Sid Ogwin - He's seen things we'll never see!

Conor Morland (L) Colin Wilcox (R) with Sid in the middle.

Sid Sid Ogwin – He’s seen things we’ll never see!

Close your eyes and try and walk from your front door to your back door without demolishing half of your house…

Now try and imagine getting from your house in Lucerne Street, Aigburth to the 27 bus stop on Lodge Lane (0.8 mile according to Google maps) to catch the bus to Anfield every other week on your own with the absolute minimum of eyesight, and later completely blind! Well, this is exactly what Sid Ogwin did for many years during the late 50’s and early 60’s following his beloved Liverpool Football Club. He would then listen to the clicking of the Kop turnstiles to fight his way in, and rely on the goodwill and feedback of his fellow Kopites to see how the game was going. At the end of the game, he would go through it all again to get back to the Masonic on Lark Lane to have a couple of bottles of guinness, before going home. Sid did this for every single game at Anfield. Missing a game was simply out of the question, it was his life! Sid was born with

sight but due to a genetic condition he sadly started losing his sight around the age of ten, and had lost his sight completely by the age of 20. By this time he was already a fanatical Liverpool fan with his hero in the early years being Billy Liddell. Liverpool at this time were an average second division team and the poor relation of their neighbours across the park, Everton. Around 1965 Sid met Billy Stove. Billy would go on to be Sid’s life-long friend, hero, match going companion and commentator. Sid got his first Kop season ticket around 1966. He believes this was the first year you could get a season ticket on the Kop. Billy would accompany Sid to the match and commentate the game to him. Sometimes Sid would travel to the match on the back of Billy’s motorbike. They travelled home and away following their beloved reds. Sid was devastated to miss out on a ticket for Liverpool’s first FA Cup Final in 1965, but remembers doing the conga down London Road celebrating the victory that night. Sid said him and his mates sat on the wall of Ian Callaghan’s house into the early hours of the morning waiting to welcome him

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home, unfortunately he was no doubt still in London celebrating. Sid would not miss another cup final at home or abroad until the 2007 Champions League Final in Athens. God help Rick Parry if Sid ever bumped into him! Just before the 1977 FA Cup Final, Billy had an operation on his leg which resulted in him being on crutches for both the Wembley Final and the European Cup Final in Rome a couple of days later. This meant Sid had to hang onto one of Billy’s crutches as he guided him around London and Rome - very slowly! Sid jokes that it was like something out the bible ha ha! I personally got to know Sid in the late 90’s working together in the Delco in Kirkby. For many years, before a lift was finally sorted, he would get a train and bus from Aigburth to Kirkby on a daily basis on his own – that’s another story in its self! His tales of following the reds at home and abroad amazed and enthralled me, and we’ve been good mates ever since. Sid has become part of our family now and his arguments with my old fella about who’s been following the reds the longest are legendary. It was my job after every victory to read every column inch of the morning papers to him. If we didn’t have time in work, I was under orders to do it that night on the phone. God help any journalist or ex-player that slagged us off! I always remember a camping trip we went on not long after the Istanbul final in 2005 when he made me read the same story about the final, from the Daily Mirror, about 20 bloody times! Each time he’d give a little jig in the middle of this Welsh field when I got to the end. God know what the other campers thought!

Sid’s home is a shrine to Liverpool with his walls covered in photos of his heroes and past glories. Sid also has various fans awards presented to him down the years by the likes of Ian Callaghan and Ian Ayres. I’ll never forget the occasion when he picked up the Liverpool Echo fan award at the Moat House Hotel. The winner of the main award for that particular year was David Moyes who along with Philip Carter come up to congratulate Sid. Sid shook his hand and said, ‘David, if you’re still looking for a goalie mate, I’m ya man!’ Philip Carter nearly choked on his cocktail. They were both in tears laughing! They were actually two really nice fellas but Sid still refused to get his photo with them ha ha. One of his most memorable days was when Rafa Benitez popped in for ten minutes and stayed for over four hours. It was brilliant listening to him and Sid exchange stories of their beloved Liverpool. Some of Rafa’s stories had Sid rolling on the floor and others fuming. Rafa was already a big hero of Sid before the visit, he’s even more so now. What a great fella! Sid’s biggest hero though is Kenny Dalglish. God help anyone who says he wasn’t our greatest player ever! Sid’s devotion to him is as a player, manager and a man is on another level to anything else. Mind you, Jurgen Klopp is running him close at the moment, but Kenny will always be his King! There are so many funny stories from Sid’s trips following the reds. I’ll never forget legendary red Bobby Wilcox serenading Sid with the Johnny Barnes song on the way back from a friendly in Villarreal whilst everyone else was asleep. Another three that

Kevin Morland (L) Danny Dalton (r) with Sid after winning the Macron Cup in 2017.

