http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/everton-anti-hero-glenn-keeley-never-9462599
Everton anti-hero Glenn Keeley: I never even wanted to play in THAT match
Even Glenn Keeley's wife told him not to play against Liverpool
Glenn Keeley makes the long walk after being sent-off on his Everton debut
IT is one of the blackest days in the Blues history.
Everton’s record home defeat in a Merseyside derby, a 5-0 hiding which saw shell-shocked goalkeeper Neville Southall farmed out on-loan to Port Vale for four months – and one man left to carry the can.
But
Everton anti-hero Glenn Keeley has revealed that he never wanted to play against Liverpool in November 1982.
The Blackburn defender he was nowhere near matchfit for a game against the reigning champions.
Even his wife told him “You can’t play in that game, you need a few more games.”
But Keeley did play, briefly. He was sent-off after 32 minutes for pulling back Kenny Dalglish by the shirt – and has even admitted he had no knowledge of the recently introduced rule where players would be sent off for so-called professional fouls.
Regarded as one of the greatest defenders in Blackburn Rovers’ long history, Keeley still vividly recalls that harrowing afternoon – and spoke about it to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph this week.
“There were things going on at Blackburn at the time, I’d been let down by the club in terms of wages and they’d also denied me the chance to move,” said Keeley, who turned 60 last year.
“So when Howard Kendall (a former Blackburn boss) called I went to have a look at them at a night game. I took my wife and as we sat there, she said, ‘what you think?’ I said, ‘it’s a poor side, but the last thing he needs is a centre-half, he needs to sort everything else out first’. But I took a chance because it was a big club.
Howard Kendall runs out onto the pitch in December 1981
“I signed on the Thursday, played in the reserves on the Saturday, and that was the first game I’d had in six months because I’d been in dispute with the club.
“Howard was desperate to change things and we had a practice game on the Monday. It went quite well and on the Tuesday he said, ‘I’m playing you Saturday against Liverpool’. And when he said that, I thought, ‘don’t be silly’. It was miles too soon because I wasn’t match fit. I needed more games under my belt. At the time I’d had a summer break, which was longer in those times, and then when I went back, Blackburn wouldn’t let me train, I was training on my own.
“So I was nowhere near natural game fit and, although the reserve game went okay, it was a reserve team game, and there’s massive difference between that and playing in what at that time was, and still is now, an unbelievably competitive, high-level derby.
“At the time Liverpool were clearly the best side in Europe and probably the world, but Howard always said to me, ‘you’re a big game player’, which I was. I enjoyed the big games and got myself up for them. However, I just knew I would struggle.
“But I knew with Howard he wasn’t the sort of man you’d say no to, but even my wife said, ‘you can’t play in that game, you need a few more games’.
“But I took a chance and that year they brought in the professional foul. I had no knowledge of it because I hadn’t played that season and when I pulled Dalglish back, I honestly expected to get a booking. So when I get sent off it came as a shock to me.
Centre-half Glenn Keeley
“That was that for me at Everton, but what was most disappointing for me, was that when I got back to Blackburn, they hadn’t told me was that there’d been another six clubs who had wanted me.
“If I’d gone to one of those clubs I would have turned around to their manager and said, ‘I need three of four reserve team games, just to start to get some match fitness, then two or three games of first-team football’, because you can’t just walk away from the game for six months and expect it work it out like that.”
Keeley returned to Rovers and, with bridges built, he resumed his rock-solid centre-back partnership with Derek Fazackerley.
He went on to make 418 appearances for the club and in March 1987 lifted the Full Members Cup after Colin Hendry, the 21-year-old signed by Mackay to replace him as skipper, scored late on to seal a memorable 1-0 Wembley win over Charlton Athletic.
Everton would soon be winning trophies themselves at Wembley – but without Glenn Keeley in their line-up ...
