Three great LFC books for Christmas

An instantly recognisable larger-than-life Kop character, Evo (as he's known to his friends) first walked into Anfield in 1964 and has since racked up a lifetime of memories following Liverpool's fortunes all over the world.

He's also put many of his experiences watching the Reds into print with three superb books about his time supporting his team over the last five decades.

Details of a special offer to buy all three books in time for Christmas can be found at the foot of this article, but first of all let's get to know more about 'Evo'.

Was football always in your blood?

Yeah, from a very early age. I first got interested in football when I was about five or six. Tottenham were one of the big teams back then after winning the double, and Everton, who were winning the championship.

My Dad was always a Liverpool fan though and obviously most kids follow their father's lead and I was no different. My Dad had actually stopped going the match though. He'd stopped going just after we came up from the old second division.

One of his mates used to take some of the lads to watch Everton but some of the others I knew were going on their own to watch Liverpool and they captured my imagination with their stories of the old Boys Pen.

I'm sure you remember your first match at Anfield...

I remember the day of my first game well; it was 18 April 1964 – a league title winning game against Arsenal. Put simply, it was just fantastic.

I'd never seen or experienced anything like it. When you were a 10-year-old in the Sixties you didn't have much to keep you occupied. Not like these days where everything is available on demand.

It was fabulous being able to go the match. The smells – ale and hotdogs – and the colours. The telly's in those days were in black and white and the football coverage obviously wasn't like it is these days. Match of the Day didn't start until the following season so the colours in the ground really caught my eye.

Then, when you look down to the pitch, and you see these big fellas. Not just Ron Yeats but the likes of Ian St John as well. They looked like giants in the red kit.

Was your first experience of going to the match as magic as you hoped and dreamt it would be?

Yeah - and more. As I said, my mates had been saying how great it was but they used to go in the pen and bunk over into the Kop.

When I got in the pen I took one look at the fence and thought there was no way I was going to attempt to scale the six foot high fence!

What about being the pen? What sort of experience was that?

Well, to be honest, it was quite scary at times but it was a great experience. It was part of the Kop, in the corner, so there was always a good atmosphere in there even if it was a bit hard to see what was going on at the Anfield Road end.

You'd get some scallies in there and I saw a few fights, but it never put you off. It never stopped you from going.

I remember in 1966, there was a comic that came with some football stickers. There was a bit of a fad for putting the stickers on your coat but after spending five minutes in the pen, they'd have all been torn off.

It was a good education though, especially if you went in there for a few years as I did. I spent four years in the pen on and off. If I had the money I'd go in the Kop or the Annie Road, otherwise I'd go in the pen. It was scary at times in there, but it was good.

How big a part of your life was Liverpool back then?

It was everything and probably still is. There were no distractions in those days; you'd watch a bit of telly and then go to bed at about eight o'clock. There was nothing else to do basically.

Sometimes I'd go to the cinema every now and then but any spare money I had then would be spent on football. If I had any left after that then I'd get sweets, go the pictures or something but football was everything to me.

I remember I used to cry if we lost. If we were beaten at Anfield, I'd head out the exits with tears streaming down my face.

Chelsea beat us in an FA Cup tie in '66. We'd won the trophy the previous season but they knocked us out at the first hurdle. I couldn't believe it and, I admit, I cried my heart out.

Losing a match would affect your week. You had to go into school to face the Evertonians and they'd give you down the banks.

Who were your early heroes?

Sir Roger Hunt. I loved him from the first moment I set eyes on him. He was a giant, even bigger than Ron Yeats, and he scored in the first game I went to.

He also scored in the first game of the following season, against Arsenal once again, which was the first ever game on Match of the Day. He scored two that day and I remember walking away from the ground thinking to myself 'what an absolutely fantastic player'.

I had other heroes too like St John, Yeats and Gerry Byrne, because you wanted to be like him because he was dead hard, but my favourite ever, if perhaps not the best, player is Roger Hunt.

Who else have you come to idolise over the years?

