 FORTY-ONE per cent of Evertonians may think otherwise, but today's vote in favour of a move to Kirkby is a good result for Everton Football Club. Not because I'm a yes-man. I'm still torn between the obvious financial appeal of Kirkby and the long-term wisdom of moving further away from a reborn and culturally vibrant Liverpool city centre. But because the results of today's vote give the guardians of Everton Football Club a mandate to build for the future. Not an overwhelming vote. Far from it. But a majority nonetheless. And it’s crucial now that Evertonians do what their ground poll results have singularly failed to – and show a clear sense of unity. More than 15,000 fans supported a move to Kirkby. Almost 10-and-a-half thousand, however, said ‘no.’ But significantly there were almost 11,000 abstentions, men, women and children, like myself, who can’t decide what would be best for Everton Football Club. For the good of the club, the best thing everyone can do now is back the Blues’ board in their future rebuilding plans. A battle has been waged inside and outside Goodison Park, on the pages of this newspaper, on internet message boards and even in the skies above Walton. Surely now is the time for a united front. But while it would be heartening to think that every Evertonian will now pull together and support the majority vote, it would also be naive. There are still conspiracy theorists out there who believe that the board of Everton are either incompetent or part of some complex and cunning plot to run the club into the ground. These internet columnists and tap room experts are entitled to their opinions. But the facts suggest otherwise. I've been critical of Bill Kenwright in the past. We once went more than a year without exchanging a word - which took some doing as the then Everton correspondent of this newspaper - but on this hugely sensitive issue I can't see how he can be chastised. The simple fact is Kenwright didn't need to offer fans a vote. Such an offer is unprecedented in the football world and his decision to make the decision a democratic one should be hugely applauded. Sadly there are some supporters out there who refuse to give Kenwright any kudos at all. This is despite Everton standing fourth in the formative Premier League table, despite Everton finishing last season in sixth place and qualifying for Europe, despite breaking the club's transfer record three times in three seasons, despite tieing up the club's two most coveted stars on long-term contracts this summer, despite lowering the average age of the squad by seven years in five seasons and despite moving the club to a brand new state of the art training complex. And, of course, despite offering the opportunity to vote on the prospect of a brand new stadium without the debilitating shackles of an enormous accompanying debt. Leaving Goodison Park will be a heart-wrenching moment. But as I've said before, the Goodison Park of 2007 is a different stadium to the one where I saw David Smallman hook a ball over his shoulder past Alan Hodgkinson, where Bob Latchford crashed in his 30th league goal and where Howard Kendall's class of '85 tore apart Bayern Munich. | 
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