I was asked this week if I was looking forward to the 245th Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. I think most Evertonians – or Liverpudlians for that matter – would admit to not actually looking forward to it. It’s a game which just needs to be won, at any cost, and only then can you truly enjoy it.
As an openly Blue sports reporter, the last league derby to be played at Goodison Park will not only be a nervy experience but a hugely emotional one also.
I always remember Rafa Benitez taking Steven Gerrard off in a derby once at Goodison because he suggested he was playing with his heart and not his head. Of course, Everton will need to keep that in mind as they go into this game too. I’m sure the atmosphere inside Goodison on Wednesday will be as ferocious as the ‘old lady’ has ever witnessed.
One of the great things about derby week is remembering the good, the bad and the ugly of previous games – and my memory is littered with all three.
As a fan, the 4-4 in the cup and Andy King’s volley stick out for me at Goodison but then there was the Glen Keeley derby, the on-loan defender being sent off early in the game only for Ian Rush, feared by all Everton fans for his derby antics and goals, to score four.
The hard part was that I’d bought a last-minute ticket off a Reds fan outside the ground and had to sit next to him in the Park End stand for the whole nightmare. He kept apologising, the poor bloke.
However, it was when I became the club’s press officer in the late ’90s when I got a real insight into just how tense and special these games are. The Goodison games were the only live experience I got to enjoy due to a self-imposed ban of going to Anfield for those games.
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says his team are looking to bounce back from their FA Cup defeat in the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park
I had been scarred as a supporter by Ronnie Rosenthal’s 94th-minute winner in the ’80s, and to say the stress levels rose as an employee of the club was somewhat of an understatement.
My first experience was working for manager Joe Royle who seemed to have the Midas touch against Liverpool. His first game in charge, a couple of years previously, earned a 2-0 victory with Duncan Ferguson and Paul Rideout securing the famous win for the ‘dogs of war’.
There were some dark days for the Blue side of the city at that time, and it’s fair to say Liverpool have dominated the fixture in recent years with some heavy scorelines too, but it always seems when the chips are down is when Everton pull a performance out of the bag.
One game which sticks out for good and bad reasons came in October 1997. Everton were once again struggling at the wrong end of the table under Howard Kendall. Nobody saw a result coming that day – especially me – as it had already been a season of real pressure and stress. But just before half-time a corner was floated in and Neil Ruddock glanced a defensive header into his own goal. Goodison went crazy – and I got a bit carried away.
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Everton made it three wins from three in the Premier League since David Moyes’ return with a 4-0 win over Leicester last time out
Part of my duties at the time included reading the teams out over the PA system and also announcing goalscorers. I excitedly announced to the 40,000 inside the ground: “Goalscorer for Everton, Neil Ruddock!”
As you can imagine, it was met with total approval from the Goodison crowd, or certainly most of them. I was then summoned up to the boardroom after the game to be told off by then-chairman Sir Philip Carter for being unprofessional, a crime, to which I, of course, owned up to straightaway.
Humour is something very much evident at a derby, even today. So I think the Reds’ fans would’ve taken it in good spirit.
When I rejoined the club in 2013 I recall then-manager Roberto Martinez, on hearing my non-attendance at Anfield, telling me I should go to the game. I stuck to my policy and saved myself the trauma of watching Everton being torn apart in a 4-0 defeat.
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Liverpool come into the Merseyside derby on the back of a shock FA Cup defeat at Plymouth – but earned an impressive 2-0 win at Bournemouth in their last league game
Once again this time around, Everton find themselves going into the game as underdogs with Liverpool top of the league and flying – but, as they say in derbies, the formbook goes out the window.
David Moyes knows all about the passion and importance of the Merseyside derby and with both sides having won 41 matches each at Goodison he, along with the blue half of the City and beyond, will not want to bow out having lost more games than their old rivals at the famous home of Everton FC.
