Champions League to Non-League, I made the change, here’s why you should too!

The year is 1977. Liverpool had just reached their first European Cup final and were set to take on Borussia Monchengladbach in Rome’s Olympic Stadium. The morning before, an 11-year-old set off alone to hitchhike all the way from Merseyside to Italy. That’s how steeped in Liverpool’s history Phil Nicholson is.

He didn’t make it to Rome on that day to see his beloved Reds lift their first European cup. Making it as far as Dover on his own, Phil would’ve continued his trek into mainland Europe if it wasn’t for his driver playing informant and alerting the authorities of the audacity of his over-arching ambition.

Now a retired 56-year-old, Phil spends his days in Cambridgeshire, walking across a small park to reach his newly found love Ramsey Town Football club. The quarter of a mile walk it takes to reach Cricketfield lane probably a fraction easier than the 1,300-mile journey he had planned to reach Rome. Phil no longer goes to watch Liverpool, admitting it had been half a decade since he had last done so.

But why did a die-hard ‘Kopite’ trade the summit of European football for the hustle and bustle of non-league?

Phil’s first love in football was the Merseyside Reds, his father’s utterings about Bill Shankly first stoked his interest.

“I remember my dad and grandad talking about Bill Shankly around the kitchen table.

“He was hero to all the people who didn't even like football. And I'm like five or six-years-old and all the kids play football in the streets anyway. And I'm like ‘Shankly?’ And my dad's like, ‘yeah, it's the manager of Liverpool’. And then I started looking out for their results.”

That youthful curiosity grew into an infatuation for the football club. From nine-years-old, Phil rarely skipped a single game for 15 years, home and away.

“My Christmas presents used to be tickets,” he said, rotating his camera inside what appeared to be his mancave displaying a museum of memorabilia.

“I didn't want presents like toys and such. I just wanted to go, watch Liverpool with my dad.”

Phil remembers his first trip to Anfield down to the very tee. In March 1975, Liverpool drew 2-2 with Chelsea in a league game. At only nine years old, Phil was ready to test his metal alongside the most passionate of Liverpool fans. Phil pleaded with his father to take him into the Kop, Liverpool’s famed stand that once stood as Britain’s biggest single tier structure.

Unfortunately, under the supervision of his dad, Phil had to settle for a place in the Paddock just near the Kop. With a Kia-Ora orange juice firmly within his grasp along with a 10p match programme, Phil watched on in awe as his heroes Kenny Dalglish and Ian Callaghan took to the field on that day.

“I always liked Ian Callaghan. I think he still holds the record number of appearances for Liverpool. He from when he was 16 till when he was 30, he's got like 900 appearances. He got one yellow card in his whole career.”

When asked what stood out to him the most about Liverpool’s legendary midfielder, like many football fans would concur – it was his relatability.

“He was a local lad, and he could run all day, every day, non-stop. And he never got injured. He never played dirty, so [Bill] Shankly loved him, and he just ran and ran, he did all the carrying and the hard graft for the team.”

For myself, not having had the luxury of witnessing Callaghan, Phil was quick to compare his hero to current Liverpool utility man James Milner or Leeds United’s Kalvin Phillips who he also enjoys.

Phil’s turning point in his love affair with Liverpool is a tale of both tragedy and luck. In 1989, Liverpool took on Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough in Sheffield. The game is now famous for the tragedy that took place on that afternoon where 96 spectators tragically lost their lives. If not for a faulty fuel tank, Phil would have made the trip to Sheffield on that day.

“The van broke down. We didn't make it, but all our friends and family assumed that we did.

“And because he wasn't at his house and I wasn't in my flat, people were coming round and then we never showed up. Everybody thought we were dead.”

For Phil, the grief in the community caused by the tragedy was unbearable. Choking up as he recalled the post-Hillsborough period, Phil explained how he lost friends of friends. Phil used all the savings he had at the time to fund a trip to Australia just for some relief from it all.

During his time down under, Phil spent his days watching local Australian sides and fell back in love with the beautiful game. After two years, Phil returned for the dawn of the Premier League in 1992.

“Everything just started changing then. The prices started going up, it only used to be 25 pence for me to get into Anfield all through the seventies. And then I come back from Australia in ‘92/’93 and it's like 25 quid!” He exclaimed.

That was the tipping point. He remembered thinking “I’m done with that side of football. It's just not right. The ordinary people don't get to go anymore. It's all these divvies that don't even know what they’re watching.”

Soon after, Phil was married and relocated to Cambridgeshire, where he lived with his wife and two children for a while. It’s in Cambridgeshire where he found Ramsey Town.

“It's only small place. But It's got a really thriving little undercurrent of football nutters.”

What really fills Phil with pride is the £15 that it takes to watch Ramsey for a full season. The fact that the fee is optional is even better, but Phil continues to pay to do his bit for the community.

Ramsey has a family feel something not too dissimilar to Liverpool in the 70s according to Phil.

“It’s wonderful, proper football – In the 70s players used to come out of Anfield and have a kickabout in the carpark with you, sign programmes and ruffle your hair. Shankly would even give some of us a ride home. Nowadays, players don’t want to know us.”

Phil suggested that even if he was offered a free ticket to Anfield, he would refuse it. For him non-league football has brought him back to simpler times when he was a child. He also feels he’s not alone in making the change, others will too.