everton tales and other tall stories

EVERTON TALES AND OTHER TALL STORIES

A Book By And For Evertonians.................

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Acknowledgments:

Brian Labone piece originally written for the When Skies Are Grey Website

Songs of innocence originally written for the When Skies Are Grey Evertonian Fanzine

Arise ye blue boys originally written for Speke from the Harbour

The Colin Fitzpatrick Interview and Goodison Park The Grand Old Lady first published bytheseFootballtimes

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My Dog And Brian Labone

By Mark Hoskisson

A great footballer, a great man and a great Evertonian – these are, quiterightly, the themes that have dominated the tributes after Brian Labone’ssad death. But what very few people have drawn attention to is that BrianLabone and his wife, Pat, bought me my pet dog, Mitch.

They got me the dog – a puppy from Wirral Pets on Borough Road Birkenhead for my 13th birthday (August 1969), just as our championship season was about to start. Indeed I can remember saying goodbye to my puppy and hoping that I would live to see him again as I set off for an away match at Maine Road: my first away and one that my mum still doesn’t know that I got jumped at by some City fans. We won 10 courtesy of a Morrissey goal (I think) and I managed to save my scarf, although I never wore it to an away again!

Of course in the great scheme of things Brian and Pat buying me a dog is no great shakes. But I am sharing this story because it reveals the profound change that has occurred in football since the game was taken over in its entirety by the corporate brigade.

Brian was the man he was, not only because of his fantastic personality and skill, but also because in those days footballers were not a breed apart. They lived among the supporters, they met them in everyday circumstances and they interacted with them at a more intimate and at the same time more routine level.

I was born into an Evertonian family. My father was on the Blue Funnel

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ships, and not by accident. He died when I was young so my Uncle Bill, who recently died aged 95 and was cremated wearing a blue and white scarf to the sound of Zcars ringing around Springwood Crematorium, took me to Goodison from 1963 onwards.

Things became tricky when we moved to Arrowe Park on the outskirts ofBirkenhead because my mum wouldn’t let me travel to Goodison on my own until I was 12. But there was compensation. Everton had bought a house for players around the corner from where we lived. First there was Dennis Stevens. Then, after his marriage to Pat, Brian moved in. Brian Labone lived round the corner from me. More than that, his wife Pat became friendly with my mum (they went to mass together – left footers as Brian called them) and I got to know the great Everton captain first hand.

But what was astonishing in the light of the lifestyle of today’s goldplated players was that this was not out of the ordinary. Certainly I relished every opportunity to call round and wear one of his England caps.

I loved hearing his views on how we’d done in this or that match. But other than that, he was a neighbour. He did what other neighbours did – including having a few drinks at the various parties that were organised for New Year and such like. And he was wellliked, including by kopites and Tranmere fans, because he was a good neighbour.

The thing that strikes me now – in the light of the way the game has gone

today – was how much Brian cared about Everton. There was a derby

defeat, can’t remember when, but I was devastated, so I got a brush handle and tied my Everton shirt to it and paraded it at neighbouring kopites in a show of defiance. For some reason or another Brian came to

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our house. I asked him about the defeat and poured my tiny, aching heart out to him. He said something that stuck with me. He said “No matter how much this hurts you, it hurts me and the other players even more”.

That sums it up. Today’s players do not, and cannot, think or feel likethat. They are millionaires after a couple of seasons’ salary. They go fromGoodison or wherever to secluded mansions and seal themselves from the rest of us with security gates. They cannot, precisely because of their wealth and status, mingle with ordinary people on an informal and everyday basis.

Which is why so many chance encounters in bars lead to “incidents” between fans and players. They regard football clubs as a means of maintaining such a lifestyle. They cannot feel the hurt of defeat the way we do now.

None of the Everton players left this year’s derby at Goodison feeling aslow as I did. Yet players like Brian, and Colin Harvey and many others didfeel low, lower than the fans, after such results. That was the way it wasthen, for players who regarded Everton as a way of life and not just a meal ticket. They could remain at one with the fans in a way that, for all the PR efforts, players cannot do today. That’s just the way it is. I don’t

blame today’s players as individuals – it’s the system they are working in.And until the revolution that’s the system we have to put up with. But that

difference between today’s players and the likes of Brian Labone is,nevertheless, football’s loss.

I can envisage some of today’s players buying kids a dog. But it would most likely be a charity case, with pictures in the Echo. Brian and Pat didn’t do that. They bought me the dog because it was my birthday, they knew I wanted one, they knew I would train it to support Everton and they

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knew my mum was buying me a Gwladys Street season ticket. That couldn’t happen today. Or rather, it couldn’t happen to the likes of me or you. I used to stand on the Gwladys Street with my mates and watch Brian and say to myself, ‘no one will believe me if I tell them that our captain bought me my pet dog.’ But whenever I did tell anyone, they did believe me, because for any Evertonian, Brian then, as he was until his death, was not a distant star. He was there, amongst us, part of us. And that’s why his death has caused such grief. It was one of us dying.

Thanks for the memories Brian. And thanks for Mitch.

Love and condolences to Pat and the family.

Everton forever.

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Everton Stories

By Dominic Kearney

I don’t have stories as such. What I have are memories. Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that I shake out of the box and turn over. Some are corner pieces; others are straight edges; others are grass or sky. Some are missing, so the complete picture is impossible to make. What you are left with is a partial picture of me. It’s not a picture of Everton, but Everton infiltrates all the pieces of the jigsaw. Dates may be wrong, details may be wrong, but this is the way the pieces look to me.

Patricia Phillips pointed to the screen and said, “There’s your Dad.” I believed I could see him, although I know now I couldn’t, and when I saw him the next day, I told him. Patricia used to help my Mum looking after the children, particularly my younger brother, Jamie, who has learning difficulties. Back then it was called being mentally retarded. It was the FA Cup Final, 1968, which Everton lost 10. Other people talk of going round to neighbours who had colour televisions. We were the neighbours they came round to.

My Dad had a stall on Birkenhead Market, selling dayold bread and cakes. He worked Saturdays, but he’d get to the match often enough. He knew a director who got him a ticket for the directors’ box most Saturdays. He came home one day and said that Colin Harvey had played a blinder. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but he told me it was a good thing. A yard dog was a bad thing. Ron Yeats was a yard dog.

Because of work, and because he got a ticket for the directors’ box, my Dad didn’t take us to the game that often. When we were a little older,

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we’d go to midweek games with him. Occasionally, family friends would take us. Us was me and one of my older brothers.

We all went to Catholic schools. The boys, apart from my younger brother, went to St Joseph’s on Menlove Avenue. It isn’t there now. It was run by an order of brothers Redemptorists I think, although I’m not sure. When you’re young, the way you live is the norm for the world, and you just accept things without question. The brothers all supported Everton or Manchester United. Brother Slattery used to take us to a few games. I think we were at the game against Sheffield United when we went 20 up and then lost 32. I think David Smallman scored our goals. We missed the title that year. I don’t remember the context. I remember if the swearing around us got a bit too much, Brother Slattery would unzip his anorak to reveal a dog collar, and turn around and ask people to keep the swearing down because there were young children there. And they apologised and cut out the language for a while.

Brother Slattery and Brother Augustine took us to Old Trafford to watch us play in a League Cup game. 1976, it must have been. We won. I wore my school uniform and a blue mackintosh and my scarf. We ended up covered with spit. That must have been one of Bingham’s last games, around the time he signed Rioch and Duncan MacKenzie. I saw Gordon Lee’s first game. He came out to greet the crowd and raised his arms above his head to applaud the supporters. His sheepskin coat hunched around his shoulders. Swindon Town, I think it was. Dave Jones got the winner.

On the way back from the Andy King derby, I saw Jimmy McGrain from school. He was a red, and used to be big friends with Bernie Norton. I asked Jimmy if he’d enjoyed the game. He just stuck up two fingers and walked on. My older brother and I were going to the games by ourselves by this time. Mum used to drop us opposite Gwladys Street on Walton

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Hall Avenue, and then pick us up where it meets the Drive. My little brother was too young to come with us then, but he was always in the car. She knew a circuitous route home, through Norris Green, West Derby, and Broadgreen. You missed the traffic on the Drive that way. We still go that way now, when we come back for a match. We go in either Paul or John’s car.

We went to a testimonial at Anfield. It was either for Emlyn Hughes or Ian Callaghan or Tommy Smith. There was no scoreboard, and the Kop wanted to know the score. They began chanting We want a scoreboard. Then Everton have got one. Then Everton don’t need one. When we got back to the car, it had gone. I asked my dad if this was the right road. He told me not to be so stupid. We called the police who found the car in the next road.

Some time in the 70s we got new neighbours, a couple in their sixties. They needed a bungalow because of her heart condition. Not long after, he was made a director of Everton. Gordon Lee came round to their house once, and had bacon and eggs. We peeped through the fence at him. Late he came down out drive with two Everton books, signed for me and my little brother.

I used to deliver papers for MacNaughton’s on Woolton Road. I brought the Echo to our neighbour. He was in the front garden, puffing on a fag,

taking a rest from mowing the lawn. The back page announced the appointment of Howard Kendall, with a line from Philip Carter saying he was the only one we wanted. My neighbour said that was funny because they’d been on the phone to four different managers only that morning.Our neighbour would give us tickets for the Top Balcony. My little brother was old enough and confident enough to go to the games by then. Although we’d get free tickets, I saved up my paper round money and bought a season ticket which got me into the Street End and the Park

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End. I felt a proper fan gave money to the club. And a proper fan stood up. And if we won the League the trophy would be presented in the directors’ box and I wouldn’t be able to see from the Top Balcony. There was one game against Wolves when we’d got there really early and got places right in the middle above the central aisle which went from one side to the other. Alan Joliffe said that if we scored the barrier would give way. I ducked under and stood on the wrong side of the barrier, but it ended 00.

Jimmy Birkenhead and I went to Birmingham away. Ian Moran had done something wrong that week and his Mum said he couldn’t go. We went by train. When we got into the ground it looked like there were skirmishes everywhere. I spent the whole game scared and didn’t relax until we got into Lime Street.

When Bob Latchford equalised against West Ham in the semifinal replay, I was overjoyed, but part of me thought it was just delaying the inevitable, giving hope where that wasn’t any really. That’s the way I think. Just get it over with. I was in line with Frank Lampard’s header. I saw it spin into the net.

My Mum used to tell my brother Jamie that Everton had won, no matter what the score was. One day he called her into the dining room where he was sitting with the Sunday paper. He pointed to the page showing Everton had lost. You told me Everton had won, he said. He had taught himself to recognise words.

Jamie is on the official DVD of the EvertonSpurs semifinal. We were sitting in line with the edge of the penalty area at the end where Amokachi scored his goals. There must have been a camera directly opposite us. When he got the second, Jamie was the first out of his seat.My Dad lost his temper completely at the Maine Road semifinal replay in

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1977. He kept on yelling at the people in front of us to sit down. When my brother asked him to stop shouting, he stormed off. He came back about 10 minutes later. After the game, when we were walking back to the car, a gang of City fans approached us looking for trouble. My Dad told them where to go. He remembers this, but not losing his temper during the game.

I had an old BMW 5 Series. It was maroon and smelled worryingly of petrol and I couldn’t really afford to run it. Paul Kinsella and I went to the Wimbledon game in it, and also to the Spurs semi in it. It was a lucky car.

There was a girl at university called Judy Wilson and I really fancied her. She came back to Liverpool with me one weekend. I’d got Paddock tickets for the derby. She was from Scotland but supported Liverpool, although she didn’t tell me this until we were in the ground. That was the 50 game and she celebrated every goal. That night we went to see Waiting for Godot at the Playhouse. You could hear the singing and

cheering and sirens from inside the theatre.

I danced a jig in front of the big screen in the union at university with a boy whose name I never knew when Everton beat Watford. Later that night I spent a lot of time trying to kiss Sue Crawford while my girlfriend sat laughing at me. Sue Crawford laughed at me too. I also lost an hour and a half during which I think I wandered round Jesmond. I never kissed Judy Wilson.

My Mum supported Liverpool. She used to visit my grandfather – we called him Pop – every day after my grandmother died. He loved cricket and horse racing, and was a big Liverpool fan, and used to talk about football. In order to be able to have better conversations with him, Mum began reading the Liverpool news. She always said she wasn’t bothered about football, but she hated Alex Ferguson and could tell you who

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played left back for Middlesborough.

