But this game took me on a detour away from my usual pre-match routine as I decided to take my four-year-old son to this one.
So it was out with the Carling and in with the Chicken Nuggets as I prepared to watch an Everton game, for the first time in I've no idea how long, without a drop of alcohol passing my lips.
An it had to be against bloody Stoke didn't it?! A team of 6 foot stiflers that could suck the life out of any game!
Everton's cause wasn't helped by the fact that Steven Pienaar is still missing as, despite controlling large parts of the game, that cutting edge that the South African supplies was still missing.
That said, the Blues did create a number of decent chances, most of which fell to Tim Cahill who was having a rare off day in front of goal.
His first chance came when Diniyar Bilyaledtinov curled a cross over the Stoke defence but Cahill could only direct his close range header right at Thomas Sorensen.
But, with most of the play taking place outside the Stoke penalty area - they really are a dog of a side to get past - Everton were restricted to long range efforts.
The unflappable Jack Rodwell ran the heart of the midfield and saw a few efforts go wide and stand-in captain, Leon Osman, forced a good save from Thomas Sorensen.
But it was all square going into half time and Everton didn't look like they'd have too much to worry about in the second half.
At this point half time pints were replaced with bottles of coke, fruit pastels and an arse kicking for Bowser in Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo DS - oh, I'd meticulously planned for this one!
Having negated Rory Delap's long throw's for the first half, Everton couldn't do the same from a routine corner kick and Stoke found themselves one up just after the break.
Delap delivered the ball in with his foot rather than his hands and Robert Huth outjumped Cahill to put the visitors into a not-really-deserved lead!
And, having not really shown any real inspiration in the first half, the feeling was that Stoke might be able to stifle the game sufficiently to take all three points.
Thankfully, the excellent Johnn Heitinga and Leon Osman put paid to those thoughts just four minutes later.
Osman had just hit an effort miles wide when he played a neat one-two with Heitinga and found himself in a similar shooting position.
Undeterred by his previous effort he clipped a delightful curling effort in off the underside of the Stoke crossbar.
Everton then went for the win, bringing Jo and Yakubu on for Bilyaledtinov and Osman but, without any really creative outlets the Blues lost their shape and never really looked like threatening.
And, as the game wore on there was always the feeling that Stoke could sneak it but, thankfully, that scenario never materialised and it was everton that could've taken the points at the death.
Yakubu was released in the Stoke area after a flick on from Jo but the Nigerain was under pressure from a Stoke defender and ended up hitting a weak shot straight at Sorensen.
After a good run of a results, a 1-1 draw at home to Stoke seemed like something of a comedown.
But the whole game was livened up for me by my lad's shouting of 'Everton' and renditions of Z-cars at any given moment and the duller parts of the game were spent playing Super Mario Brothers.
The real disappointment of the day was not being able to get to the pub to laugh at Liverpool!