My tribute to Joe

I didn’t know Joe as a kid, I didn’t grow up with him in Vauxhall. I didn’t go to school with him at St Edwards, although being a Merchants lad our paths may well have unwittingly crossed at some point in our teenage years. I didn’t know Joe when he met Jen, or when he and Jen had Poppy. I didn’t know Joe when he got married or when he and Jen then had Archie. Although it was probably at this point that our lives started to converge. I’ve only had the privilege of knowing Joe for 5 years but in that time, he has probably become one of my closest friends.

It didn’t take long for our friendship as it did with so many others like Baz, Lee or Matt, too many to mention, to grow from one of school playground and football dads to genuine friends, instantly clicking with so much in common, not least of that being our football crazy kids. Messaging, speaking or seeing each other almost every day to arrange getting kids to football or watching football whether it be the kids, Marine or Liverpool. We will always count Joe as one of our very best friends.

Joe loved his sport, any elite sport, Rugby, Cricket, Football, you name it. His TV was permanently fixed to Sky Sports when he was in charge of the remote, but football was his first love. Joe was a keen Liverpool fan and before his family life became his priority he had a season ticket at Anfield and would regularly attend matches with his cousin Colin and friends. Joe absolutely loved watching football but especially the kids and did so with the same intensity that he would as if he was at Anfield or Marine. It meant so much to him to see Archie and Poppy enjoying themselves playing a game he loved. He was absolutely selfless when it came to his family and friends as anyone who has ever been involved with Joe will attest to. If I go back through my phone, my messages from Joe, I’m sure like so many of us, are mostly offering to help or support in some way to ensure that none of our kids would miss out on anything that they did. Joe would always get my Harry as he would Kaiden or Flynn or Will or Nikel or anyone who needed it to where they needed to be if any of us were stuck. Joe knew that this would be reciprocated but often he only ever needed help if Archie’s game clashed with Poppy’s where he was coaching such was his desire to ensure his and other kids had the best opportunities.
Like many of us fellow football parents we will miss him on our evenings at Brook Vale and Marine or The Civ on occasion, putting the world to rights whilst the lads trained. His presence made standing pitch side in the cold and wet in the middle of winter an enjoyable and enriching experience as we tackled the worlds woes and inequalities.

Another big part of Joe’s life over the past couple of seasons has been watching Marine play. Joe will leave a big hole in the lives of a lot of regulars on College Road. Always with the kids we would go to most home games and the occasional away game when the kids Saturday kick off times allowed. This became a great social event in many of our lives as going to the game would merge into several hours in Marines bar afterwards. Which in turn would see us end up in The Bug or back in Baz’s kitchen. Assuming the kids were happy kicking a tennis ball around in the car park none of us really ever knew what our kids were doing for several hours on a Saturday night and in reality, we were possibly a little irresponsible. But I think if Joe were here now he’d tell you as I will (and Baz, Lee, Ben, Mark, Matt and many others), that its character building for the lads and that they were making memories for life with their friends as we were as adults. We will all miss Joe on a Saturday afternoon and night, especially his happy grinning face once he’d had one too many whether it was chewing the fat over how Marine had played, how abject Liverpool were currently playing or back in Baz and Nina’s kitchen where you would find him requesting Baz put on Talking Heads or something more nostalgic and get him a beer rather than try and force vodka or rum down his throat whilst listening to a Baz mega mix. Joe was a man who knew what he wanted and kept life simple. Even when it came to drinking, Joe was always, well certainly in recent years quite sensible. He would do his best to stay out but ultimately, he always knew when he needed to call it a night and he was a great influence on me to be fair. If it hadn’t been for Joe, I would have returned home far too late on many a Saturday night and it won’t be the same walking back down Myers Road without him.

I don’t have too many crazy stories about Joe, but that was half of his appeal as a mate, he was always there when you needed it and he’d never let you down. There was the odd moment where his relatively sensible approach to life abandoned him, like throwing up in his tent when we were all camping one year, which didn’t go down too well with Jen and the kids. But Baz and I thought it was absolutely hilarious!

