BigMick
Player Valuation: £20m
On 6th December 1969 Everton were riding high at the top of the league, well on their way to claiming their 7th League Title. They were playing a glorious brand of football built around their famous 'Holy Trinity' of Kendall, Ball and Harvey, supported by a blend of young and older players that included current England internationals like Gordon West, Tommy Wright and Brian Labone, and future internationals like Joe Royle.
That December day their visitors at Goodison were their old rivals from the other side of Stanley Park who, in contrast to Everton, were a team in decline with many of their successful team of the 1960s now almost literally on their last legs.
The teams lined up:
EVERTON: West; Wright, Brown; Kendall, Labone, Jackson; Whittle, Ball, Royle, Hurst, Morrissey.
LIVERPOOL: Lawrence; Lawler, Wall; Strong, Yeats, Hughes; Callaghan, Ross, Thompson, St. John, Graham.
Everton were at full strength apart from Colin harvey, missing with an eye infection, and Jimmy Husband who was replaced by Alan Whittle, later to play a key role in the title triumph.Of the Liverpool team, only Hughes and Callaghan were to have any long term future at the club. Ross was a player Shankly regularly drafted into the team when they met Everton to do a man-marking job on Alan Ball.
So Everton went into the game as hot favourites, lauded by the press and by experienced judges within the game for their style of football and seen as the team most likely to topple the talented but ruthless, and widely disliked Champions, Leeds United.
A typical tight and hard fought Derby ensued, resulting in a goalless first half. But in the 2nd half something almost unbelievable happened as the much fancied Everton crumbled and Liverpool scored three goals through everyone's favourite, Emlyn Hughes, and Bobby Graham, with, sandwiched between, a spectacular own goal from the luckless Sandy Brown (pictured below).
The 3-0 defeat was a huge blow for Everton but they immediately recovered with a couple of 1-0 wins and went on the win the league by a 9 point (2 points for a win) margin from second place Leeds, and gained some revenge over Liverpool by winning 2-0 at Anfield. It was a brilliant season, one that is still cherished by every Blue old enough to have seen it. Their home record for the season saw 17 wins, 3 draws and just this one solitary defeat, which should be easy to shrug off but still sticks in my craw after all these years.
How did it happen that their mediocre team, dismantled by Shankly at the end of the season, could come to Goodison and beat one of our greatest ever teams 3-0?
How come we never, ever, do something similar to them?
In the 70s and early 80s when they were top or near the top we managed a few honourable draws but never a win. Our only victories at their hovel have been when we were the better side in the mid-80s, and our last win there ,the Kevin Campbell game, saw us above them in the table. The nearest was probably the Kanchelskis win in '95, but even then they were only 5th in the table.
This week, almost 50 years to the day after their win at Goodison, the roles are reversed. They are almost certain to go on to win the league in a season where everything seems to be going their way and there is scant opposition. Can we do to them what they did to us half a century ago? Can we get just one against the odds win? Can we score one goal, let alone three?
That game in '69 was the only home game I missed all season, tucked up in bed with tonsillitis and I knew nothing of the game until my dad got home and broke the news to me. So this year I've made a decision: I've never been to The Pit in my life and with the game tucked away on Amazon prime, I won't be watching and have made the decision not to listen on the radio or follow it on Sky Sports or anywhere else. I'll only find out the score when I come onto GOT some time after 10pm. I hope it will bring us the luck that is long overdue, but somehow I doubt it. I've had enough of the suffering.
That December day their visitors at Goodison were their old rivals from the other side of Stanley Park who, in contrast to Everton, were a team in decline with many of their successful team of the 1960s now almost literally on their last legs.
The teams lined up:
EVERTON: West; Wright, Brown; Kendall, Labone, Jackson; Whittle, Ball, Royle, Hurst, Morrissey.
LIVERPOOL: Lawrence; Lawler, Wall; Strong, Yeats, Hughes; Callaghan, Ross, Thompson, St. John, Graham.
Everton were at full strength apart from Colin harvey, missing with an eye infection, and Jimmy Husband who was replaced by Alan Whittle, later to play a key role in the title triumph.Of the Liverpool team, only Hughes and Callaghan were to have any long term future at the club. Ross was a player Shankly regularly drafted into the team when they met Everton to do a man-marking job on Alan Ball.
So Everton went into the game as hot favourites, lauded by the press and by experienced judges within the game for their style of football and seen as the team most likely to topple the talented but ruthless, and widely disliked Champions, Leeds United.
A typical tight and hard fought Derby ensued, resulting in a goalless first half. But in the 2nd half something almost unbelievable happened as the much fancied Everton crumbled and Liverpool scored three goals through everyone's favourite, Emlyn Hughes, and Bobby Graham, with, sandwiched between, a spectacular own goal from the luckless Sandy Brown (pictured below).
The 3-0 defeat was a huge blow for Everton but they immediately recovered with a couple of 1-0 wins and went on the win the league by a 9 point (2 points for a win) margin from second place Leeds, and gained some revenge over Liverpool by winning 2-0 at Anfield. It was a brilliant season, one that is still cherished by every Blue old enough to have seen it. Their home record for the season saw 17 wins, 3 draws and just this one solitary defeat, which should be easy to shrug off but still sticks in my craw after all these years.
How did it happen that their mediocre team, dismantled by Shankly at the end of the season, could come to Goodison and beat one of our greatest ever teams 3-0?
How come we never, ever, do something similar to them?
In the 70s and early 80s when they were top or near the top we managed a few honourable draws but never a win. Our only victories at their hovel have been when we were the better side in the mid-80s, and our last win there ,the Kevin Campbell game, saw us above them in the table. The nearest was probably the Kanchelskis win in '95, but even then they were only 5th in the table.
This week, almost 50 years to the day after their win at Goodison, the roles are reversed. They are almost certain to go on to win the league in a season where everything seems to be going their way and there is scant opposition. Can we do to them what they did to us half a century ago? Can we get just one against the odds win? Can we score one goal, let alone three?
That game in '69 was the only home game I missed all season, tucked up in bed with tonsillitis and I knew nothing of the game until my dad got home and broke the news to me. So this year I've made a decision: I've never been to The Pit in my life and with the game tucked away on Amazon prime, I won't be watching and have made the decision not to listen on the radio or follow it on Sky Sports or anywhere else. I'll only find out the score when I come onto GOT some time after 10pm. I hope it will bring us the luck that is long overdue, but somehow I doubt it. I've had enough of the suffering.