Tommy Smith and Emlyn Hughes were two favourites of mine, even though it's fair to say they didn't see eye-to-eye. They had virtually identical appearance and goal records for Liverpool.

One of the top five players I have ever seen play for Liverpool is our current captain, Steven Gerrard. He gives everything for this club and he is one of my heroes.

What games stand out for you? Have you been to all the finals, all the big games over the years?

I've been to most of the finals over the years but my biggest regret is that I didn't make it to Rome for the European Cup Final in 1977. As a married man with a couple of kids I just simply didn't have the money.

I have never missed a final since then, apart from when I was in hospital for the 2001 League Cup Final.

The stand out game for me, and probably any other Liverpool fan of my age will agree, is Saint Etienne. In my mind, that is the night we won the European Cup.

The semi-final hadn't been drawn but we knew if we could get past Saint Etienne we would have a real chance. The only team to fear were Borussia Monchengladbach, who we went on to beat in the final.

But Saint Etienne were a top team in those days. They had been beaten in the previous season's European Cup Final by Bayern Munich at Hampden Park so for us to beat them, it sent out a real message and we really believed we could win the cup.

There are plenty of other games that deserve a mention though. November 1970 against Everton at Anfield and we found ourselves 2-0 down with an hour to go. We looked dead and buried but suddenly Steve Heighway burst into life on the wing.

He scored the first and then put the cross over for Toshack, who had only just signed, who got his first strike in Liverpool red. I recall Chris Lawler scoring the winner and running away like he'd done nothing!

The 2006 FA Cup Final – the Steven Gerrard final - is a particular favourite of mine as well because of the sheer drama of it all. Steven took the game by the scruff of the neck that afternoon and said 'we're gonna win this' and we did.

Istanbul was obviously fantastic but I have to confess that it is not my favourite European Cup Final. My favourite is possibly the dullest of our five wins, which was Paris in '81.

I'd been to the '78 final at Wembley but that was a bit like a home game. Going to France was the first time I had ever been abroad, and I don't just mean following Liverpool, so I've got a soft spot for that one.

Do you feel privileged to have grown attached to a football club that has given you so many great nights and so many heroes?

Yes, very privileged. I'm sure most people must feel the same about their own football club but there is something that sets Liverpool apart. Something special. I've made so many friends through following this club.

Sometimes people may get a bit annoyed with different things but they should remember that they are privileged to support the most successful club in the history of English football.

How do you feel about the way the club is progressing at the moment?

It's all coming together on the pitch and, in my opinion, that is down to a slight change in the way Rafa is working. I think he's picking a more settled side and the best players for each particular game. It's paying off.

You can see it in the performances of the likes of Alonso and Mascherano but mostly in the captain, Gerrard, who has been immense.

Over the years you've put many of your experiences of following Liverpool into three extremely well received books - did you always want to be an author?

I'd always tinkered with the idea but it was when I got my first computer in March 2000. I hooked up to the internet and found the Red All Over The Land message board.

I used to post things before matches and I started to get a good response, with people saying my pieces were well written and funny. I started to think I could maybe put these posts together as a book.

I began to write a purely football book and I started going to college on an English course while I was out of work.

I was given an essay at college so I wrote about my first ever match, which later formed one of the chapters. My tutor was really impressed with my work, but then I found work again and had to leave the course.

I continued to write on the RAOTL forum and one day Alan Edge, author of Faith of our Fathers, got in touch with me to ask if I had ever thought about writing a book. He told me he thought I had great potential.

He advised me to keep writing about my life around football so I started to put some stories up about growing up in Bootle, how hard it was to get the money together for the match, my mum and dad and just those sort of things. That is how the book came together. 'One Boy and his Kop' took about 18 months to write and I eventually got it out in time for Christmas 2001.

'My Youth, my Kop' was a follow on to the first book but it was more about growing up, getting married, having kids and working life.

The third book, 'Middle of the Kop', was about my refereeing career in Sunday league.