I booed Clive Thomas the first game he refereed at Goodison after disallowing Hamilton’s goal. I think it was a third round game against Villa and we won 41.I regret not buying an I hate Emlyn Hughes badge.

My little brother Jamie and I moved to Northern Ireland last year. I married an Irish girl. She has red hair and I occasionally call her Alan Ball. Jamie and I joined the Everton Supporters Club of Northern Ireland. We come to Goodison for the odd match still, and watch games with other Blues in a pub in town or in the Derry City Social Club. We prefer Institute to Derry City because Derry City play in red and white stripes. They’re nicknamed the Candy Stripes but it’s red. Institute play in blue.

There’s more than one kind of sectarian divide.

My Dad lives in a residential home in Woolton Village. He is very deaf and his memory’s going. When we visit he asks us if we’re going to the match. We say Yes, or There’s no game today. Then he’ll ask us the same question a few minutes later. He also asks, Any news of the Blues?

Mum wrote a book for Jamie to teach him to read. He wasn’t interested in Janet and John, although he liked A Fish out of Water. He can still remember Never feed him a lot, no more than a spot, or something may happen, you never know what. Mum’s book was all about a boy called Jamie who loved Everton. She wrote it by hand, and Jamie keeps the book in a special box. Our sister Gaye also wrote in it, on the last page. She wrote, In my opinion all the Everton and Liverpool players are fairies. In fact the only team which is not made up of fairies is _____ . _____ are magic and are going to win the league. The blanks would have said Manchester City, because she fancied Denis Tueart, I

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think, and always said she supported them. It might have been Colin Bell, come to think of it. Jamie rubbed out Manchester City and wrote Everton instead.

My first game was in 1970. We beat Chelsea 52. We left early to avoid the crowds. I once made a Geoff Nulty badge. It was the only Geoff Nulty badge in the world.

The Day Everton Scared The Life Out Of Me14


By Mark Ellis

May 7th 1994 is a day I will never forget..........

At the age of 14 we used to do predictions in school on a Friday (last lesson was welsh with a teacher who couldn't be arsed) for the weekend's footy, written in the back of our welsh books, this is one prediction I desperately wanted to come right.

Everton v Wimbledon was the fixture that had my nerves shot all week.

Living in Wrexham at the time my Uncle Steve, who has took me and my twin Ben to the match since I can remember, picked us up from school. This meant that he was home from work (he worked away delivering all week on the lorries) and that we would be going the match. The realisation that I would be going to a match that had my stomach in knots all week finally sunk in, Ii wanted to go… I didn't want to go... relegation would have meant the end of my life as I knew it. I Just couldn't handle the situation at all…..

The day arrived...

I spent the morning in my Nanna's, being 14 I somehow saw logic that spending the morning helping my Nanna with the garden would give me enough good will in the bank to see me through the day with Everton emerging victorious

My Nanna, a scouser from Litherland who had lived in Wrexham for over 30 years, who had no interest in football whatsoever, put an arm around me and my twin brother, gave us a big hug and told us everything would

work out fine. I needed that, confidence was low. Everton were on a shocking run of form and I personally couldn't see us being good enough to beat the notoriously tricky Wimbledon.

We drove up to Liverpool around 11.30 with my Nanna en route to my 15


aunty Pats who lived opposite the then Sportsman pub on Tees Place, Kirkdale. The sight of the cranes on the docks used to fill me with excitement, I knew it wasn't far to go now to get to Liverpool. On the radio my Uncle had Radio City on, I remember Graham Beecroft and Kevin Keetings being at Goodison that day. Every time they spoke about the game I was searching in vain for some reassurance that we would be alright. Of course, no such assurances were forthcoming.

After more nervous sitting round in my Aunty Pats having seemingly endless glasses of orange juice and club chocolate bars we set of for Goodison via the Carisbrooke pub for my uncles Steve's prematch pint, accompanied by my scouse uncle… Uncle Ron.

My uncle Ron had seen the greats, he had and still has a great calmness, he had no such worries, fully in the belief that nothing would go wrong today he said the Goodison crowd would lift the players and we would be celebrating tonight.

The pub was rammed and we were stood outside by the railings having our drinks. The weather was absolutely stifling. My big thick NEC Everton shirt was a bad choice of clothing. I could see the swell of people walking towards county road, the tension was so thick it could have stopped traffic. Seasoned fans genuinely looking worried, at this point I was beyond conversation, stomach in knots and dreading the whole occasion.

As we took our seats in the Lower Bullens, where the away fans sit now, the atmosphere was so uplifting, so defiant, I thought there’s no way all these people are going home unhappy. The noise, bearing in mind there

was no park stand at all, was frightening but in a good way. The passion of Evertonians was never more evident. Words fail to justify the atmosphere. It was unbelievable.

The game started and Everton quickly followed form with a dreadful handball from Limpar. Holdsworth rolling the penalty past big Nev. When the sadly departed Gary Ablett deflected the ball over Southall to make it

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20 to Wimbledon on 16 minutes, my world came crashing down.

I've never cried at Goodison since or before but the thought of relegation rapidly becoming a reality was overwhelming. My throat started to swell up. I’ve never wanted our players to come good as much.

Limpar used all of his cunning to win a penalty, I turned away unable to stomach the penalty, praying to God we’d score. Graham Stuart cooly obliged in a manner alien to our situation. The sound of the Gwladys Street going mad was amazing, such relief. All my hope had returned.

The players left the pitch at half time to a tremendous ovation. I have never seen such resounding support. That goal from Stuart had filled the place with belief.

Second half begun and Wimbledon had numerous chances to make it 31. I remember Dean Holdsworth missing an absolute sitter from 3 yards. Then the ball broke in Midfield….

Barry Horne took it on the bounce advanced 510 yards before unleashing an Exocet. From my viewpoint I was convinced he had hit the bar and Cottee had scored off the rebound. It didn't matter, the ball was in the back of the net and we went mad. I ended up 3 rows down with bruises and scrapes on my legs. The ecstasy and agony of scoring a goal.

The winner seemed inevitable at this point, the game seemed to be going on forever, like the footballing Gods had decided to pull out all the stops to ensure our safety. Stuart played a onetwo with Cottee, the ball bounced back of Cottee into the path of Stuart who hit the tamest of shots which somehow beat Segars who saw it coming the whole way. The shot looked like a pass back but the Gwladys Street erupted and nothing mattered.

The news came through on my uncle’s personal radio that Mark Stein had scored a last minute winner for Chelsea, ensuring our safety. I hadn't

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grasped just how dangerous our situation had become.

The final whistle went and we were safe. I know a lot of people felt that we shouldn't celebrate escaping relegation but the panic that we'd go down was overwhelming, the relief massive.

I ran on to the pitch with my twin brother to celebrate, the atmosphere was crazy My first thought was to run over to the Gwladys Street and imitate Trevor Steven making it 31 v Bayern Munich, my ultimate Gwladys Street goal.

Walking back to Tees Place was joyous, the atmosphere on the streets as we passed The Carisbrooke down towards The Old Tramways pub was electric. The amount of people outside the Carisbrooke was insane, everyone drinking, it felt like a day where paste tables were being used for street parties.

The relief was overwhelming and my nanna was waiting outside my Aunty Pats house for us to come home.

My nanna as stated, had no interest in football but she knew what this meant, giving us the biggest of hugs and excitedly telling us I told you Everton would win.

The day was over, I couldn't wait to get the Football Echo for the ride home and look forward to the one programme I prayed I would want to see.... Match of the Day

My mate Darren in school had correctly predicted 32 to Everton in our Friday predictions. If only he had put money on it.

An awesome day to be an Evertonian, the ultimate 12th man. A day everyone vowed never to happen again

And it didn't .... for 4 whole years

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Goodison Park The Grand Old Lady Part 1

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By Neil Adderley

Goodison Park The Home Of Everton Football Club

Everton FC: The Story Of The Grand Old Lady

“It wouldn't matter if we had Dixie Dean playing for us, it's always a bloody nightmare going to Goodison Park.” Sir Alex Ferguson

On 28 September, 1884, Everton Football Club beat Earlestown 50 in their brand new home. Due to the rapidly growing interest in Association Football and the sheer numbers of spectators Everton home games were attracting, the club had no choice but to relocate the short distance from Priory Road to a new venue owned by local landowner Mr. John Orrell.

A friend of the club, as well as Everton chairman Mr. John Houlding, Orrell had offered land to the club for a modest payment in rent.

The inaugural Football League match at the ground, played almost four

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years later on September 18, 1888, was contested between Everton and Accrington.

Everton’s tenure at the stadium would see the club turn professional, become a founder member of the English Football League, first compete in the FA Cup, introduce goal nets to Association Football and be crowned Football League champions for the season 189091. The following year would be Everton Football Club’s final season as tenants of Anfield.

The reasons behind the clubs relocation from Anfield were many and complex and are well documented. Boil those reasons down and the conclusion as to why, is as relative now as it was over one hundred and twenty years ago; cold hard cash. Some things it seems, actually never do change.

The irreparable fracture of the clubs board of directors forced Everton out of Anfield, a break that would in 1892 see director George Mahon lead the club to England’s first purpose built football stadium.

Albeit not for the want of trying, and failings, of more recent chairmen, 121 years later, Goodison Park, remains the home of Everton Football Club to this day.

In this special feature, we recall three 20th century matches played at Goodison Park, each one, for very different reasons, a defining moment in the long and glorious history of the Grand Old Lady of English football.

The Unbreakable Broken

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In season 1926/27 of the English second division, Middlesbrough and later, England centre forward, George Camsell, in his first full season at the club, scored a remarkable 59 league goals which would fire Boro’ to the championship and promotion to the top flight. It was a goal scoring achievement many thought would never be broken.

Only a few months later, in the second match of season 1927/28, Camsell’s Boro met an Everton team led by another colossal young centre forward, William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean. The newly promoted second division champions came away with a famous victory, with George Camsell firing all four goals in a 42 win.

However, it would be Everton who went on to be crowned first division champions that year, whilst Boro were relegated. Incredibly, aged just 21, Dixie Dean would go on to take George Camsell’s ‘unbreakable’ scoring record, by just the one solitary goal.

05 May, 1928, Everton vs Arsenal, Goodison Park

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Legendary Everton Centre Forward William Ralph 'Dixie' Dean

You could be forgiven for thinking the Evertonians who had crammed into Goodison Park on that early May afternoon, had done so solely to salute the newly crowned English first division champions. There was however, another very specific reason for the 48,715 supporters to make their fortnightly pilgrimage that fateful day.

The final game of the 1927/28 season at Goodison Park would see Harry Cooke’s Everton meet Herbert Chapman’s revered Arsenal side, yet all eyes would be transfixed on just one man, Everton’s record chasing centre forward Dixie Dean.

His race to surpass George Camsell’s ‘unbreakable’ feat had been on course throughout the season. Dean had found the net in all of the first nine games, including a consolation goal, as Camsell netted four for

Boro, as well as banging in all five in a 52 rout of Manchester United.

By the turn of the year, the footballing fraternity began to believe in the unbelievable, when on New Year’s Eve at Sheffield Wednesday, the goal

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hungry Dean bagged his 32nd and 33rd goals in just 23 games. The Birkenhead born centre forward’s unquenchable thirst for goals continued unabated into 1928. With a run of 11 strikes in the following eight games, the highlight of which being a hat trick in a 33 draw at Anfield.

Those three goals however, would see Dixie Dean and Everton go on a four game run without scoring. Suddenly the tilt at George Camsell’s season old record was thrown into doubt. A Dean double at Derby County put a halt to the poor run of form, yet despite further braces against Blackburn, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, Camsell’s record haul would stand, unless that was, Everton giant Dean could find seven goals in his final two games.

Everton’s penultimate fixture, a short journey to face Burnley at Turf Moor ended in a 53 victory for the men in Royal Blue. The Lancashire derby would see Dean grabbing four of the seven goals he needed. Now, with 57 goals in 38 games, it was as if Dixie Dean had written his own thrilling script. The final act of which was to be played out in front of the adoring Evertonians at Goodison Park. One game to play, three goals to score......

