was born in 1950 began so memorably when I was three years old, when my late Dad, Edgar Stanley Farrington, lifted me over one of the turnstiles at the Goodison Park.
I have a host of memories, some good, some not so good, but the stand-out memory of my time supporting Everton comes not from Goodison Park but from Huddersfield Town's old Leeds Road ground in West Yorkshire.
I moved to Huddersfield in 1969 to marry the girl of my dreams and, a decade or so later, I became a local football referee, officiating more than 50 games a season in both senior and junior football over a 30-year period.
In 1985, my Referees Appointments Secretary, knowing of my affinity with Everton, rewarded me with a fourth official appointment in the now-defunct Central League for the fixture involving Huddersfield Town Reserves and Everton Reserves.
As I sat behind the dugouts with fingers firmly crossed that none of the match officials sustained an injury, I noticed Everton's manager, Howard Kendall, was amongst the club staff in the away team dugout.
There was nothing greatly unusual about that, except that the next night his team had arguably the most important match in the club's long and distinguished history in the shape of a European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final second leg meeting with Bayern Munich.
It would have been understandable if he'd decided to give the match a miss to have an early night prior to the tie but he was enthusiastically cheering from the dugout his mostly youthful second string.
At the conclusion of the match I encountered him in the dressing room area and quickly told him of my lifetime affinity with Everton while wishing him well for the following evening.
I also discussed tactics with him and the formation he should play (I didn't actually but my grandchildren later believed I did!)... Howard warmly shook me by the hand and thanked me prior to venturing the following opinion, "I think we're going to do it".
He was correct, the next evening I travelled along the M62 to take my regular place in the Gwladys Street terraces, one of nearly 50,000 lucky people in the stadium to witness one of the finest performances of an Everton team, as we recovered from a Dieter Hoeness goal several minutes before the interval to fight back with second half goals by Graeme Sharp, Andy Gray and Trevor Steven to win 3-1 in what was a stirring comeback that will forever live in the memory.
Work commitments along with difficulties obtaining tickets prevented me from attending the final in Rotterdam but as I watched the team that I have supported for now 70-plus years on television.
As we eased to victory my mind returned to that April evening in my adopted town and a chance meeting with one of the greatest club managers of English football, who took the time to speak to a local referee, who has never forgotten that first magical experience of Goodison Park where My Everton have thrilled so many people over so many years.
By Kenneth S Farrington, Evertonian
