Carry on the good work, John, hope there are many more articles on the way.

Apart of course from winning the league twice and the cup, the greatest moment of the decade for me was on the day in August 1966 when we signed Alan Ball. We had all assumed he was heading for Leeds. Hardly anything had been mentioned recently in the press of our interest.

The BBC mid evening news headlines on that famous Monday evening, read by Richard Baker, ran along the following lines: ‘Football; Alan Ball a member of England’s World Cup winning team has tonight signed for Everton...’. I jumped so high I nearly hit the ceiling. My mother told me off for shouting. The following morning I cycled to Maghull to buy every newspaper I could get hold of.

To have the best player from a World Cup Final playing for us was absolutely fantastic. From 1966-1970 the whole country basked in the glory of that World Cup win but we had the player whose sheer will to win had driven the national team to victory. ‘All we are saying is Alan’s our King’ was only one of many songs we sang in the middle of the Street End in honour of our greatest outfield player of the post war era.

Match of the Day became compulsory viewing for millions on a Saturday night even though only one game was featured until 1969 when they started to show brief, poor quality footage from a second match.

For me, I went to a couple of games in the 62-63 season, but in all honesty cannot remember them. However, move forward to season 63-64, an 8 year old boy seeing his team beat Manchester Utd 4-0 in the Charity Shield at Goodison, a bright sunny day glinting off a trophy, that’s when I fell in love, that’s why Everton FC winning a trophy is important to me.

I wonder if that young Sunderland keeper is the youngest top flight player ever? In line with the subject of these articles, we only ever hear of the youngest ever Premier League player of late and whoever it is, I don't believe they were that young?

Hi John [2], if your first game at Goodison was against Aston Villa, I think you've got the date wrong, you must be referring to the first home game in the 1962-63 season when Derek Dougan took to the field sporting what we call a 'Mohican haircut'. It was reported in one of the newspapers a few weeks later, that Joe said to him, "If you want to be different score a bloody goal"

Hi Peter [3], my aim was to cover every season from 1948-49 to 1991-92 to remind 'Oldie's' like myself and Dave Abrahams, [plus many others.] of the time when we could turn up and pay at the gate, and football being what it is I've no doubt that we saw our share of games that were less than impressive.

Hi Dave [4], I hope you don't mind being enrolled into the "Oldie's Brigade".

Hi Danny [6], I've had no success in tracing the youngest player prior to the Premier League, but I do know that Albert Geldard was 16 years and 156 days old when he made his debut for Bradford Park Avenue in 1929, making him 29 days younger than Forster.

I know at one time Albert Geldard was the youngest player in the English league at 15 years and so many days, not sure if it was with Bradford, he later found fame with Everton, John Mac should put us straight with that.

I just told this thread that you would put us straight regarding Albert Geldard, and while I writing that you were doing it... mind-reading skill as well eh, John.

My age would stop me from protesting about being in the “Old Brigade” unfortunately!!

The Alan Ball signing was fantastic (and Howard Kendall too). Viewed thru my blue-tinted glasses Alan Ball was the greatest player to have kicked a football.

I hope all the fans who've suffered thru mostly shite since the late 80s get to see Everton win the league.

My first game was definitely on 13 October 1962, a 1-1 draw versus Aston Villa. The Villa game you are thinking of was actually on the first day of the previous season 1961-62. We won that one 2-0. I remember one of my uncles talking about Dougan's haircut which also got a mention in the papers.

Hi Dave [11] there are three more episodes covering the seasons 1970-71 to 1991-92, when football was claimed to have been reborn.

Hi John [12] you are absolutely correct, please excuse the wanderings of an old man, the game you attended was indeed a 1-1 draw. Roy Vernon scoring from the penalty spot, and you were part of a 53,035 crowd. By the way I've never found the word sorry difficult to say.

Yes, nearly everyone remembers the 4-1 Fulham game when we won the title that year, but the Bolton game was a very nervous one, if I'm correct. We won 1-0 but, because of the only-goal margin, most of us were on edge until the final whistle. I don't even remember who scored the goal, I'll have a guess with Roy Vernon.

Like yourself I couldn't remember the scorer of the goal against Bolton, but you are correct in guessing that it was Roy Vernon. There are goals that stick in the mind, like the Alex Young effort against Spurs and the Dave Hickson goal at the Gwladys Street end against Birmingham. Had we dropped a point then, we would have been confined to the Second Division, and who knows for how long?