Arsenal, who had not travelled North to make up any numbers, came quickly out of the traps, scoring the opener within a couple of minutes. Everton, the champions, replied with an inevitable Dixie Dean header and then, just on halftime, Dean equalled George Camsell’s record goal haul.

After being dragged down in the box, Dean stepped up to convert his

59th goal of the season from the penalty spot. As the clock ticked ever down and with just minutes left to play, the 60 goal dream was hanging by a thread when, on 85 minutes, Everton forced another corner. The Toffees Scottish outsideleft, Alec Troup, floated his cross into the danger area and, as time stood still at Goodison Park, William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean rose majestically above the Arsenal defence to bury his header past the Gunners goalkeeper, William Paterson.

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With that Goodison goal, Dixie Dean had overhauled George Camsell’s record. A truly astonishing accomplishment. In the 39 games the Everton legend appeared in that season, Dean found the net in 31 of them, with 14 braces and 7 hat tricks, including a 4 and 5 goal haul against Burnley and Manchester United respectively.

An eyewitness account, as documented in his ‘History Of The Everton Football Club 1878/9–1928/9,’ by Everton historian and author Thomas Keates, epitomises the sense of unbridled joy, unchecked wonder and no little relief experienced by all who attended the Grand Old Lady that spring afternoon in 1928.

Those Evertonian souls lucky enough to have witnessed Dixie Dean’s mind blowing achievement.

"You talk about explosions, and loud applause; we have heard many explosions, and much applause in our long pilgrimage, but, believe us, we have never heard such a prolonged roar of thundering, congratulatory applause before as to that which ascended to heaven when Dixie broke the record."

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The Dixie Dean Monument At Goodison Park

Dean’s record of achievement, at both domestic and national levels, is extensive and beyond remarkable. However, it surely has to be his extraordinary feat of scoring 60 English top flight league goals in one season, that shall remain the most celebrated record of them all.

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Goodison Park The Grand Old Lady Part 2

Goodison Park 19391940

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Everton FC: The Story Of The Grand Old Lady

“Goodison Park is for me the best stadium of my life.” Eusébio

The intervening years between Dixie Dean’s record breaking season and England’s hosting of the 1966 World Cup, had seen Goodison Park subjected to numerous changes, development and reconstruction.

As integral as anybody in the metamorphosis of the stadium was Scottish architect Archibald Leitch whom, in the first half of the 20th century, was the British Isles foremost football stadia architect.

Leitch, who was responsible for part or all of the stadium designs at more than 30 clubs up and down the country, had in 1938, with the completion of the new Gwladys Street stand, achieved his 30 year Goodison Park dream. The ground had now become the first entire two tiered stadium in the country.

On September 18, 1940, the Grand Old Lady had also, by the skin of her teeth, survived the Luftwaffe blitz of Liverpool. Confirming the near miss in the Everton Football Club Minutes Book, the secretary’s recordings allow a fascinating insight into the event, as well as a clear understanding of the ‘keep calm and carry on’ attitude towards the German bombing of the city. Raids that would span more than two years in total:

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http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fothertallstories.blogspot.com%2F2013%2F06%2Fgoodison-park-grand-old-lady-part-1.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEMfJwGy_bqknE1X6HZilWLAB9JrA


War Damage

'The Directors inspected the damage done by enemy action on the night of the 18th inst. & it was agreed that the Secretary make arrangements to have necessary repairs made.

It was also decided that Messrs A. Leitch be instructed to value the cost of complete renewal of damaged properties & that a claim should be forwarded to the War Damage Claims department within the prescribed 30 Days. The damage referred to included:

The demolition of a large section of the New Stand outer wall in Gwladys Street destruction of all glass in this Stand; damage to every door, canteen, water & electricity pipes and all lead fittings, perforated roof in hundreds of places.

On Bullens Road side, a bomb dropped in the schoolyard had badly damaged the exterior wall of this stand and the roof was badly perforated here also.

A third bomb outside the practice ground had demolished the surrounding hoarding and had badly damaged glass in the Goodison Avenue and Walton Lane property. The Secretary estimated the extent of the damage at about £1,500.'

Goodison Park had survived, and with her, the magnificent legacy of Archibald Leitch. One that lives on as vividly today as it has throughout the last hundred years.

The signature Leitch crisscrossed steel balustrades remaining as much

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a part of Everton Football Club’s iconic history as the great Dixie Dean,

the Toffee Lady and the depiction within the clubs famous crest of Prince Rupert’s Tower.

The Greatest Show On Earth

1966 Golden Boot Winner The Legendary Eusebio

The summer of 1966 in Liverpool must have been heady days indeed for supporters of both the city's football clubs. As the red half of the city were

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still celebrating a first division championship, the blue half returned triumphantly from Wembley after seeing their heroes overturn a 20 deficit, to snatch the FA Cup away from opponents Sheffield Wednesday.

Only a matter of weeks later, the greatest footballing show on the planet rolled into town as Goodison Park, selected as a host stadium of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, welcomed seven nations onto her hallowed turf.

Playing host to five World Cup fixtures, including three group games, a quarterfinal and a semifinal, the stadium witnessed the magic of footballing greats such as Pele, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, Haller and the tournaments outstanding player and Golden Boot winner, Portugal’s Eusébio da Silva Ferreira.

The Benfica striker would fire six of his nine goal haul at Goodison Park, with four of those coming in one of the most extraordinary football matches in the history of the game.

July 23 1966, Portugal vs North Korea, Goodison Park

The unknown and secretive North Koreans, who, despite having earlier shocked the tournament into life with a giant killing 10 victory over Italy, arrived for this World Cup quarterfinal as the overwhelming underdogs.

They would meet Eusébio’s Portugal who had, four days earlier put

pretournament favourites Brazil, to the sword at Goodison Park. Those fans fortunate enough to be inside Goodison that day, could never have imagined the rollercoaster of a football match they were about to witness.

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Belying their status in the game, and seemingly indifferent to their opponents’ reputation, the Koreans immediately went on the attack and within a minute of the kick off, a sensational strike at the Gwladys Street End from Pak Seung Zin, had put the minnows in front.

Portugal were shell shocked and with the 40,248 inside Goodison Park roaring them on, North Korea were seemingly unstoppable.

A swift Korean counter on 22 minutes, after Eusébio had failed to convert a Portuguese attack, saw goalkeeper Pereira badly misjudge a cross and when the ball was returned, Li Dong Woon was on hand to send the Koreans and Goodison Park into raptures.

Incredibly, the underdogs were not finished there as just three minutes later, Yang Sung Kook, following in on a deflected shot, composed himself and arrowed the ball into the far corner of the Portuguese net.

Three down after 25 minutes and with his team in disarray, it would be left to Portugal’s best player, top scorer and captain to almost single handedly drag his team back into the World Cup.

Eusébio, the man nicknamed the ‘Black Pearl,’ gave his country some much needed hope, finding the top corner of the Park End goal before racing back to the centre circle with the ball under one arm.

On 43 minutes, Eusébio converted from the penalty spot after centre forward Jose Torres was brought down in the box. By the 56th minute, Portugal were level.

Picking up the ball in his own half, Eusébio drove forward and after playing a onetwo, the ‘Black Pearl’ slammed a shot past Li Chan Myong

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in the Korean goal. Just three minutes later, the Portuguese were in front as the unstoppable Eusébio scored his fourth goal and second from the spot.

The North Korean dream was eventually ended as the four goal hero turned provider, with his corner kick finding Jose Augusto to make it 53 to Portugal.

Eusébio’s Portugal would fall in the semifinal to eventual World Champions England, however his remarkable performance that summer afternoon will forever be enshrined in the annals of legends who have graced this historic stadium.

Likewise, the 1966 North Korean team, who shocked, thrilled and enthralled the world, at the Grand Old Lady of English football, Goodison Park.

1966 FIFA World Cup Games at Goodison Park

Group Games12 July, Brazil 2 0 Bulgaria15 July, Hungary 3 1 Brazil19 July, Portugal 3 1 Brazil

QuarterFinal

23 July, Portugal 5 3 North Korea

SemiFinal

25 July, West Germany 2 1 Soviet Union

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Goodison The Grand Old Lady part 3

Everton 3 1 Bayern Munich

“Get it into their box and the Gwladys Street will suck the ball intothe net.” Howard Kendall

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With an FA Cup triumph sandwiched between two First Division titles, Everton Football Club prospered under the chairmanship of Sir John Moores (19601973). The financial backing Moores afforded the club enabled Everton to compete for the best players, as transfer records were broken at an unprecedented rate.

A bankrolling of Everton by the founder of Littlewoods, would see them break the club transfer record three times in 1960 alone. A trend continued throughout the decade, and one which would earn Everton their ‘Mersey millionaires’ tag.

Moores vision for Everton was not exclusively directed towards building a winning team on the field, and, as the decade came to a close, the chairman would announce ambitious plans to redevelop the ageing Goodison Road Stand. Plans that would see Goodison Park arguably undergo the most drastic transformation in the stadiums long history.

Built in 1909 to an Archibald Leitch design, the double tiered Main Stand on Goodison Road would be demolished in stages throughout the season, with work on the new triple tiered structure carried out simultaneously. A stark contrast of new replacing old, as Everton Football Club entered a new decade as First Division champions.

Leitch’s Main Stand, built in 1909 at a cost of £28,000, and due to its sheer size, described at the time as “the Mauretania Stand,” would be dwarfed by the £1 million development. The new triple decker stand, capable of holding upwards of 15,000 supporters would become the largest of its kind in Britain.

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The stark contrast as new Main Stand replaced the old

The 1969/70 First Division championship was the last trophy to be secured by Everton for another 14 years. The final great side of the previous decade had been broken up by Harry Catterick, with legends such as Alan Ball and Howard Kendall sold.

Catterick, then the most successful manager in the clubs long history, had been in charge at Goodison for 12 years. Eventually he was persuaded to ‘move upstairs’ after suffering a heart attack, to be replaced in 1973 by the former Everton player and Northern Ireland international, Billy Bingham.

In his first full season, Bingham’s Everton finished a respectable seventh,

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just missing out on UEFA Cup qualification. His rebuilding of the squad saw him bring in signings such as Martin Dobson and Bob Latchford, and Everton looked nailed on to reclaim the First Division title in season 1974/75.

However, a disastrous run in, Everton picking up just one win in their last five games, would subsequently see them finish fourth, just three points behind eventual champions Derby County. An 11th placed finish in 1975/76 was the beginning of the end for Bingham and he would ultimately pay the price the following January, as a sequence of eight league games without a win resulted in the sacking of the Northern Irishman.

Bingham’s replacement, Gordon Lee, who resigned from Newcastle United to take up the Goodison Park hotseat, had arrived at the club with a no nonsense reputation.

The former Aston Villa player was recognised for his hard working, functional approach to the game, something the Goodison faithful, brought up on the famous ‘School of Science’ philosophy, would always fail to come to terms with. Nevertheless, Lee’s five year tenure as Everton boss produced third and fourth place top flight finishes, as well as a League Cup final and two FA Cup semifinal appearances.

Perhaps somewhat spoilt by winning three major titles within seven years in the 1960’s, the following decade is a period remembered by Evertonians of a certain age as being a particularly bleak one. Yet, despite the decade being barren in regards to winning trophies, the

1970’s under Bingham and Lee, when compared to Everton’s current trophyless run, the longest in the clubs history, makes for interesting reading.

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Between them, the much maligned pair, managed 4th, 3rd and 4th place top flight finishes in seven years. Maybe the telling factor for the dark memories Evertonians have of the Seventies, was the emergence of bitter rivals Liverpool as a major domestic and European footballing force.

On 6 May, 1981, on the back of 19th and 15th placed finishes, Gordon Lee’s reign at Everton was terminated. Whilst the tenure of his successor, a 1960’s Everton legend, was not short of early difficulties, the 1980’s would see a phoenix like rise for Everton Football Club both at home and abroad.

Howard Kendall would launch the club towards the most successful period of its long and illustrious history, and into a tumultuous game under the floodlights at Goodison Park. Widely regarded as one that has never been matched, before or since.

