I remember when Everton played Liverpool on a Wednesday night at Maine Road, early 80’s. Traffic on the Princess Road always used to back up in Hulme, where I come from, especially when there was a game at Maine Road.
At around the spot level with where Asda is now, a coach got stuck and a few of the local blacks lads, who were getting racially abused, decided to let the mixed fans coach know that they weren’t going to accept it and promptly put a window in. The racists on the coach hadn’t realised the coach was going nowhere and were sitting ducks. As a commotion had been going on for a few minutes around 50 local youths appeared and smashed every window in the coach.
The silly scousers steamed off the coach and chased the locals into the estate that is still there, town-side of the brewery. Unfortunately for our visitors, a number got lost in the estate and took a real pasting before being rounded up by the police and put back on the coach.
A few years later, I took a friend’s Scouse husband to Maine Road, we won 4-0. A proper nice lad who was a fireman and Everton fan, poor thing is dead now. He told me about the last time he’d been at Maine Road. It was a Cup game against Liverpool when his coach got smashed up and he’d taken a bit of a beating about a mile away from the ground. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was there that night too!