I can't remember some match details of recent seasons, and have to rely on Josh to refresh my memory. I now give advice to younger people, I say, "Whether you grow old gracefully or disgracefully don't worry, the secret is to grow old slowly" unfortunately nobody's cracked the formula.

This had every result in the history of the British game and I swear at one point I knew almost every Everton score and attendance! Love the way you add the personal touch to this and that it brings back memories for others.

I wonder if I still have that book somewhere, we moved house so often with my dad being in the army that lots of things had to be left behind.

More please!

I just want Everton to be the first club to win the title in 3 different centuries. Now that would be history.

Really only look at your articles now, think you know why, I am a head the ball free zone, so keep them coming. Stay safe and keep well, and I need an operation to take the smile off my face. Long, long, long overdue but hopefully many more good days to come.

Hi Phil [17] thanks for your kind remarks, and as you rightly say, it would be nice to win the FA Cup in three different centuries, I'll have to do a bit of research to confirm that we'd be the first to do so, I'll let you know how I get on. [watch this space]

I remember the goal against Bolton, Roy dribbling round Eddie Hopkinson in his inimitable style, in slow motion in my mind’s eye.

The nice people at Bluekipper sent me a copy of a photo of it, endorsed with Roy’s Everton record, goals, attendances, which I used as a wallpaper for years.

Possibly the goal that pretty much sealed the Championship, but it didn’t feel like that then!

Can you confirm that 69-70 was the year Westie had to start wearing the same shorts as the rest of the team.

Regarding the dark shorts that Gordon West and his predecessors wore, I have no idea when goalkeepers were forced to wear the same coloured shorts as outfield players, but I do have a photo in a book that shows him in white shorts, in a fixture against Sheffield United in August 1971. I think that now it's the norm for goalkeepers to wear shorts of a different colour than their team-mates.

I loved the Home International series. It was a brilliant end to the season and a chance for us to see players we only saw on TV. I was at the match where George Best was sent off for throwing mud at the ref. Also, one of his greatest performances, in a 1-0 win over Scotland where Dave Clements scored the winner.

I also seem to remember seeing Bob Latchford score in a 2-0 at Windsor Park, a match in which two of the Irish lads fought on the pitch (Terry Cochrane and Gerry Armstrong. Big Gerry buried his boot in Cochrane's arse) and I think Billy Bingham subbed them.

England eventually decided they were too good to bother with the series and it died with Northern Ireland as the last Champions. The late Noel Brotherston was the player of the series.

I think the decision by England is the main reason why I have had a slow burning resentment of the England international side. Having said that, I was always an admirer of Alf Ramsay despite him ignoring some of my favourite players and cheered England on when an Everton player was in the team.

I can recall Tommy Wright playing a blinder against Rumania, a match in which Alan Ball scored.

I'm glad to know that you enjoy the articles, I had hoped that they would bring back memories to the older fans, and give the younger fans an idea of what football was like in those days.

So sorry for your loss.

Sincere commiserations to you and your family. Take care of yourself.

Re the 4-step rule for keepers; this came about as a direct result of the time-wasting by the Portugese keeper vs North Korea at Goodison Park... Once they got ahead thanks to Eusebio and one from Torres, every time the keeper had the ball, he would spend ages jogging to rand fro across his area, still bouncing the ball as legally required, every 3 steps and the ref could do nothing. He would only kick it when the Gwladys St crowd got louder and louder in its disapproval... (gerra'kinmoveon)

While we really appreciated Eusebio, we were all for the underdog and wanted to see if North Korea could score again... which they always looked likely to do, because Portugal seemed a bit shakey at the back, but I think their physical and mental legs gave out when they conceded the 5th.

It was too late for Fifa to amend the rule for the start of season 66-67 so it had to wait until 67-68.

The Portugal vs North Korea game in '66 was sensational. The sum of knowledge world-wide re North Korea was zero. 3-0 up as they were in the quarter-final (having already seen off Italy no less) they were then destroyed by Eusebio alone, belting in four goals. That guy was electric, in everything he did. Check Youtube folks – he was something else!

Hi Don [38] thanks for your kind words, I obviously echo your comments on the subject of life's priorities. The attitude of the Korean's was magnificent, and the memories of that day are firmly fixed in the minds of those who were lucky enough to witness their valiant efforts, of almost fifty five years ago.

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