By Catherine Cranston
It’s close to midnight on a Sunday in April 2025, and while Sydney sleeps hundreds of Liverpool supporters are wide awake at Cheers Bar on George Street in the heart of the city.
Two levels of the bar are almost at capacity; the atmosphere is electric, fans are dressed head to toe in LFC gear, from shirts and scarves to caps and kicks; all are hoping to celebrate their 20th League title with other Reds from the Official Liverpool Supporters Club (OLSC) of NSW.
Just three more points, or one win from their final five games, will seal it. Only struggling Tottenham Hotspur, coached by Aussie Ange, stands in their way.
Musician Harry Lambert is tucked away near the entrance to Cheers; he picks up his guitar, surrounded by red, and the anthems begin. All are in high spirits; the drinks are flowing, and team songs are being sung loudly.
“Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Running down the wing.
“Mo Salah la-la-la la-ahh, The Egyptian King!”
Nicola O’Meara is giddy with anticipation, she has blonde hair, red lipstick and a wicked laugh. There is no mistaking her joy when discussing her beloved Liverpool Football Club. There is a twinkle in her eye, knowing how close LFC is to winning the league. She is wearing Liverpool’s 2018-19 home shirt, her trusty mascot Kevin the Koala on the table in front of her, surrounded by rapidly emptying pint glasses.
Nicola never thought she would get a tattoo, but when Liverpool won the Champions League in 2019 she got the first one on her arm. The letters YNWA from You’ll Never Walk Alone, the 1963 Gerry and The Pacemakers hit song which plays out over the speakers before each Anfield kick-off.
Growing up in the UK in the 1970’s football was a huge part of life. Games weren’t as accessible as they are now, but once a week on television there was Match of the Day. Nicola had just started school and her father, a passionate Manchester United supporter, said to Nicola: “You can’t support all the teams, you have to pick one.” It wasn’t a teenage rebellion as she puts it, she was only six, but it was a rebellion. Nicola chose Liverpool as her team, the team her father hated, and has loved them ever since.
She remembers her second tattoo vividly. In June 2020 the COVID-19 lockdowns were in full force across the UK and in Liverpool, the Champions of 2019-20 lifted the Premier League trophy to an empty stadium, while outside Anfield some fans defied lockdown restrictions to celebrate their first title win since 1990.
In Sydney, tattoo parlours had just reopened after the first lockdown.
The tattooist knew she was coming the second LFC lifted the trophy, Nicola paced up and down the street waiting for them to open, arriving at the door at 12.10 pm she said: “Mate, get that bloody Liverbird on my arm now.”
After 20 minutes the tattoo is complete. Despite the pain of getting the bird inked under her arm “there’s nothing like the pain of going 30 years without winning the league”.
It’s halftime and outside Cheers Bar there’s a slight drizzle. Inside the fans are wildly celebrating. Despite the early goal from Spurs, the Reds have all the momentum after three follow-up goals and there is little doubt Liverpool will be celebrating a title win today.
Liverpool native Louise Lacy thinks back to the Reds’ last league title win in 2020: “It was lockdown so there was no celebration, really this time it feels like we will make up for the celebration we didn’t have.”
Inside Anfield a friend is watching with his two sons. We exchange texts after every goal. The final whistle blows, and Liverpool have beaten Spurs 5-1 to seal the 2025 Premier League title, their 20th, with four games left in the season.
In Sydney phones are lifted to record the moment, there are hugs, tears and everyone is jumping up and down with joy. The floor is wet, slippery from spilt beer, and the whole club seems to be shaking.
In Liverpool, actual tremors are felt coming from inside Anfield.
Fans spill outside on to George St to celebrate. Some take off their Liverpool shirts and swing them in the air, others use scarves; they dance and cheer in circles. It’s almost 5am and the trams will be running again soon.
A few days later Nicola is back for her third tattoo. When finished there is glistening black ink and the number 97 on the back of her neck. On either side are the eternal flames of memorial permanently etched. Mirroring the back of every Liverpool shirt, the tattoo represents the 97 lives lost during the Hillsborough disaster; a stadium crush in Sheffield that killed 94 Liverpool fans on April 15, 1989, and took three more from their injuries in subsequent years.
The sun is shining in Liverpool at the final home game of the season. Anfield is dressed head to toe in red and every vantage point is taken, from rooftops to traffic lights, people are waiting for the team bus to arrive. The red smoke from flares is so thick that at times you can barely see in front of you.
Louise and two of her daughters make their way to the local park near Anfield, with fresh pies from Homebaked. Although they couldn’t get tickets for the match, they will be close by for this historic game.
Nicola is there, inside Anfield together with others from Sydney who have made the near 24-hour journey to see their team crowned champions. So is Kevin the Koala.
The red flares, the songs, the tears. It’s ours again and we’re back on our perch.
The next day two red open-top buses, surrounded by police and security stewards, slowly snake their way on to The Strand alongside the River Mersey for the final stretch of the parade. More than 500,000 have lined the route to cheer on their heroes.
As revellers make their way home from the parade via nearby Water Street a van driving on the closed road moves through the crowd injuring over 79 people. A tragic ending to a joyful weekend. Thankfully no one is killed.
Less than two months later more tragedy would fall on Liverpool. One of their champions, Diogo Jota, and his brother André Silva are killed instantly when Jota’s lime green Lamborghini Huracan veers off the road in north-western Spain.
When the news first filtered in through the LFCNSW group chat it was hard to believe. Liverpool knows tragedy, but this is almost too much to bear. The ground outside Anfield is quickly turned into a living memorial to the two brothers. Floral tributes are laid alongside shirts, scarves, notes and cards.
On a wet Sunday night in August the fans are back at Cheers for the FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium against Crystal Palace. Players walk out wearing the new Adidas away kit. A shirt the colour of cream with red badges and stripes. Within the design of the shirt is a tribute to their much loved teammate Diogo – FOREVER 20.
Featured image: Liverpool fans hug at Cheers bar as celebrations rage after their record-breaking 20th EPL title. Photo: Catherine Cranston
