A dream comes true for Ballykelly Everton fan Adam

The Ballykelly boy, an Everton season ticket holder, had been chosen at random to mascot for the team against Tottenham Hotspur on the first game of the season, back in August.

His dreams were seemingly shattered, however, when the London Riots forced the postponement of the crunch fixture, apparently scuppering any chance Adam had of meeting his footballing heroes.

In fact, his parents had already paid for flights and accommodation to take their football-mad son to London for the big match, at an outlay of over £700. The Vernon family decided to go ahead with the trip, despite Adam having apparently had his dreams shattered.

Everton Football Club decided to help out. When the fixture list was re-arranged, Adam and his parents were invited, all expenses paid, to come to Liverpool for the home game against ‘Spurs to allow an ecstatic Adam another chance to lead the team out as an official mascot.

His Dad John said the move has “more than made up” for his son’s disappointment at missing out.

Speaking to the Sentinel, he said: “It was absolutely brilliant. We were waiting so long for it to come and it has been absolutely fantastic for Adam. He was over the moon.

“He has got a signed top, a special edition one at that – to celebrate David Moyes’ 10th year as manager of Everton – signed by David Moyes himself.

“He has a top signed by all the players. We all went over – Everton picked up the tab. It was different this time around, it was at Everton’s ground, Goodison Park, so it was even better.

“He met David Moyes and everyone in the dressing room. He was actually allowed into the dressing room and he was allowed to come into David Moyes’ office. He met the two local lads Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy and he met Phil Neville, Leon Osman – the whole lot of them.

“We had pictures taken by the official Everton photographer, so we have some great photographs of him with Moyes and the players to come in. We had the right result too – we beat Spurs one-nil.

“I have to say, it was brilliant for him. He really loved it and I am delighted that Everton picked up the tab, after us having to pay for the trip to London for everyone to go over first time around.

“He is the same as me – Everton through and through and he had a really great day.”

Speaking about the trip to London he and his son had went on, despite the cancellation of the original fixture, he said: “Adam did say to me at three o’clock that he would have been leading the team out. To keep his mind off things we took him to the Royal Airforce Museum on the day but he’s heartbroken, he was really gutted.

“He’s a season ticket holder and got his love of Everton from me, I started supporting Everton when I moved to Chester from Essex as a young boy.”

He added: “This has more than made up for it, in fact it has probably been better this time around, with Everton picking up the tab and the match being at Everton’s ground.”