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really stand out are the times we drunkenly left him on a bus in Nice, his shorts going on fire in Mainz Cathedral and Sid getting lost going for a piss in a German hotel! The bus incident happened on the way to the 2005 Super Cup Final in Monaco when we got off the public bus in Nice to find our hotel. We were all a bit worse for wear as we’d been drinking from early morning. We’d only walked about 20 yards from the bus stop when I heard those fateful words which sent shivers down my spine and immediately sobered me up, ‘Where’s Sid!?’ I turned around hoping it was a wind up, but Sid was nowhere to be seen! I thought Ste had him, Ste thought Phil had him, Phil thought my old fella had him, my old fella thought I had him, but no, we’d left him on the bloody bus! I turned around to see the bus disappearing into the distance and in sheer panic I set off like Forest Gump! God knows what the locals thought as I ran in and out of traffic shouting ‘Stop that fucking bus!!’ After what seemed an eternity I finally caught up with the bus at a red light. I was totally knackered as I banged on the door of the bus. The driver looked terrified to open the door, but he eventually did. I tried to control my breathing as I made my way towards the very concerned looking Sid at the back of the bus. I was going to try and blag him that we were all still on the bus and it was time to get off. I put my hand on his shoulder and said ‘It’s time to get off mate’ to which he shouted ‘Ya bastards, you left me on the fuckin bus!’ There’s no kidding Sid. I got

him off the bus and I’m still getting slagged off for it ‘til this day! The ‘shorts’ incident happened during a pre-season trip to Mainz in Germany, when Klopp was their manager. Every pre-season trip it became a bit of a ritual for Sid to go to a local church so he could light a candle. When most people light a candle they pray for their families health and happiness, but not Sid, he prays that we win the league and cup in May. I know this because he’s told me. Mind you, I suppose that does mean my family’s health and happiness! We’d been drinking all day before a gang of us set off for Mainz Cathedral so Sid could light his candle. It was a really hot day and we were all in shorts. Whilst the others marveled at the amazing building, me and Sid made our way towards the candles by the altar. The candles were in a stepped formation like most churches. All the candles at the front were already lit so I took a candle from the back and handed it to Sid. I guided his hand to light our candle and then guided his hand to put our candle on the back step of the holder. It wasn’t easy as Sid was fidgeting and there was a bit of smoke in my view. Next minute Sid drops the candle and starts shouting ‘I’m on fuckin fire!!’ to which I looked down in horror and see his shorts ablaze! I’d been concentrating that much on not burning his hand, that I hadn’t realised his shorts had caught fire on the bottom row of candles. His cheap shorts had gone up like the Liverpool Echo! Now I knew why he was fidgeting and where the

Sid with Conor outside the home of Bayern Munich

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smoke was coming from! I start slapping at his shorts to put the flames out. After a couple of slaps the flames were out but the whole front of his shorts had gone, except for the netting and his meat and two veg were on show to the world! I quickly dragged him to the corner and checked he was ok, which he was. I then realised that the whole church were looking at this commotion in the corner. The lads come over wondering what the fuck had gone on. The laughter when they realised what had happened and they saw Sid’s shorts will stay with me forever. We quickly surrounded Sid and got him outside. We desperately needed a pair of shorts for him and made for the nearest clothes shop we could see. Unfortunately the only shorts they had were the wackiest multi-coloured shorts you’ve ever seen. The type you see on Germans all over Majorca. We had no choice but to get them though. It seemed funny at the time but I then realised it was me who had to guide him about in them. The looks and stick we got of fellow reds! We didn’t tell Sid about them being multi-coloured until the plane home. I’ll never forget him saying he was gutted cos the pockets were great ha ha. The last story which stands out is the time a drunk Sid went for a piss in the middle of the night in our Dortmund hotel and got lost! I was woken in the middle of the night by Sid shouting my name. He sounded miles away though and it was only a normal size twin room. I went sick when I realised he wasn’t in the room and the front door was open. I jumped up and ran outside and there was Sid at the far end of the corridor completely bollocko feeling along the wall! I ran down the corridor calling him every soft bastard under the sun to which he replied “Thank God for that, how big is this fuckin’ room!”. It was one of the funniest things I’d ever heard. God knows how many people had opened their doors before I got there. You could certainly hear the whispering when we went for breakfast next morning!

Sid continued to go to all the home games with Billy until 2014 when Billy had to go into hospital for a routine heart operation. Billy hadn’t been feeling well for a while but he was determined to keep going to Anfield for the sake of Sid. Out of loyalty to Billy, Sid refused to let anyone else take him the game and missed his first games at Anfield since the late 50’s. No amount of persuasion could get him to Anfield. Tragically Billy never recovered from his operation and sadly died. Sid was totally devastated about his hero and best mate. We all thought he’d never go another game again. It took a long time but eventually with the persuasion of his family and Billy’s wife, Sid started going back to Anfield with Charlie, his sisters grandson. It’s certainly what Billy would have wanted. Charlie has a lot to live up to because you could have a conversation with Sid after any match and he never missed a thing! Billy was obviously brilliant at what he did. Recently Sid has had a personalised granite stone laid outside the new main stand at Anfield. It is inscribed with the words ‘Sid Ogwin – He’s seen things we’ll never see’. These very apt words were chosen by my son Conor, who is also Sid’s God son. Sid is just made up that he will have a presence at Anfield forever. Sid has followed the Purps from virtually day one and tries to get to as many games as possible as long as its not clashing with his ‘other’ team. He loves the banter and wit from the crowd and is made up that everyone lets onto him and are so friendly even though he hasn’t a clue who they are! His highlight was being on the pitch in Fleetwood holding the Macron Cup above his head in the first season. Danny Dalton will always be his favourite player after that. A few tears were shed that night I can tell ya! Who knows he might have a plaque outside the City of Liverpool FC stadium one day as well! …now where the fuck is that back door!!!

R.I.P. Billy Stove

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