All my books obviously centre on football but there is also some social commentary and tales of the things we get up to.

Each book is a natural continuation to the one before it. They've sold well and I've had good feedback.

I believe your first book led to a chance encounter with a recognisable face...

From the sales of my first book I gave the Hillsborough Justice Campaign some money and I'd heard of Zoe's Place baby hospice, which really touched me, so I decided to make a donation to them as well.

I read on their website that Mohamed Al Fayed was a benefactor and not only did he make donations but he also made two yearly visits at Easter and Christmas. I thought it was a fantastic gesture from him so I wrote to him, via Fulham Football Club, to say I was interested in fund raising for Zoe's.

They replied informing me Mr Al Fayed walks around the pitch before every game and, occasionally, they'll have various fans come on to meet him and, therefore, did I want to come along when Liverpool played there in March.

I thought it was a wind-up at first but I went down there and they took me into a reception room and told me to meet Mr Al Fayed on the half-way line.

I shook hands with him and presented him with a copy of the book. I don't know if he's ever read it though, it's probably stuck in a drawer somewhere.

One of Mr Al Fayed's PA's asked me if I wanted to sit in the stand with him but I declined as I already had a ticket for the Liverpool section. I could have been wined and dined I suppose, but I'd done what I wanted to do.

Another thing a number of Liverpool fans were keen to do recently was erect a memorial for Bob Paisley in his home town - something you were very involved in...

Some of the members of my website and I had already been up to Glenbuck to see Bill Shankly's memorial. After that, we wanted to see if there was one for Bob Paisley and, if there wasn't, then we'd try to get one to honour him.

A couple of members went up to Sunderland to check it out and they told me there was just a small plaque above a supermarket, where his old school used to be. We decided that it wasn't a fitting enough tribute so we began to raise funds.

We had to get permission from the local council up there first though and we were concerned about their reaction but we need not have worried as they were really good to us.

They said 'for once someone wants to give us something instead of asking us for money'!

Within seven months we had raised enough money and we had the unveiling at the Sunderland game earlier this season, which was one of the proudest days of my life.

The best thing about it was that it was a real fans effort. You'd get kids putting 20p in our bucket collection but that was just as important to us as say a company donating £500. It makes you proud.

This could have been done by any club for anyone but it wasn't – it was Liverpool. Others don't seem to have what we have. We get behind things like that.

You mentioned your trip to Glenbuck - tell us about that..

It was very a memorable trip. There is nothing left of Glenbuck, in fact it's not even on the map. All we could see were coal heaps.

We spotted someone walking past our bus so we asked him for directions. He couldn't fathom why we had come all this way, to the middle of nowhere. In fact, he didn't even know where Glenbuck was.

As soon as we mentioned the Shankly memorial though, he knew exactly where it was and how to get there.

When we arrived, we stood around the memorial for about an hour taking the chance for some quiet contemplation before we headed back to the town and had a great night out.

Over the years you have seen many great players and enjoyed many great moments - but there must be one amusing stand-out story from your time following the club...

There are so many but I have one in particular. I knew a lad, John Johansson was his name. I later found out he was a second cousin of mine and he was well known on the Kop. They called him 'Jo Jo'.

Anyway, in the old standing Kop, if somebody got hurt they used to pass the person down to the front of the stand, over the heads of everyone.

Jo Jo was around 19/20 years-old and he was a big, strapping lad. He used to pretend he had fainted at the back of the Kop so he'd be passed down to the front and get close to the pitch.

I'd stand in the middle of the Kop and as he'd go past he give me a little wink. When he got to the bottom he would burst into laugher. Everyone knew he was a crack pot.

Individually priced at £13 each, all three of 'Evo's' books - One Boy And His Kop, My Youth My Kop and Middle Of The Kop - are now available for combined fee of £25 (if collecting at a match) or £30 (if postage is required).

Please order by emailing peterevo75@hotmail.com or by telephoning 07878627759. Please note Peter warns that these books are probably not suitable for fans under the age of 16.