Everton vs Bayern Munich,

Goodison Park Wednesday April 24 1985, atGoodison Park

Attendance: 49,476

Everton 3 (Sharp 48’, Gray 75’, Steven 86’)

Bayern Munich 1 (Hoeness 37')

Everton: Southall, Stevens, Van Den Hauwe, Ratcliffe, Mountfield,Reid, Steven, Sharp, Gray, Bracewell, Sheedy.

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Bayern Munich: Pfaff, Dremmler, Willmer, Eder, AugenthalerLerby, Pflugler, Matthaus, Hoeness, Nachtweih, Kogl.

Referee: Erik Fredriksson, Sweden.

Everton’s campaign in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners Cup had seen a largely untroubled passage to the semifinal stage. Howard Kendall’s charges had been flying domestically whilst playing some of the most outstanding football ever seen at Goodison Park.

Now, just two games away from the clubs first ever European final, Kendall’s Everton would have to face their sternest test yet, the might of German footballing superpower, Bayern Munich.

Drawn to play the first leg away from home, Everton ground out an excellent 00 draw in front of 67,000 at Munich’s Olympic Stadium. With the teams topping their respective leagues (both eventually going on to be crowned champions), as well as reaching their cup finals, the return leg at Goodison Park, the first ever European semifinal to be played at the historic stadium, was set up perfectly to be a classic encounter.

The match, arguably the greatest game to be played at The Grand Old Lady, did not fail to live up to expectations, it blew them out of the stratosphere.

With the Grand Old Lady packed to the rafters, captains Kevin Ratcliffe and Klaus Augenthaler led the teams out of the tunnel and into a cacophony of noise. Howard Kendall’s talk of his side having to show patience was swiftly revealed as prematch mindgames, as his players,

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roared on by the 50,000 inside Goodison Park, besieged Bayern Munich with an authority and aggression that visibly rattled their German opponents.

Kendall would later acknowledge his game plan was to get the ball forward to Sharp and Gray, to bombard Bayern and crucially, be first to the second ball. Munich coach Udo Lattek, who would in his career lead Bayern to a total of six Bundesliga championships and a European Cup, had bemoaned Everton’s overly aggressive approach, yet would, in the aftermath of the match, declare Everton as “the best team in Europe.”

Within three minutes of the kick off, Everton had carved Bayern open, only for mercurial right midfielder, Trevor Steven, to screw his angled shot agonisingly wide of JeanMarie Pfaff’s right hand post.

The surge of Royal Blue attacks continued as Bayern were confined to sporadic forays forward. A wayward Dieter Hoeness header being the most a shell shocked Munich could muster in the opening quarter of the match. From yet another ball into the box, Graeme Sharp rose to flick on to Kevin Sheedy, the Irishman was about to pull the trigger when the seemingly stray hand of Wolfgang Dremmler made contact with the ball.

Sharp, Sheedy and the Park End screamed for a penalty but Swedish referee, Erik Fredriksson, waved away the vociferous appeals. Mr. Fredriksson would soon be centre of attention once more, as Everton number 9, Andy Gray, on the end of a forceful challenge from behind by man marker Hans Pflugler, lashed out wildly at the German defender. Gray was fortunate he had made no contact, although this did not stop Pflugler rolling around in apparent agony. The Goodison crowd let their feelings be known as the referee ordered the defender to his feet before booking both players.

Gray would give Pflugler a torrid evening and the two clashed again as the

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abrasive Scot was brought down outside the Bayern penalty area. Free kick specialist Sheedy stepped up and scraped Pfaff’s left hand post from 25 yards.

It was all Everton now, as Bayern Munich struggled to cope with the constant bombardment from the Everton flanks. Once more, the Germans failed to deal with a Gary Stevens long throw from the right. Initially allowing the ball to bounce in the box and then leaving Graeme Sharp to connect with a firm header. The grateful Pfaff watched on as Sharp’s effort cleared the crossbar.

Eventually, Bayern began to get a foothold in the game, with the pace of teenage left winger Ludwig Kogl becoming a prominent outlet. Kogl was again involved as Lothar Matthaus tested Neville Southall with a stinging shot from outside the box. It was a warning sign left unheeded by Everton when on 37 minutes, Goodison Park, aside from the 300 travelling Bayern fans, was stunned into a deathly silence.

A long kick by Southall was gathered by Kogl who, after playing a onetwo with Matthaus, found himself clean through on Southall’s goal. The keeper thwarted the young wingers attempt to round him, however, Southall’s touch fell into the path of Dieter Hoeness who despite facing two defenders on the line, maintained the composure to roll the ball into the Gwladys Street net.

The first goal Everton had conceded in the competition. If the supporters inside Goodison were concerned about how their team would react to going a goal down, within minutes of the restart, Kendall's men would quickly put those concerns to bed.

Paul Bracewell, receiving the ball in the Bayern penalty area, after a typical mazy run by Trevor Steven, saw his cross blocked for a throw in on

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the Everton right. With the Germans having struggled all night with the long throws of Gary Stevens, the jampacked Gwladys Street turned the volume up yet another notch.

Stevens launched his throw and as Andy Gray got up early at the near post, his flick on was met by strike partner Sharp, whose deft header found the back of the Gwladys Street net. Goodison Park erupted with a snarling wall of sound enveloping the famous old stadium as never before.

At 11, and with Bayern still ahead in the tie on away goals, Udo Lattek’s answer was to bring on another defender, however, the fleeting initiative gained by Bayern through the Hoeness goal, had been well and truly consumed by a ravenous Everton. There was from now on, only going to be one winner.

Paul Bracewell snapped into another tackle on Soren Lerby, continuing his run as Peter Reid drove forward. Managing to release the ball a split second before being cynically mowed down, Reid found an unmarked Bracewell once more but the midfielder's effort was sliced horribly wide.

The Toffeemen were now in total command, Bayern’s Kogl threatened intermittently but it was never enough to stem the unstoppable tide of Royal Blue dominance.

Graeme Sharp, collecting a deft lay off from Gray after a precise Pat van den Hauwe cross, hit a goalbound low volley, only to see Pfaff make an excellent stop to his right. A save that would for Bayern, be no more than a delay of the inevitable. On 72 minutes, inescapably, the floodgates were opened as Bayern’s resistance was conclusively broken. A straight ball into the Munich box was controlled by Sharp but before the striker could get his shot off, Pflugler was able to clear for another Everton throw.

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Up stepped full back Gary Stevens to launch yet another missile into the Bayern area. In his halftime team talk, Howard Kendall had famously told his players if they got the ball into the box, the Gwladys Street End would suck into the net. The manager’s promise came to fruition as Bayern

keeper Pfaff, hindered by two of his own defenders, misjudged the flight of the ball, allowing Andy Gray to gently stroke the ball home and make it 21 from two yards out. Goodison celebrated in a scene of complete pandemonium.

If it was the raw force of sheer will that led Kendall’s side to overturn a 10 deficit, the third goal, a seal on the game, displayed Everton’s class of ‘85’s ability to mix it up with the very best Europe had to offer.

As the clock ticked through 86 minutes, Kevin Sheedy intercepted the ball in the left back position. Despite being put under pressure, Sheedy, moving effortlessly forward into space, picked out a pinpoint pass that

allowed Andy Gray to feed the run of Trevor Steven. Now clean through on goal and facing the onrushing Pfaff, Steven took one touch before sweeping the ball past the helpless Bayern goalkeeper.

The Gwladys Street End became a wild blue seascape of bodies as the pressure cooker atmosphere was finally released in a dynamic cacophony of jubilant noise and movement.

Those 50,000 inside Goodison Park had been fortunate enough to have witnessed the greatest night in The Grand Old Lady’s enduring and distinguished history, yet make no mistake, they had also played their part in Everton’s triumph. As for their heroes, the great Everton team of 1985, they would of course go on to take the trophy in Rotterdam, with a 31 win over Rapid Vienna.

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Goodison Park The Grand Old Lady

Goodison Park's Main Stand

Goodison Park is more than a stadium, more than a gathering place for football supporters. She is a part of the very fabric of a community, a great historical monument in a great, historical city. Witness to highs and lows crossing three centuries, Goodison Park is more than bricks and mortar, more than a building. She is a cornerstone, a place of worship, a home. The Grand Old Lady of English football, an invaluable insight into our social history, to be respected, cared for and treasured. Our past, our

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present and our future.

Arise ye Blue Boys from your slumberBy Mark Hoskisson

Summer 2010

The early August game against our Chilean namesakes sparked a forest fire of thought in my already over heated mind about the international dimension of football. Everton versus Everton at Goodison Park was a great night, made very special by the Chileans in the Paddock kicking off a chant of “Everton” which every one of the 26,000 plus crowd joined in with. As Dean Martin said of Kodak cameras, “Memories are made of this.”

This was fortunate because the FIFA tournament designed to showcase the global game was wetter than August and all but extinguished the flame of Jules Rimet that flickered somewhere at the back of my brain. Or maybe that was Jules Verne?

The World Cup was regarded by every football fan as gash. The enjoyable things about this four yearly gala, like footballers putting on displays of skill that take the breath away, goals that induce orgasms and match tension that rivets you to your seat tighter than a Bullens Road half time Chang queue were all seemingly shipped off to Robben Island for the duration.

It is a pity that everyone with a Vuvuzela wasn’t similarly incarcerated. It is an even greater pity that they weren’t banged away alongside the corporate ghouls who turned the whole event into a huckster’s wet dream. Corporate sponsorship is one thing, but arresting feisty Dutch women in miniskirts for breaking advertising rules?

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The football was dire and the atmosphere sterile. Talking points? Arguments over which players made the biggest impact? Memories of key moments from commentators poetically summarising the joyous excitement the game brings to millions? Kevin Keegan dribbling – from his mouth?

None, not one. As Evertonians we were left with Yakubu’s miss, Pienaar’s no show and Heitinga’s red card. Not Mucha to chew on there.

The World Cup, like professional football more generally, is a victim of gangrenous greed. The international is being devoured by the multinational.

Compare that to the spirit of the night at Goodison when Everton couldn’t lose. There were Chilean lads flogging shirts from a wallpaper pasting table by the Park End. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst people who shared a passion even though they didn’t share a language. There was a sense of knowing that whatever may divide us in terms of our national cultures and histories, our love of watching twenty two men playing for Everton and trying to score united us.

And a few weeks later Paxman asked a question about Everton and Everton Chile on University Challenge. Could life get any better?

All of that transported me far from the ersatz Soccerfest in South Africa and back to the halcyon days of real internationalism in football to those innocent days when you could walk into a County Road

boozer and quip, “I wouldn’t mind having a Brazilian”, without everyone staring at your fly and giggling.

The centre of the football firmament was Everton, not England. Even when England – very occasionally – did reasonably well, the basis of such success was the presence of an Everton player or an Everton

influence. But the visa stamped on your passport was never the nation, it

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was always the club from L4 4EL, and the international reputation of the Blues was established well before our special friends across the park learnt to use their digits to count up to five.

The Chilean Everton, as we now all know, was founded in the early 20th century following a tour by Everton to Latin America. English (and Irish) influence was always strong in Chile – their national liberation movement was led by the beautifully named Bernardo O’Higgins – and in the Valparaiso region the influence of Liverpool, as a sister port city, was also evident. It was because of this that youth in the area named their team after ours. It was a tribute that spoke of international respect, of brotherhood across the oceans.

I had a lot to do with Chile while I was growing up. In the early 1970s – in between attending matches and “running United” on Scotland Road I used to help Chileans settle in Liverpool. They were exiles driven from their country following the murderous US backed coup in 1973 by General Pinochet. Liverpool welcomed them as refugees and the campaign in support of those oppressed by Pinochet reached its peak in this city when dockers refused to load engines destined for tanks that were patrolling the streets of Santiago.

One Chilean friend was able to go back to his country when things eased up a bit in the early 1990s. When he came back he told me a great many stories about what was going on. I can’t remember them. But what I do remember is that he brought me a Blue and Amber flag bearing the word Everton, and a pennant, blue and white this time, with Viva Everton on it.

He knew I cared about Chile, but he knew there was something else that united us beyond political solidarity. There was Everton, there was football, and there was the bond that such a shared passion could bring.

The fact that many other countries do not have a team called Everton is a great loss to them. War, famine and pestilence would all be reduced if there were a few more Goodisons dotted around the globe. There would

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be little need for the United Nations if the International Blue Brotherhood stretched a bit further.

