Everton host Liverpool for the last ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Wednesday before next season’s move to Bramley Moore docks.
To celebrate arguably the greatest derby in British football, MerseysportLive takes a deep dive to where it all began at Goodison on October 13, 1894.
“The Great Football Match”
This was the title of John Humphreys’ match report for the North Wales Chronicle on October 20, 1894.
Everton won the game 3-0 but the score line does not convey Liverpool’s determination, one Mr Humphreys simply said, “cannot again be aroused against any other team.”
“It was clear that every man of the Liverpool contingent was in deadly earnest, not merely to avert defeat, but to win out and out.
“Over and over again the undoubtedly magnificent defence of the home team was haplessly beaten by the magnificent snatches of passing, headlong rushes, or dashing runs of the Liverpool forwards.”
On October 18, the Northern Guardian reported that the chief difference between the city rivals was that Everton took their chances while Liverpool “failed again and again in front of goal.”
Liverpool, the underdogs
Nowadays, the Reds tend to get the better of their blue neighbours but at the start of the rivalry, things were very different.
At the beginning of the 1894/95 season, Everton were unbeaten at the top of the table.
Liverpool, meanwhile, enjoyed success in their promotion from the previous season’s 2nd Division.
However, as the Warwickshire Herald put it, they were “innocent” of having won a single league match in October 1894.
The Reds were underdogs as the younger of the two sides, born out of a landlord dispute that forced Everton out of Anfield Stadium, their original home.
The Toffees had already won their first league title in 1891, while Liverpool would have to wait for their turn until 1901.
“I never saw such a crowd”
Mr. Humphreys’ words again, evoking the sense of buzz and wonder that filled Liverpool’s streets before the two sides’ first professional encounter.
“All streets, for miles around, leading to Goodison Park, began to be thronged with men, women, and boys, all tramping to one place.
“Every imaginable description of wheeled vehicle formed a huge procession stretching (to take one route alone) from the bottom of Scotland Road right up to the ground.”
As the Northern Guardian reported: “There is nothing like local feeling for drawing people together.”
“The most commodious football ground in the country”
Words from the York Herald on the Tuesday after the historical match at Goodison, which saw an attendance of over 40,000 and gate receipts exceeding £1000.
This was the “record gate” for football league matches at the time, beating the previous record of £735 two seasons prior, also at Goodison Park.
The Herald even suggested that despite an “immense attendance,” there may have been room for “quite 5,000 more spectators,” on the day.
Goodison Park was in fact the first purpose-built football ground in the country, completed in 1892 to the designs of famous stadium architect Archibald Leitch.
(Feature image: Goodison Park Stadium – Used under Creative Commons License – Credit Ben Sutherland)
