 ROME 1977. If you ask most Liverpool fans of my generation, this was the most famous day in our history. European Champions for the very first time. I was only 19 then, not long started working in my second job. I used every penny I'd managed to save to go to Rome. I went with a lad I'd met in my new job and one of his mates. Such was the draw of the game, a good friend of our family, a man who never, ever, wanted to get on an aeroplane, turned up at Speke airport on the day and was going to Rome. This was the big one. Fear took second place. I remember when we were on the coach from the airport coming into the city. The idea was that the coaches would drop us at a landmark and then pick us up later to take us to the game. Our coaches were centered on the Coliseum. As we approached, we could see that Liverpool fans had already draped this famous symbol of the Roman Empire with red and white banners made from bed sheets and were playing football outside with a burst ball. It was obvious we'd come to the right place. We wandered around Rome all day dressed in red and white, trying to take the day in. We met some Borussia fans and swapped scarves with them. Then it was off to the stadium. I remember it as a big, open stadium that was awash with noise and colour. It seemed every one of the 25,000 Liverpool fans had bought a red and white chequered flag. As for Borussia, there were so few of their fans I think we'd met them all during the day. The game was a blur. Neal's penalty wrapped the game up and thousands of us swarmed forward to celebrate with the team at the end. European Champions. When we arrived back at Speke in the early hours, we ran through customs and the people waiting there clapped and cheered us like we'd won it ourselves! | 