But even without the direct bond of the name links can be forged in the strangest places and with the most disparate groups of people if you let the world know of your love for Everton. I once befriended a group of students and miners from a town called Oruro on the Altiplano (high plateau) of the Bolivian Andes. Their love of football was exuberant, but realistic. At home their team could beat any foreign visitors who always collapsed on the field from altitude sickness – but they inevitably lost every away leg because when they played at or near sea level their skills were no match for the other Latin American outfits.

Needless to say I introduced them – during their visits to our shores – to Everton. And they loved us because my passion for the boys in blue reached spoke to them. Even now, as the wind whips

around the tin mines of the High Andes I smile as I think of about twenty people listening out for the scores from L4.

In Europe you might expect the many friends and acquaintances I have made during my travels to be more fixated on our neighbours given their well documented exploits in the European Cup and Champions League. But if you thought that you would have fallen for the line that the only thing that matters to football fans is “success”. It doesn’t. Most fans I have met, from Werder Bremen and Rapid Vienna through to Atalanta, care more about how well you support your team despite its success or failure – because most fans support their teams despite success or failure. Most real fans.

And that is why the story of Everton is one that gets told all over the continent. Believe it. I spent a weekend at an intense meeting with a group of Swedes discussing questions of world historic importance. Can’t remember what they were now.

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We were in a small town several hours from Stockholm which had one Volvo factory in it. I was staying at the apartment of the union convenor from the factory. Before adjourning to his home we drank the night away. Or rather I did. The ten Swedes all sipped from a couple of cans of low alcohol lager. They spat most of that out in shock when I unwrapped a litre of Stolichnaya and started downing its contents.

This was during the 1994 World Cup and Sweden made the quarter finals. When we arrived at my host’s home I thought I had drunk too much. I entered his hallway and there, pride of place, was a huge Everton banner on the wall. He smiled, I smiled, we all smiled. He hadn’t put it up for me. It had been up for many years.

A Swedish football commentator in the early 1960s had seen Everton and had told his country of the wonders he had witnessed. Our championship season in 1963 was as familiar to my host – as a result of this Swedish pundit – as it is to the many Evertonians who witnessed that glorious team sweep all before them. The Golden Vision was there, resplendent amidst the evergreen forests of Scandinavia.

I saw a wild reindeer from the window too. The vodka was that good.

And right up to today there are others around the world who, like Alan Ball, once having been touched by Everton (sometimes via me but not in a rude way), become blues for life. I used the lure of Cahill to win over some friends from Australia. All was going according to plan, until …

… at the 2009 Cup Final I received a text from Australia asking where I was sitting so my friends could see if they could catch a glimpse of me on the telly in the Melbourne bar where they were watching the match. As I texted back my seat’s location I missed Saha’s goal.

Bloody foreigners!

The point being that the true spirit of international football does not exist amongst those for whom the game has become a cash cow, those who

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use the World Cup to exhibit their products instead of their skills. It exists amongst fans who tell each other about their local teams, who communicate their love and enthusiasm for those teams to people who understand such sentiments, to people all around the world who love football, love their local teams and who know, without having to ask, why you feel the same.

Vivamos Everton. Vivamos Evertonians.

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A Road To WembleyBy Luke O’Farrell

I found myself daydreaming in work, it was impossible not to. In less than 24 hours, Everton were going to Wembley for an FA Cup semifinal and I would not be there. Despite being ticketless, never mind scheduled to work, I was unable to shake thoughts of Wembley.

Wallowing in selfpity, forlornly waiting for the shift to begin, the harsh sound of The Rolling Stones in my pocket broke the slumber. I answered the call, “What are you doing tomorrow?” said the voice on the other end. “I’m working, why?” “I’ve got a free ticket for Wembley if you can make it”.

Having foolishly given up the cherished season ticket at the start of the season, a choice born from the balancing act of working in a restaurant and university, this offer was simply too good to turn down. “Hang on a minute, I’ll ask me boss.”

Moving the phone to one side, I nervously (and hopefully) asked for the day off. Probably sensing how much a trip to Wembley meant to an Evertonian reared on the bleak 90s, he agreed. That was it; the smile remained on my face throughout the eighthour shift.

Having turned 19 on the Friday, a Sunday trip to Wembley rounded off the birthday weekend nicely, though the result obviously had the potential to affect that. After tumbling out of bed at some ungodly hour, approximately 6am if memory serves correctly, we began the long road to Wembley.

Arriving with plenty of time to spare, food was in order. Walking in and around the shops, pockets of blue stood out and the excitement steadily built. After passing the majority of the waiting time, we made our way

towards Wembley.

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Doing several meandering laps of the stadium, the glorious sunshine helped ease the prematch nerves. Barely fiveyears old when Everton last ventured to Wembley, this was my first visit and I arrived intent on savouring the atmosphere. That said, as I type this now, most of the finer details escape me.

Reaching Wembley for the first time in 14 years, the onus was on Everton to grasp their chance. Notwithstanding my own grievances with semifinals at Wembley, derisory ticket allocations and obscene kick off times, it is hard not to get lost in the occasion once inside the stadium.

Squeezing through the turnstiles, the sight of ticketless fans bolting through the giant door next to the turnstiles drew a wry smile; football can make a sane person do insane things. Once inside, the search for overpriced lager began – alternatively known as the quest to quell the nerves.

Rejoining the others, the butterflies in my stomach seemingly morphed into riotous caterpillars once the match kicked off. The majority of the action flashed by in a blur of nervous excitement and crippling anxiety, though I do recall a sharp intake of breath when Phil Jagielka flattened Danny Welbeck in the area. Alex Ferguson berated the fourth official (and anyone else within earshot), but Mike Riley waved away the protests to the relief of 33,000 Evertonians.

It looked a penalty, clear as day. There were few incidents of note after this; 90 minutes nor extra time unable to separate the two sides. In all honesty, this was a largely forgettable match (as you can tell by this sketchy recollection) yet few cared.

Two hours after it began, the sides deadlocked at 00; the dreaded

penalty shootout loomed on the horizon. First up was Tim Cahill, but the Australian blazed his spot kick into the red sea of United supporters behind the goal.

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First blood to the opposition, my pessimistic nature took over; we were doomed, or so I thought. Fortunately, for those of the blue persuasion, Dimitar Berbatov attempted a penalty draped in his languid style. Tim Howard saved easily courtesy of his trailing leg. Game on.

Far removed from the Berbatov penalty, Leighton Baines blasted Everton into the lead. Rio Ferdinand stepped up for United, with a much firmer effort than Berbatov, but Howard was the hero once more. Advantage Everton and we dared to dream.

Belying his usual playing style, Phil Neville calmly sent Ben Foster the wrong way and inched Everton towards the final. Against his former club, Neville calmly retreated to halfway. Roughly 80 yards behind Neville, the scenes were altogether different. Supporters entered a state of delirium as their team edged towards victory.

After Nemanja Vidic and James Vaughan traded penalties, Anderson coolly sent Howard the wrong way to keep United in the contest. This left Phil Jagielka with the decisive kick, memories of his miss against Fiorentina surely etched in his mind.

Redeeming his Fiorentina miss, Jagielka dispatched the ball beyond Foster. Cue pandemonium, joy and emotion – name any emotion imaginable and I can guarantee somebody in the Everton end was living it the moment the Jagielka penalty hit the back of the net.

After an announcement regarding the final, Z Cars rang out over the PA and I must admit there was a tear or two. Thousands singing along, hundreds dancing on their seats, strangers hugging each other, it is a struggle to serve justice to those scenes. Nevertheless, to paraphrase Alan Harper, when Z Cars rang out over the PA and the fans joined in, it was a moment I wanted to bottle and keep forever.

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Songs of InnocenceBy Mark Hoskisson

Manchester United fans have their very own bar room bard, scribbling down witty ditties and putting them to whatever music happens to be on the jukebox at the time. The stagehands at the theatre of dreams then belt out his chants with full throated ease.

Portsmouth play host to an incredibly strange man with woad daubed on every inch of his exposed skin and with hair that looks like it’s been coiled from the rigging of the old frigates that line the docks of his home town. He leads the maddeningly repetitive chanting, clapping and stamping of a tribe of Ancient Britons that the Romans forgot to wipe out.And of course our neighbours take their inspiration from one of Gerry and the Pacemakers recordings. You’ll Never Walk Alone is a miserable dirge from the 1945 musical Carousel. It is sung for a dead fairground worker and the mill worker he made pregnant. The mill is owned by one Mr Bascombe (former LFC correspondent for The Echo) believe it or not. It’s also sung by graduation classes at American colleges. But above all, it’s sung by Gerry Marsden, making it well suited as an anthem for the youth doomed who follow Liverpool FC.

But how do Everton fans compare with the merry minstrels who can be found at every ground we visit and who turn up in the away section of the Bullens to berate us for our failure to match them song for song?

Everton’s repertoire has often been distinctive. Take our theme tune, Z Cars. To the rest of the world it’s a baffling choice. An entry on our history

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on a BBC website comments that our “choice of music is rather unusual”. But we stick with something adopted as a oneoff in the 1960s. Why?

Because it is unique. Because it is distinctive. And, because of the programme from which it was taken, it is indelibly associated with Merseyside (Kirkby as it happens, but that’s a separate issue!).

It came from a programme that was a real kick up the backside for establishment television, taking police work out of Dixon of Dock Green’s cor blimey comfort zone and putting it onto the mean streets down which men who are themselves not mean must go (apologies to Raymond Chandler!). All of that makes it a good choice.

But what of the Gwladys Street choir? In the 1960s the media fell in love with the kop because one day BBC cameras happened to catch a chorus of You’ll Never Walk Alone, complete with thousands of raised scarves. The broadcasters didn’t realise that the fans were holding their scarves up to dry because of the lax toilet habits of the Anfield crowd. They thought it was a great spectacle and a myth was born.

Liverpool fans were the “greatest fans in the world” (© every hack on Grub Street). Everton fans spent all their time kicking Harry Catterick whenever he dropped a favourite player or booing their own whenever a pass went astray or a shot went wide. The papers were full of this sort of garbage at the time. George Best, who called us one of the most “knowledgeable crowds” in the country thought differently, but the press reputation stuck.

There couldn’t be two spectacular crowds in one city. One had to be bigged up, the other belittled. So the best efforts of the Gwladys Street were ignored. Of course we weren’t helped by the fact that much of the

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Lower Gwladys was not covered by a roof then, depriving us of the acoustic advantage the kop had.

But the reality of both terraces was that for most of the time a hard core of maybe a couple of thousand, gathered directly behind the goal, sang their heads off while most of the rest simply shouted, clapped or cursed in the ageold manner of most football supporters. There really was very little difference. But by then the kop had the blessing of the BBC and became The Kop.

Who cares because Everton’s songs were better, more thoughtful and more imaginative. Like today most of the chanting at matches simply involved shouting your team’s name at the top of your voice. But while now it is to the tune of Sousa’s famous march, back then it was Everton (or Liverpool, or United, or City or whatever) followed by three claps.What did we do? In 1967 Muhammad Ali – a hero amongst Evertonians after a group of lads met him in 1966 in the lead up to the great cup final of that year – fought Ernie Terrell. It was probably Ali’s most vicious fight. He hurt Terrell badly. And each time he hit him he asked Terrell, “What’s my name?” because Terrell had continually called him Cassius Clay prior to the fight despite Ali having changed his name.

We were the only crowd in the country to shout “What’s our name?” instead of the customary three claps. We identified with a sporting legend who called himself the greatest. And we were the greatest too. And it shows a bit more creativity than nicking a Gerry Marsden cover version of a Rodgers and Hammerstein tear jerker. And we added "We are the greatest" a season or so later Ali was always an influence on us back then.

Likewise, “We shall not be moved” – our song. Check out the “Onward Evertonians” lead up to it if you’re in any doubt. This was not an establishment song. No Merseybeat group did a version of it. It wasn’t a

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funeral song. It was, in the early 1960s a song of defiance by the civil rights movement in the USA. Now no one least of all me is claiming that the lads in the Gwladys Street were all reading the speeches of Martin Luther King in their spare time and cheering on the Civil Rights movement. I was there every game and they didn't!

