By Rob Marrs

Twitter: @MarrsioFootball

Website: http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com

Why Liverpool?

Certainly not familial or geographical! My mother is from Dumfries and supports Queen of the South and (jaw-droppingly!) Leeds. My Uncle veers towards Hearts and my Papa, on that side, was a football fan but not a supporter of any club (at all levels – my earliest footballing memory was watching Dalbeattie Star with him. We were driving through Dalbeattie and saw a game going on – he pulled into the car-park and we watched the game!). My father is from Falkirk and supports Falkirk.

For a birthday present, my father took me to buy a football kit and I was told that ‘you can have any kit you want as long as it isn’t Rangers or Celtic”. In a Dumfries department store, this limited the choice to Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal and Manchester United. I’d recently watched Liverpool play Dynamo Kiev – a game billed as a clash between the two best teams in the world on the commentary – and I was thrilled by the thought that somehow we could work out who the best teams in the world were. 


Most of the boys in my school supported Norwich City or Arsenal (Cambridge, lying as it does, on the way between North London and Norwich and those two teams being the biggest in the area. Everyone supported Cambridge AND someone else!) but I was never really taken with either.



Further, I’d heard Scottish relatives talking about the wonder of Kenny Dalglish, I liked the fact that they played in Red and, due to a slight speech impediment as a child, I couldn’t say Liverpool properly. Perversely then, I picked them. It’s been one of the best decisions I ever made!

It was helped by the fact my dad got a job in Liverpool when I was 9…

Favourite Player

No competition! John Barnes was my favourite player as a child. Just a devastatingly good player who, to a generation of Kopites, is all that a winger should be. He, more than any other player, sparked my love of football. He was the player I always wanted to be in playground games.

There are lots of players that I’ve liked enormously – Jan Molby, Robbie Fowler, Peter Beardsley, Fernando Torres, Patrick Berger, Jamie Redknapp – but after Barnes it would be Steven Gerrard.

Favourite Game?

Well, the obvious answer is the game that took place on May 25th 2005. However, I’m not sure it is my favourite Liverpool game. I enjoyed Michael Owen’s mugging of Arsenal and Liverpool winning the FA Cup. Although it precipitated Dalglish’s exit from the club, the 4-4 draw against Everton in 1991 is rightly remembered as one of the best Cup ties of all-time.

The two 4-3 games against Newcastle were see-saw, rip-roaring games that defined a certain time in English football – when Newcastle and Liverpool both served up delicious, enchanting football without being terribly successful.

My favourite game? The 2006 FA Cup Final. It is increasingly known as The Gerrard Final and rightly so. It was the quintessential Gerrard game. He is, in many ways, a Flintoffian character, with the cartoonish abilities of a modern-day Roy Race – defined by moments rather than seasons. He is characterised by moments of improbability. Perhaps most improbable was his performance against West Ham – setting up one goal and scoring two others. One, in the 93rd minute, a 35 yard blast when, only moments earlier, he had been struggling with cramp.



The game was everything we would hope from a Cup Final and more. I enjoyed it a lot more than I enjoyed 2005 – largely because I could actually watch it rather than staring at the floor in a New Zealand bar so scared was I that moving, or watching, or doing anything might stop the miracle.

Favourite Strip

My first ever strip – the Crown Paints 1987/88 kit. I loved how the word ”Liverpool” wrapped around the badge so amateurishly.



I’d like to see us return to a kit that was red from head to toe, no white flashes, no sponsorship, just the badge.

Worst Thing About Being A Liverpool Fan?

The worst moment of being a Liverpool fan was my father breaking the news about Hillsborough to me after a day out in Cambridge shopping. I remember crying my eyes out even though, looking back, there was no way that I could have comprehended what was happening.

The worst thing about being a Liverpool fan? I’m tempted to say the suffocating past – only a club that has been truly successful can be held back by its past in the way that Liverpool has been. However, considering the lot of most other clubs, I can’t complain with the number of trophies I’ve seen us win. The worst thing is, clearly, not winning the league for so long.

Until recently, that was slightly overtaken by the fact we had the Gruesome Twosome in charge.

Funniest Moment?

I’m tempted to say Dossena’s goal against Manchester United or the ”ghost goal” against Chelsea. I’d have to say though some of the chants and banter at Anfield.

The best? 



Don’t blame it on Biscan, 


Don’t blame it on Finnan, 


Don’t blame it on Hamann, 


Blame it on Traore, 


He just can’t, he just can’t, he just can’t control his feet

Favourite Moment?

Lots to choose from! Although my favourite game was the FA Cup Final 2006, my favourite moment was Gerrard lifting the European Cup in 2005 – unbelievable.

Posted on January 21st, 2011 by scott
Filed under: My Team & I