It didn’t matter if you were his mate, Jen’s mate or a mate of Archie or Poppy’s Joe always had time for everyone. I know that my Harry will miss him as will Flynn and Kaiden to name a few. I will miss the respect that Joe had for all the boys including Harry. He would often tell me he had to back down in footballing conversations, bowing to Harry’s unnatural footballing statistical knowledge with much amusement as Harry would often sit with Joe watching the match rather than playing with the lads. Harry and I had the pleasure of giving Joe and Archie a lift to Anfield for the recent Real Madrid match and Joe has like many of us enjoyed many a happy memory supporting Liverpool over the years but was increasingly vocal in his opinion of how poor the current side was. Joe couldn’t be convinced that this Liverpool team would turn a corner and was often sending long winded messages berating the current team in our WhatsApp group or no doubt preaching to Archie and Harry or anyone else who was lucky (or unlucky) to be in his car for the long car rides up to Southport for the boys Sunday fixtures, and no one could ever really argue with his point of view to be fair. But it did become a bit of a joke amongst us that Joe would get more frustrated than the rest of us and even the kids knew it. So, as we walked up Anfield Road before the game through the red smokey remnants of the flares that had just welcomed the team bus to the ground you couldn’t help not let the atmosphere wash over you, and as is often the case helplessness was replaced by hope, at least for Harry, Archie and possibly myself, but no chance for Joe, ever the pragmatist. We battled through the crowds to get our pre match drink at Epstein’s with the lads getting ever more excited, genuinely believing that Liverpool stood a chance in their naivety. We then went our separate ways as Joe and Archie were sat in the Kop and Harry and I were in the main stand, agreeing to meet at the final whistle to walk back to the car. The game itself started brilliantly as Liverpool raced into a 2-nil lead inside a quarter of an hour. And I can remember Harry turning to me happily proclaiming that he never expected this. But as we all know Liverpool couldn’t keep it up and Real ended up turning it round and being 5-2 up by the 67th minute. Harry turned to me after the 5th goal and asked me if we could go. I of course said no as it's important to take the rough with the smooth or something to that effect. Anyway, Harry asked again a few minutes later and again a further few minutes later, before eventually rather stroppily saying to me ‘I bet Joe’s gone’ before proceeding to rather impossibly scan the Kop to try and see if he could spot Joe or Archie. I laughed at Harry’s suggestion as it showed how well Harry knew Joe. Anyway, the game finished and we left to meet Joe and Archie who had also stayed to the end. The reason I tell this story is not because of a last trip to Anfield with Joe or every time I now see the red smoke it will bring back memories of him, but for his response when I relayed Harry's comments back to him. When I told Joe that Harry reckoned, he would have got off, Joe turned to Harry bursting out laughing at the fact that Harry knew him so well, and we all got to hear Joe’s infectious, wide smiling, goofy laugh as he commended Harry on his astute observations telling him that he should have. Joe was all our friends but his relationships with all of Archie's friends was special too, and the boys won’t forget him.

So, here’s to Joe an absolute legend of a man on every front. A man who lived his life in the mould of one of his Liverpool heroes, Bill Shankly, with an ethos of hard work and dedication coupled with good socialist values. A loving husband to Jen and a loving and immensely proud dad to Archie and Poppy. It's probably an overused phrase but he genuinely was the most decent bloke I’ve ever had the pleasure to call my friend. All of our lives are infinitely better off for having had Joe in them and we will all have memories that we can cherish. We will miss him on the touch line, the terraces and at the bar. The greatest show of respect for Joe that any of us can do is to just be good people and at every opportunity help people out selflessly as he did. There is a statue outside the Kop at Anfield of Bill Shankly. Inscribed underneath it is a very fitting line that sums up Joe for me. It simply says.

He made the people happy. 

Rest in peace mate