Racism was rife back then too. But in the 1960s there was a spirit of defiance abroad amongst the youngsters who went to the match and those youngsters were more influenced than they are today by their dads. The spirit of defiance and the influence of the rebellions taking place in the USA were known here in Liverpool because US ships were in our docks and because our merchant seamen were in American ports. Dockers and seaman a large section of Everton's grown up support back then took up We Shall Not Be Moved.

Of course we didn't sing it as a political anthem we sang it as an expression of our defiance, because our team would stand firm against anyone – especially with Labone at the heart of defence. The song had meaning. There were others with less meaning, but they were generally laced with humour and impudence. We derided the opposition. We derided their fans. We had songs about our players, especially Alan Ball, whose death brought back to me the words, sung to the tune of a Wonderloaf advert (!):

“Oh Alan Ball, is wonderful, oh Alan Ball is wonderfulFull of health, full of go, full of vigour

Oh Alan Ball is wonderful.”

As the 1960s came to an end and as the concept of "football hooliganism" moved from being an upper class description of all football supporters into a specific category to describe a minority of "troublemakers" some of the Street End's songs shifted towards

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expressions of a desire to do untold harm to opposing fans. The thing that is striking now is that the more fearsome the threats of the lyrics, the more insipid was the tune we had nicked to put them to.

“We don’t carry bottles, we don’t carry lead, we only carry hatchets to bury in your head. We are peaceful people, but if you’re looking for a fight, you’ll get your [expletive deleted] heads kicked in by the boys in blue and white.”

A lusty ballad sung to the tune of “Morningtown Ride” by The Seekers. Folk combo meets Gwladys Street nippers.

A song of innocence indeed, and sung by many who would run a mile at the first sight of a fight, never mind a hatchet.

But these imaginative, defiant and often well crafted operatic efforts by the Street End were not the distinctive elements of the Goodison experience. And still aren’t. And that’s why we never got the publicity, then or now, that the “the greatest fans in the world” © received. The key thing about Goodison wasn’t the singing, as loud as it sometimes was/is.

The key thing about Goodison was, and is, its raucous, full on, intimidating atmosphere, contributed to by nearly everyone in the ground,

not just those who are up for a sing song.

This is something that very few crowds can match. We only sing when we’re winning? But what do we do when we’re not singing? Two things. We watch the match, which is why George Best and others commented on our knowledge of football. But we watch it in a partisan way. We shout, we fight for decisions to go our way. We abuse the opposition. We roar. Unfortunately we sometimes roar at our own in a way that can be counterproductive, but that is the price of passion. We create a charged

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atmosphere that can make an enormous difference.

Obviously this doesn’t happen all the time and with all the fans. Matches can be flat and so can the crowd. But when it matters we rise like lions. And we roar like them too. There are so many examples, so many famous occasions when Goodison has crackled with an unmatchable atmosphere. It is an atmosphere that pundits can barely understand because it doesn’t match their stereotype of choreographed crowd performances with flags, banners and scarves held aloft. But it works.

Take Blackburn a few seasons ago. Not a lot at stake but our keeper was sent off. Nobody ran on to deck the ref after one Carlsberg too many. But everyone decided they had to help out. Phil Neville, playing his first season for us, summed it up after the game:

“You wouldn't get an atmosphere in any other ground like you had here at Goodison on Saturday. It was really special. Somebody said at halftime it was the kind of circumstance made for Everton Football Club. You could see at the end it is probably embroidered in the club's tradition now”.

He was right, it’s special. Like the songs it’s defiant, it’s passionate, it’s partisan. It’s not a display. It’s real. It’s what makes Goodison and the people who fill it week in and week out one of the truly great stadiums in the world. It’s what makes the Everton experience truly great. And it’s what will help make our team truly great as well.

Onward Evertonians!

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The Colin Fitzpatrick Interview

By Neil Adderley

Everton supporter, Secretary of Keeping Everton In Our City (KEIOC) and Communications Officer of Everton supporters umbrella group The Blue Union, Colin Fitzpatrick speaks openly and frankly on his past dealings with the Everton hierarchy, the press and media, football activism, and his hopes and fears for the future of his beloved Everton FC.

There is a single, unbreakable strand running through the story of 53 year old Colin Fitzpatrick’s life. Unlike his front line dealings with the hierarchy of Everton Football Club, there is no complexity to it, no duplicity, no distortion, neither any complication. It is as clear as day, as true and straight as a die. Fitzpatrick is a born and bred Blue Nose, a Toffeeman, an Evertonian.

“I’ve supported them all my life, started off like many being carried in by my dad from aged three so that's 50 years that have flashed by; funny enough I still get carried in!”

The ‘need for assistance’ in attending Goodison Park is a firm tongue in the cheek reference to health problems Colin has recently suffered. That he mentions it in these exaggerated terms should be of no surprise. It is a selfdeprecating, acerbic humour, all Scousers are expertly brought up on.

“My earliest Everton memory is a pure Kenwright moment, the wall in the

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http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.keioc.net%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHSiXRQ3sdnB9AERP7h9Y4J3RCHbQ

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblueunion.co.uk%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHPgSjksw_OFRxEYtGPvkmek_G7Tg


ground was no more than a lip and my dad had me sitting on it when the ball hit me in the face, Labone came over, picked the ball up and ruffled my hair, the lip must have been going because a casey was a casey back in the day. I remember the season the lip was increased by about a foot, the kids had all kinds of stools and things that hung from hooks you put on the wall, the kids dads must have been doing foreigners at work all week! I’ve supported them through thick and thin, believe me there's been a lot of thin.”

As surprising as it may seem to many outsiders, the best part of the past two decades has seen Everton Football Club and its supporters enveloped in a troublesome, turbulent and at times, toxic atmosphere. This off the field struggle, mainly, though not exclusively fueled by two very different, but ultimately, aborted stadium relocation attempts, has not only caused an, at times unbearable strain on supporter club relations, but also fractured a fan base. It has on occasions, been pernicious enough as to have divided workmates, friends and even families.

For the vast majority of Evertonians, this damaging recent period in the clubs long and illustrious history, began on a wave of optimism as the current chairman Bill Kenwright, and his consortium of business acquaintances, succeeded in their 1999 deadline beating takeover bid for Everton Football Club. Former Coronation Street actor and theatre impresario Kenwright, an Evertonian, and the then vicechairman of the club, led the True Blue Holdings vehicle in acquiring all of Liverpool fan Peter Johnson’s stake in Everton Football Club. The consortium, after more than a year of bitter negotiations, would pay just £20 million for

68% of the clubs shares.

Once the deal was rubber stamped, Kenwright gave an immediate assurance to Evertonians everywhere, when he said “Obviously, I am very, very happy. It has been a very long road but I am thrilled and

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relieved that it is now done. Acquiring Peter Johnson's shares is only the first step to restoring a great club to where it belongs to where it should be. If you are going to run a successful football club you need two qualities: you need to be realistic and you need a plan. I'm realistic and I have a plan.”

Those words, soothing as they may have then seemed, would come back to haunt Kenwright on numerous occasions throughout his ongoing tenure, and undoubtedly, continue to do so to the present day.

The first, and arguably the most catastrophic of failures under the Bill Kenwright administration begun with a fanfare in 2000, when the audacious £250 million Kings Dock Waterfront and Arena plan was launched. Backed by a vast majority of Evertonians, the scheme would see Everton Football Club anchoring a world class development of Liverpool’s waterfront as part of a mixed plan that included an entertainment centre, offices, retail space and housing. The jewel in the crown of which would be a 55,000 capacity, stateoftheart stadium, slap bang in the centre of a World Heritage Status site. It was an Evertonian dream location, on ‘the banks of the royal blue Mersey,’ and with both local and national authorities having given the development plan the crucial nod, all interested parties set about working on meeting the projected cost of the project.

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Kings Dock Waterfront and Arena

The amount reported to cover the cost of the football related aspects of the development were approximated at £155 million, of this amount, Everton were required to produce just £30 million. The remaining £125 million would be achieved by a mixture of private and public investment, including stadium naming rights, regional development agency money and private finance. As time and deadlines were passed, eventual rumours that Everton were unable to meet their apportioned costs, slowly began to surface. In an attempt to quash talk of the clubs inability to meet their end of the deal, vicechairman, Bill Kenwright, now infamously announced the clubs required £30 million contribution was not only in place, it was in fact ‘ring fenced.’ Calamitously for the development, the city and the club, it seemed nothing was further from the truth.

In April 2003, just over 3 years after its inception, the Kings Dock Waterfront Arena scheme was dead in the water. The public and private

money that actually was ring fenced, was lost to the city forever as the

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Liverpool Vision development agency, together with Everton Football Club, released a joint statement confirming the Everton board of directors could not raise the cash to meet its end of the deal.

Not more than 15 months later, Everton chairman Kenwright, sanctioned the sale of Wayne Rooney to Manchester United, for a then reported £30 million.

Colin Fitzpatrick recalls that time, almost exactly a decade ago, and significantly, points to the failure of Bill Kenwright and his board to deliver, as a precursor to what would be a second stadium relocation plan that too would ultimately fail. Although not before it severely fractured the Everton fan base.

“I hadn't really worried too much about the Kings Dock save going to see the model,” Colin explains. “I was all for it and was gutted when it fell through, I was aware that since the takeover from Johnson it was all a little bit too seat of the pants style ownership but to be honest I probably felt that of most of the clubs. I'll also hold my hands up to being pretty much ambivalent over Bill (Kenwright) taking over from Whippy (Sir Philip Carter). I welcomed it to be honest, never had time for the man when he failed to take Thatcher to task over the unjust European ban and we all know why.What's amazing is he's back on the board delivering the square root of nothing as he has always done; nothing but an administrator from Littlewoods in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place if you take the view of many a blue.

When Kirkby came about I listened but quickly realised that this wasn't a Kings Dock and the more I listened the more I thought....CON.”

The messy collapse of Kings Dock led to a very public powerstruggle for

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control of Everton between the now Chairman, Bill Kenwright and fellow major shareholder and board member Paul Gregg. It was a wretched two year battle in which Kenwright and fellow board member John Woods, who between them owned 50% of shares, always allowing them to outvote Gregg, saw Kenwright, heavily backed by the local press, eventually holding on to power at the club. Leaving Gregg’s 23% stake in the club to be bought in October 2006 for £7.2million by BCR Sports. A British Virgin Islands offshore vehicle, fronted by Kenwright’s fellow showbiz acquaintance and mutual friend of retail tycoon Sir Philip Green, Las Vegas based AngloAmerican, Robert Earl.

Within three months of Robert Earl's arrival on the Everton board, the then CEO, Keith Wyness, announced the club had entered into an “Exclusivity Agreement” with Tesco Stores PLC to explore the possibilities of relocating Everton to Kirkby, a small town of just 40,000 residents, outside of the Liverpool City boundaries in the neighbouring borough of Knowsley. The deal, a three way partnership, including the landowners, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council (KMBC), would see Everton move to a 50,000 stadium as part of a planned massive retail development in Kirkby town centre, to be anchored by a Tesco hypermarket.

Despite the clubs initial December 2006 announcement, promising small shareholders and supporters of only an ‘exploration of possibilities,’ by the summer of 2007, the plan to move Everton Football Club out of the

City, was set in stone. Albeit dependent, as with the earlier Kings Dock scheme, on a successful ballot of season ticket holders. It would be within these few months, that the Everton supporters ‘protest’ group, Keep Everton In Our City (KEIOC) was formed and Colin Fitzpatrick, who from the outset believed the Kirkby scheme to be fundamentally flawed, would take his first steps into football activism.

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“There was a preseason match on one of those balmy summer evenings, don't ask me who we were playing, everybody who knows me will tell you I couldn't even tell you who we played last week or the score, I just watch Everton on the day and that's it. The KEIOC guys had draped banners all over the Winslow pub on Goodison Road, I knew what they were saying about Kirkby and as I walked past I recognised one of them as an old school friend. One thing led to another and after the ballot I ended up at a meeting, met people who knew a lot about the club, some really good blues, you know, the type that you say as a term of reference, "he's a good blue" or "a good Evertonian," these were in another league. I can't even begin to tell you the things some had done to help the club, they were just a pleasure to be with.

