Feature"Jimmy, it's me, Colin!" - how two long-lost friends were reunited at Anfield

A fan turns to the stranger in the next seat and makes small talk during half-time. “What did you think of the first half?”

“How long have you been coming here?”

“What’s your name?”

But there was quite a surprise in store for lifelong Liverpool supporter Jimmy McCarthy on Thursday night, as he was able to, by complete coincidence, reconnect with a long-lost childhood friend at the Reds’ Europa League clash with LASK.

“I normally get to my seat an hour before the game,” the 67-year-old tells Liverpoolfc.com. “I’m in row 20 of the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand, right near the halfway line, and I like to be in nice and early.

“On Thursday, I got there and there was a little guy with glasses and a hat on, who was about my age.

“Anyway during the first half we made a few little comments to each other, as you do. He seemed like a nice lad. Then half-time comes and we start talking about social media.

“I told him I was on X and showed him my account and he says, ‘I follow you, did you used to go to Cardinal Allen, before it was Cardinal Heenan?’ I said yeah, and he goes, ‘Jimmy, it’s me, Colin!’

“He was my best mate in school! When we went to senior school, Year 7, we sat in alphabetical order. He’s Colin McCabe and I’m James McCarthy, so we sat next to each other for five years, in every lesson!”

Jimmy and Colin had been inseparable as teenagers, bonding over their love of Liverpool.

“We were like brothers,” Jimmy says. “He was from Cantril Farm and I was from Aigburth, but we were always in each other’s houses. He even went out with my sister a couple of times. We were both big Reds, both loved football and going the match, you know?”

Jimmy continues: “But then when we reached 16, I was staying on to do my A-Levels, and Colin just disappeared! Then a few months later, I got a letter from him.

“He’d moved to London, and what had happened was, he’d put my postcode on the letter but didn’t put the city, so it took three months for the letter to come! When it arrived, it was stamped with Loughborough, Leicester and Leeds before someone had sent it to Liverpool.

“He told me in the letter all about moving to London and what he was up to, but he never put his address on it! So I lost touch with him. That was 1972. I was gutted.”

Jimmy had tried to contact Colin a few years back, having seen his friend’s name appear in the Red All Over The Land fanzine, but to no avail.

But thanks to their chance encounter at Anfield, they are now planning a pre-Christmas catch-up.

“It’s just amazing to think how much has had to happen for us to bump into each other like that,” Jimmy says.

“He usually sits somewhere else, but he’s been moved this season for the Europa League games. And this was my first European game of the season. The first one, I was in Italy, and the second I was having a hip replacement, so my mates went instead.

“He lives in West Derby now, so we’ve arranged to meet up for a pint in the next few weeks. We’ve been laughing because it’s gone so big since I put the story on social media. Radio City and Radio Merseyside have been on, the ECHO… we joked that we’re just waiting for the call now off Jürgen!

“My son, Dom, and my wife, Jackie, can’t believe it’s happened. I’m a big believer in fate, that things happen for a reason, and meeting up with my old mate after 51 years is definitely something that confirms that, isn’t it?”