{"id":14647,"date":"2026-10-25T12:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14647"},"modified":"2026-10-25T12:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:45:25","slug":"a-day-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14647","title":{"rendered":"A Day To Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded early in the morning that yesterday was the send off for Mr Friar, the most loyal of servants of our great football club. So it was with slightly heavy heart that I set out early for the ground to meet up with a few friends in the Supporters Club. After watching Villa deservedly beat Asterisk FC, and having chatted to Dan from Melbourne, who was making his first visit to the Emirates, we wandered towards the ground early in order to be in position for the paying of respects to Mr Friar.  Walking over the Ken Friar Bridge, It was lovely to see that it had been bedecked with pictures of the great man, in place of the usual former players, a lovely touch. The statue of the young Mr Friar at the end of the bridge had also been covered with floral tributes, scarves and the like. What a beautiful sight.  Pre-match the announcer addressed the crowd and there followed a minute\u2019s appreciation of a life well lived, a life of service to our great club.  It was very moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started very fast indeed and it was clear that, after two tough away trips inside a week, Arteta had instructed this, in order to try to break the deadlock early. \u00a0 And lo, it came to pass, that in the 7th minute, a well delivered corner from \u00d8degaard, flicked on by Gabriel could only be parried by the increasingly erratic Pickford to the feet of Konsa who did the honours at the far post. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There followed a short period where Everton came back into the game, and had a couple of efforts requiring a save from Raya and then an intervention from the irrepressible Ben White.\u00a0 We quickly regained control though, and Madueke in particular turned it on. One smart turn and shot, after a knock down from Gy\u00f6keres – who I thought played well and didn’t stop running all day – whistled past the post with the keeper rooted to the spot. \u00d8degaard too had returned to form. Having shone in Munich he continued in the same vein all game. One run in particular lead him to bamboozle 5 Everton defenders but resulted in his shot being deflected wide. Before half time, a piece of poor defending by White \u2013 possibly weather induced as the wind was blowing a gale – led to Barry making a goal attempt. But Raya was out so quickly that the effort was smothered at birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three substitutions seeing Gy\u00f6keres, Merino and MLS going off to be replaced by Havertz, Guimar\u00e3es and Calafiori we made the game safe.\u00a0 Bruno passed on to White, making a bombing run on the outside and he dinked in a cross to the far post for Gabriel to head home from point blank range.\u00a0 It was no more than we deserved, and the game was over. Although we still got the opportunity to see Downman come on. He will terrify defences. In one move on the right he nutmegged two of the Orc-like defenders Moyes is so keen to employ, resulting in a free kick to Everton, presumably for being embarrassed in a public area by a minor.\u00a0 The referee was pretty appalling all day but by this time, even his bizarre decisions were just creating mirth on the North Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performance was very much in keeping with what Mr Friar would have wanted to see – fast, flowing football, an opposition reduced to offering very little and two good goals. Farewell Mr Friar. You will be missed and remembered in equal measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reminded early in the morning that yesterday was the send off for Mr Friar, the most loyal of servants of our great football club. So it was with slightly heavy heart that I set out early for the ground to meet up with a few friends in the Supporters Club. After watching Villa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14647"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14653,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14647\/revisions\/14653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}