There were also people who were politically savvy, people like Dave Kelly and Ann Adlington, and I knew in the long term that was the way to go. Protest was fine as far as it went, it draws attention to a cause and satisfies those who are angry but real progress is made behind the scenes and KEIOC evolved from a protest group into a pressure group.”

In the weeks between the announcement of the ballot and the actual vote, Evertonians found themselves bombarded by a PR campaign in overdrive, led by the club and with the full editorial backing of the local

press. Current and explayers, exmanagers, the chairman, the CEO, celebrity supporters, the leader of KMBCs ruling Labour party, and Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy, were lined up, one after the other, to explain to supporters that Kirkby was the only rational option to secure the very future of Everton Football Club. Supporters were warned in no uncertain terms there was and would be ‘no plan B.’ The local press and media ran with headline stories promising Evertonians ‘a world class stadium,’ ‘£50 million handouts,’ ‘the best transport links to any stadium in the UK’ and a significant rise in ‘the transfer war chest for manager, David Moyes.’ According to Colin, the fact that 41% of Everton season ticket holders

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http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Ffootball-news%2Ftesco-boss-blues-must-go-3505739&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGFoCusmpFjewXejhAbqX6ytF1e2g


voted against the Everton board of directors ‘Destination Kirkby’ relocation plans, was a minor miracle.

Destination Kirkby

“The ballot was what really made my mind up, it was clear that they were pulling the wool over the eyes of the fans and the small shareholders. Something didn't add up, certainly the arithmetic didn't, the figures were changing from one press piece to the next and when the ballot pack arrived that was it. I sent it back, complaining that it was unjust on the basis that Everton were allowed to place a piece of prokirkby literature in the pack, but KEIOC weren't allowed the same privilege to express their views.

The selection process was also questionable, easy to identify people who regularly attend, over members of Evertonia, you could see what was

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coming and they limped over the line they drew themselves. This was no Kings Dock style victory, there were too many who opposed this, and the club knew it.”

If KEIOC’s postballot relations with the Everton hierarchy highlighted anything, it was, says Fitzpatrick, just how far ‘the club’ were out of touch with a large section of the fanbase. Moreover, it would be their huge underestimation of a supporter group in its infancy, that would ultimately prove to be a vital achilles heel for Kenwright, his board and the handful of staff and hired help working on behalf of the Everton chairman, on the Destination Kirkby project.

The battle lines had been quickly drawn and KEIOC, faced with a long campaign and up against the juggernaut of multi billion pound company Tesco, as well as a Premier League football club and a politically backed Local Authority, realised they would have to immediately hit the ground running. The groups initial point of attack would be to counter the ongoing, well planned and slickly executed Everton/Tesco/KMBC public

relations and media campaign.

One initial obstacle faced by KEIOC and Fitzpatrick, was the large number of supporters who simply accepted the point of view of revered business guru’s such as Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy and of course, a show of blind faith in an Evertonian chairman, Bill Kenwright.

“There wasn’t any time to reeducate fellow supporters and so the decision was taken not to focus on building up a mass base of support but rather, to structure the group as a network of supporters affiliated to the organisation.”

Initially unbeknownst to the club and their partners, the KEIOC network rapidly spread and would include Evertonians who crucially, were also

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experts in their own particular field, all of whom were sympathetic to the groups aim of keeping Everton in the city. The wide range of support for KEIOC came from amongst others, architects, political activists, councillors, MPs, financial strategists and transport experts, solicitors, barristers, QCs, stadium designers and perhaps most significantly of all, Evertonians with intimate and expert knowledge of incredibly complex planning regulations.

Colin’s personal dealings with the Everton hierarchy during, what to most Evertonians will always be remembered as the ‘Kirkby Debacle,’ reveal an eyeopening, sometimes bizarre, commonly hilarious and seemingly almost always fraught relationship. It is an exclusive first hand insight into the workings of Everton Football Club under the influence of a handful of middle aged millionaires, led by chairman and major shareholder, Bill Kenwright.

“Football clubs will always treat fans like they're thick and don't understand the real issues, the clubs are a bit like politicians in that respect, remember they wouldn't even allow the people of Kirkby a ballot on the stadium issue, they said, "the complex issues are too complicated for residents to understand".

Fitzpatrick explains how meetings with the club were always frosty.

“Dealing with (former Communications Director) Ian Ross was like dealing with a child. Dealing with (former CEO) Wyness was ridiculous. I once brokered a meeting between the club and Malcolm Carter of Bestway, who genuinely wanted to explore the possibilities, alongside Liverpool City Council, for the Bestway site which, with the help of the council, would have been a one kilometre city centre site with a myriad of possibilities. But Everton brought in condition after condition after the initial agreement so the meeting failed to take place. Carter was disgusted with the club over how he was treated and no doubt the club

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were pleased they avoided the meeting as they were "under orders" from Sir Terry Leahy.

Any relationship with CEO Keith Wyness came to an end when his bullying nature got the better of him and he attempted to set the lawyers on KEIOC.

I always believe the best form of defence is attack and any bullying from lawyers gets published no matter how much they complain. They attempted to act against the owners of the KEIOC site, there's a problem there, it's owned by a Mr W. Cuff whose address is Goodison Road. The club's lawyers attempted to serve a cease and desist letter on KEIOC but

first of all sent it to a Japanese dentist of the same name! They then found out about Will Cuff.”

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Legendary former Everton chairman Will Cuff

For those who are not aware, Will Cuff was a legendary former chairman of Everton Football Club and was also a Solicitor in the City of Liverpool.

“The ironic thing was his practice survived him and continued under his name until they were bought and absorbed into a larger firm of solicitors and you guessed it, they were now Everton's solicitors, so they were effectively attempting to serve a letter on themselves!”

“It set the tone for the future, KEIOC ran rings around what were essentially amateurs when it came to stuff like this. The naive supporters who knew no better would always question why we didn't have better dialogue (with the club), when of course, we were aware of the contempt

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we were treated with, so it made no difference, we set out to expose them.

They still refuse to acknowledge the Blue Union and as for members of the Shareholders Association (SA), I'm simply embarrassed for them, the report from the last meeting with the clowns is a disgrace, the Shareholders Association are finished.”

The meeting referred to was held on 8 February 2013 and had seen a democratically elected member of the shareholders Executive, banned from any meetings between the two bodies. This was the first of a series to be held throughout the year between the SA and Everton. With the club represented by CEO Robert Elstone and Communications Director, Paul Tyrrell.

According to the SAs minutes of the meeting, Everton CEO, Robert Elstone, was clear on the clubs policy of refusing to acknowledge specific Everton supporters groups.

‘Mr Elstone expressed his disappointment that the Executive were intending – against his repeatedly stated wishes – to include in their group, members who are active in the Blue Union. He reiterated that he will not engage with anyone who has played a part establishing or promoting that organisation’s activities.

He said any further attempts by the Executive to include shareholders who are known members of the group in dialogue would be a further breach of trust he has placed in this process and result in his immediate withdrawal from future discussions.’

Certainly for Colin Fitzpatrick and others who have expressed their concerns regarding the off the field running of the club, the disdain for

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supporters and groups alike, is seemingly a recurring theme threaded through the recent history of Everton Football Club.

“To this day, they still treat the fans and small shareholders with contempt.”

Through information gathered from its growing network, it became rapidly apparent that the Destination Kirkby scheme was nailed on to be subject to a Government planning public inquiry. KEIOC openly warned Everton of the consequences of the added costs and vitally, the time delay involved in a ‘calling in’ of the planning application. The club, perhaps with an ulterior motive, denied a public inquiry was inevitable, and vowed to press on with the fundamentally flawed venture.

KEIOC were advised by experts sympathetic to their cause, including high ranking members of the Government, that the planning application put forward by the triumvirate of Everton, Tesco and KMBC would be ‘called in’ by the then Secretary of State. The message from KEIOC was loud and clear and similarly brought by the group, to all those who would be impacted on by the scheme.

“The application must be refused due to a massive departure from local,

regional and national planning regulations. There was no £52 million subsidy towards the cost of the stadium. The stadium was a low cost, £78 million construction, unfit for purpose by a leading Premier League club. The Transport plan is fundamentally flawed. Finally, that the finances for the £78m Everton FC were liable to produce, was unexplainable and undeliverable.”

In August 2008, just weeks after the sudden resignation of Everton CEO Keith Wyness, the Labour Secretary of State, Hazel Blears, ‘called in’ the Destination Kirkby planning application for public inquiry. The high level

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lobbying of Government carried out by the three way partners had failed and whilst KEIOC felt totally vindicated, and allowed themselves a minor celebratory moment, Colin Fitzpatrick and the group undoubtedly knew a battle had been won.

Likewise, they were fully aware, a very public war with the hierarchy of Everton, Tesco and KMBC, was about to unfold.

The ‘calling in’ of the Destination Kirkby planning application sounded the death knell for Bill Kenwright’s horribly flawed attempt to relocate Everton Football Club out of the City of Liverpool. Yet again, and despite the prepublic inquiry resignation of original ‘Kirkby champion,’ Keith Wyness, KEIOC’s warnings to the clubs major shareholders of the madness of pressing on with the doomed scheme, fell on deaf ears.

The blind refusal to accept any sort of advice from any individual or group, who were not their own paid advisors, or those of their partners in the scheme, would cost the club millions of pounds it could ill afford to throw away. Arguably even more critical to the clubs future, would be the

loss of yet more years, wasted on the folly of Bill Kenwright and his board of directors.

Colin Fitzpatrick is clear on why the ‘calling in’ was the final nail in the club’s Kirkby coffin. “The truth is the fate of Destination Kirkby was not determined by the Public Inquiry. The inquiry was the execution, a very public execution of a property con that would have succeeded if the government hadn't called the application in, which meant it would then undergo the strict planning examination it avoided when passed on the nod of the sheep that are the unswerving servants of Knowsley's Labour Party.”

More than a year prior to the opening of the public inquiry, KEIOC set in

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motion a pivotal intervention which, despite a report in the Liverpool Daily Post to the contrary, would see Liverpool City Council, join Sefton Borough Council, and Lancashire County Council in opposing the Destination Kirkby application.

As far as Everton's stadium was concerned its fate was actually sealed on a typically bright and sunny June Liverpool morning when the monstrous application went before Liverpool City Council's Planning Committee. KEIOC had been concerned that the planning officers report on the application was weak and failed to offer the "right" guidance to the council's planning committee.

“Liverpool, as a neighbouring authority, had the right to support or oppose the application, so KEIOC lobbied first the leader of the council and then, the leader of the opposition group, current Mayor Joe Anderson. Both had been supportive of KEIOC in the past, in fact in the

previous year KEIOC went to great lengths to have the City Council adopt a resolution supporting keeping Everton in the city. Strangely for a planning meeting the council chamber was packed. Mostly with Evertonians affiliated to KEIOC, who watched what was later described at the public inquiry by the counsel of Tesco and Everton as, ‘an unprecedented event.’ First of all Warren Bradley rose to address the planning committee, then Joe Anderson and finally, KEIOC chairman Dave Kelly. Needless to say the City opposed the application unanimously and even described it as little more than a con for a very good reason....it was!”

In the run up to the opening of the public inquiry, the opposition to Destination Kirkby was becoming overwhelming with amongst others, the neighbouring local authorities, MPs and councillors, joining KEIOC, retail giants Grosvenor, developers St. Modwens and various Kirkby residents groups in objecting to the ‘scorched earth’ planning application.

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For KEIOC’s part, whilst their aim was abundantly transparent to all at the inquiry, it would be their focus on presenting a coherent, relevant opposing case, combined with producing the crucial ‘closing statement,’ that would concentrate their minds.

“We were advised by many, in particular a nationally known figure and a well known QC whose advice was clear. Get it called in and no matter what happens during the inquiry, no matter how many dirty tricks were played against us, we just needed to concentrate on delivering a powerful closing statement as this is what our objection was really going to be measured on.”

It must have been an extraordinary sight for the multi billion pound backed QC’s of Tesco, Everton and KMBC, as a ragtag bunch of Evertonians promptly entered the Kirkby Suite at 10:00 am on Wednesday, November 19, 2008. It was a portrayal Fitzpatrick and his colleagues were only too pleased to fulfill. Given the huge resources available to the applicants at the public inquiry, to describe the forthcoming nine weeks as a David and Goliath battle, can only be a fitting characterization.

“On reflection, I think we initially bit off a bit more than we could chew in getting involved in the inquiry. It was very similar to a law court environment and without doubt the QC's, barristers and lawyers were in their element. We, on the other hand, were fish out of water but fish that would learn very quickly and stand our ground. Dirty tricks were employed against us but we also weren't averse to doing the same. I can't go into too much detail but someone who shall be nameless had a terrible habit of responding to inquiry officials by email and then later accidentally copying them in on other emails with private documents attached in full knowledge that a certain amount of gossiping was taking place!! Oh how we played the enthusiastic amateur card, Bill (Kenwright) would have

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been proud!!!”

After 37 working days of argument and counter argument, the no nonsense planning inspector and chair of the public inquiry, Mrs Wendy Burden, invited all parties to present their crucial closing statements. Not though, before KEIOC lightened the mood by presenting Everton CEO Robert Elstone with a Keep Everton In Our City car sticker, which was gratefully received by the second club CEO to have worked on the Kirkby

project. And with the inquiry programme officer sporting a fetching Everton shirt with her name ‘PARKER,’ emblazoned on the back, the proponents and opponents of Destination Kirkby, prepared themselves for the finale of a nine week marathon.

“The day came that we were waiting for, at the very end of the inquiry. When your closing statement was delivered. Unlike during the rest of the inquiry, you were not interrupted by anybody. I suppose the inquiry people had by now rumbled that we were a bit more organised than we let on. At the beginning of the inquiry we delivered box after box of inquiry documents, all professionally bound and containing more evidence than even Everton had submitted.

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Everton CEO Robert Elstone

The closing statement was prepared by myself, and the meff who's writing this article!!!

Instead of delivering an impassioned plea about Everton leaving the city, it was planning objection after planning objection after planning objection, and we left in the full knowledge that we gave it our best and that, it was inevitable it was going to be refused permission by the secretary of state.”

In closing the public inquiry, and regardless of the rather desperate pleas of the Tesco, Everton and KMBC representatives for the inspector to ‘fast track’ her decision, Mrs. Burden indicated that due to the sheer size and complexity of the planning application, it would be at least six months before the inquiry report could be ready to go to the Secretary of State for consideration. Despite regular contradictory noises from both Everton, Tesco and the local press, it would in fact be a full 10 months before the new Secretary of State, John Denham MP, would deliver the final axe to the neck of Destination Kirkby.

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The intervening months between the climax of the public inquiry and final decision, allowed KEIOC to once again focus its attention on exploring alternative plans for the Everton stadium issue. Unlike the club, who had stubbornly and blindly put all their eggs in the Tesco basket, KEIOC were and remain open to investigate all possible avenues. A case in point and one that is possibly more relevant today as it has ever been, is the spiky and perennial debate around a shared stadium for Everton and Liverpool football clubs. Colin’s work with architect and stadium designer Trevor Skempton, only served to reinforce his views on the myriad of complex difficulties a shared stadium throws up.

“After the inquiry, we investigated alternative solutions to Everton's stadium problem. Myself and Trevor Skempton produced quite a

substantial document looking into the possibilities of a shared stadium and presented it to both the leader of the council and the leader of the opposition group in the leaders office. It was an interesting exercise, sited in the area around Liverpool Waters, it was purely a design concept that addressed the potential problems of a shared stadium in many innovative ways. Two problems with the concept were relatively insurmountable. Firstly Bradley took the concept to John Whittaker at Peel and he had no interest in a stadium whatsoever. The second problem is that Everton and Liverpool have such diverse target markets that it would be relatively impossible and completely undesirable to accommodate such a potentially compromising situation, particularly for Everton. People who unthinkingly state that a shared stadium is the best solution for the City are complete idiots in my opinion.”

Very nearly 3 years had passed since Keith Wyness announced Everton’s plan of relocating to Kirkby, when, in late November, 2009, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP, revealed the joint Tesco, Everton, KMBC Destination Kirkby

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planning application had been rejected.

Prior to the full inspectorate report being published, a formal letter from the Secretary of State’s office, spelt out the main conclusions against the development to the interested parties. The scheme, as KEIOC, back in the early summer of 2007 had correctly predicted, had breached a raft of national and regional planning policy. The whole project was rejected outright. According to a senior aide of Mr. Denham MP, “when it came to the crunch, the Secretary of State had no other option.”

All parties with a vested interest in the planning application, whether for

or against, were made aware a decision was imminent 24 hours before the official word was broken. It was a very nervy time for almost all Everton supporters, as Colin recalls.

“The day before the decision, which I think was the Wednesday, we knew an announcement was being made the next day, we even put it on our site which was probably a bad move as the phones never stopped. I remember, I think it was Billy Thorndyke, better known in Everton circles as Billy Bullens, who said “everyone was panicking except Dave (Kelly) and Colin.” People were on a roller coaster of emotions but I never doubted the politicians and experts we'd had, they were a great bunch of Evertonians. Even our QC was a blue!!

When the announcement came, in the early evening, the phones were ringing off the hook, a lot of KEIOC were at Hull City for the game. One guy on the way to Hull, and convinced the decision was going to go against us, drank a bottle of Jack Daniels to commiserate and drank another on the way home to celebrate!! We didn't gloat or anything, the three or four line announcement of the decision is still on the KEIOC site.”

In the aftermath of the rejection, Bill Kenwright broke his longterm silence

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http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fliverpool-news%2Fbill-kenwright-everton-fcs-kirkby-3440275&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE5BDnkPqL5XO_tqFewvOk1v7gTuA


on Destination Kirkby when quoted in the Liverpool Echo, on November 29.

Kenwright oversaw the Kirkby debacle

“The first thing to say in terms of Kirkby is that the chapter is over and the book is closed. The motivation has only ever been to improve the finances of the football club. They need to be stabilised, improved and expanded. As everyone knows, the club doesn't currently have a chairman or a board in a position to do those things.”

It was, when you take into consideration the storm that had surrounded the Kirkby project, an understated, somewhat anaemic, throwaway statement from the Everton chairman. It was as though he had neither a hand in the project, nor any comprehension of the effect on the fanbase. As if he hadn’t been at all affected by it.

Whilst some fans called for Kenwright’s head, others, including some local journalists, urged the Everton chairman to lead the club into a reconciliation process, a call to bring the club and supporters together.

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Regrettably, none of those things were to happen.

Throughout the duration of KEIOC’s Kirkby campaign, the relations between the group, Everton and various other interested parties, including the press and media, varied over time, sometimes wildly. Fitzpatrick has no qualms in expressing some sympathy with local journalists whom, at the time, had produced more balanced reports that ‘simply weren’t published,’ nor in revealing a ‘reasonable relationship’ between KEIOC and the then fresh faced CEO, Robert Elstone.

Sadly for all concerned, and more than three years on since the Kirkby project met its end, the relations between supporters groups and the club leadership, are in effect, irrevocably damaged.

The Blue Union was a coming together of various concerned Everton supporter groups with a similar purpose and design. As Communications Officer of the supporters umbrella organisation, Fitzpatrick passionately explains its origins.

“The Blue Union was a tremendous solution to the problem of many fan groups with slightly differing aims and objectives all wanting to have a go at what they at least knew was the root cause of the problem at Everton, the ownership. Without the structure of the Blue Union certain things would never have happened. The protest marches must have chilled the management to the bone, well we knew they did. Watching Goodison Road filled with Evertonians fed up with the years of lies and deception was fantastic. The keyboard warriors who criticised those guys who protested mean nothing to me, call me old fashioned but some loner sitting their in their underpants telling match going Evertonians that they're wrong from the middle of some god forsaken place, I tend not to worry about. I worry about the lads outside the pubs and on the

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sidewalks clapping the marchers; put your pint down and do something for your club. We let the Spirit of Shankly lads see the videos from the march, they were amazed how we got so many, all they got was three hundred. The public meetings we held were very well attended to. It goes to show there's a real passion for information out there, beyond the Neanderthal offerings of sites that pander to the club hierarchy, the ones they can rely on.”

Everton Supporters Umbrella Group The Blue Union

Patently, if there was ever an opportunity to address the fracture between supporters and the hierarchy of Everton, the collapse of the Kirkby debacle was it. However, the lack of initiative or will from Everton to address the elephant in the room and with supporters groups now calling for the Chairman and board to appoint an independent group of professionals to oversee the sale of the club, a 14 year objective yet to be fulfilled by Kenwright, it seems the opportunity may have been foreverlost.

On Monday, 11 March, exfootballer turned broadcaster, Stan Collymore,

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dedicated more than two hours on the national radio station, TalkSport, to Everton Football Club. He had been approached by a club spokesperson who, for some unthinkable reason wanted to remain anonymous, yet had agreed to answer a list of 12 questions put together by Collymore. Amongst the answers garnered from the former employee of Manchester City, was the ‘revelation’ that Bill Kenwright and his fellow major shareholders were willing to sell their stake in Everton and valued the club in the region of £125 million. The biannual link to ‘Middle Eastern interest’ also reared its familiar head.

Question number four on Stan Collymore’s list, ‘Why has there been no sale of Everton Football Club? Also received a familiar comeback; ‘The stadium issue is a millstone around the clubs neck.’

I thought it would be remiss not to ask Colin Fitzpatrick for his view on the same question. Colin’s answer turned out to be somewhat more detailed than that of the anonymous Everton spokesperson.

Why has there been no sale of Everton Football Club?

“If anything has been proven, in recent years, it is that the directors are only interested in obtaining the maximum amount of money when they depart. Kenwright admitted to chasing a guy to sign the contract to sell the club who lived in a bedsit in Singapore. Obviously, it would never have happened but the fact he was chasing him should concern every Evertonian.

Then there was the Kirkby con, in which the £52 million crosssubsidy, that was meant to pay 40% of the total cost of the stadium didn't actually exist, but was a value that would have ended up on the balance sheet and realised once the club was sold. A need for a new stadium did not drive the move to Kirkby, it was the chance to correct the balance sheet that

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was being slowly eroded. The recent revelation that they're looking for a £125 million return, after paying just over £20 million, only confirms what they're in it for.

Don't get me wrong, if they'd invested in the infrastructure, made sure the commercial dealings were the best we could get, I'd be the first to wish them best of luck. The problem is they haven't done any of that, they've used the assets to keep the club going. Under Kenwright’s leadership, we’ve gone from a £20 million positive balance sheet in 2000, to a £44 million negative balance sheet today. We find the business simply doesn't generate any money and that's what a business is for.

A key metric used to calculate this, EBITDA, has been falling and falling at the club in recent years, from almost £9 million in 2008 it's now dropped to minus £6 million. The reason for this is the commercial performance of the club, it simply isn't good enough and what do the board of directors do to alter this situation? What do the individual members of Everton's board actually do anyway? I often see, as opposed to hear, people say, "Be careful what you wish for" when they talk about Kenwright, not a ringing endorsement obviously, but that's about all people can say before following it up with a list of clubs that have got into trouble. I always wonder why the previous owners of those clubs sold out to these people, and nine times out of ten it's all about money, as much money as possible and there's the problem, our board,

a board with a justified reputation for failure and a readily stated desire to obtain £100 million, tells me they'd sell to anyone. Thankfully people who have earned their money have looked at our club, looked at the books and looked at the asking price and said you're having a giraffe.

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The best salesman for Everton?

Of course in 2013/14 Everton should increase their turnover by £25 million due to the new TV deal but TV money has increased before, without any finding its way to the club.”

Sadly, and somewhat bizarrely, given the fractious past of supporter club relationships, judging by the outcome of the recent meeting between Everton CEO Robert Elstone and the Shareholders Association Executive, relations between the Everton hierarchy and the supporters

who are genuinely concerned about their clubs future, are seemingly at an all time low. Remarkably, Everton Football Club’s officers, chairman and board of directors find themselves in the peculiar position of refusing to acknowledge the very existence of a section of the clubs own match going fanbase.

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At some point, in the very near future, this damaging stand off between Chairman, board and officers of Everton versus supporters and supporters groups, simply has to be resolved.

For the good of Everton Football Club, something has got to give.

Colin Fitzpatrick was talking to OtherTallStories, March 2013.

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everton tales and other tall stories

Documents

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great scheme of things

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mum wouldnt

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away match

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