A Truly Great Goodison Night

Oh fuck it - what's the point. Just get depressed.

After his pint, he gathers us together from the bar and marches us over to the Directors' Entrance opposite
The miserablle arl git on the door, a large man dressed in a peaked cap and full "doorman" regalia says "these young fellas can't go up the boardroom, John", to which Moggsy responded "these young fellas pay your wages pal...and mine, so shift!'

Up the stairs we go to mingle with the good and the great in the boardroom and be introduced to the likes of Labby, Alan Ball Snr, Sir John and Harry Catterick, bless him

By reputation and visage an aloof, stern man but not that night - he greeted us with a big smile, shook hands and thanked each of us, in turn, for our "wonderful" support

I'd never drunk champagne and Worthington E in the same glass until that evening
It was already a night to remember but, thanks to Moggsy, one us youngsters have never forgotten

We were Kings that night, all of us, the extended Everton family

That magical night, some small revenge for `68, is up there with the Bally FA Cup windswept derby and the Bayern game - and some "modern" Evertonians expect the likes of me to "get real" and accept how far we've fallen
Bollocks to that

Gordon Clegg

(... still can't get over that Mugsy story Phil ...)

Well I think he was joking.

Sadly, I fear the modern day equivalent to your experience that night, is a tweet from one of our 'heroes'

He looked like a misery guts but was a lovely feller.

Some suggesting it was a tax fiddle.

Others suggesting it was for the brown envelopes that Sir John passed round the players after a good performance.

Others suggesting ot was fiddling gatekeepers who would let you jump over the turnstyle for a few quid.

Some miserable gits used to wrap a pound around plain paper!!

Fond memories of big Joe becoming a colossus of a man that year aged about 20.

Who says kids never get a chance.

Well I have to admit that before my transformation I was a Burnley supporter - at the time they were First Division Champions and as I then worked in London I had seen some memorable matches at all the big London Grounds

The most memorable of those Burnley games was against Spurs and they were a team to be seriously reckoned with, with Blanchflower, Jones and many more. But I was a Burnley supporter sitting right in the middle of the Spurs fans and at half time we were 4-0 down, I was being pummelled from behind and my scarf tightened around my throat

But they forgot to reckon with McIlroy and Pointer. Final score 4 - 4 what a game.

Anyway not to detract from my allegiance to Everton. On the 27th December 1960 I went to Goodison, not for the first time, but this time to sit in the Gwladys Street stand with a colleague who had had tickets from Brian Labone.
This friend lived in Mauritannia Avenue - forget his name.

Everton had won on the Monday at Turf Moor 1-3 before a crowd of 44232
and they were now visiting us the next day.

I do not consider the result as the turning point in my allegiance to the Blues as we lost 0- 3 in front of a crowd of 74867.

Let me say that again - seventy four thousand eight hundred and sixty seven.

The scene that I witnessed that day was enough to make anyone an Evertonian. Fathers were passing their sons over their heads to sit around the touchline - I had never seen anything like it before nor since. What a place, what a feeling of family what a team -

Alex Parker
Brian Labone
Geoff Thomson
Bobby Collins
Jimmy Gabriel
Brian Harris
Derek Temple
Billy Bignham
Frank Wignall and of course that genius
Roy Vernon.

All this even before the coming of the Golden Vision - Alex Young!!

I rest my case.

I was also at the Burnley game and my memory of that game was that kids (I was a kid then) were passed down to the front and if I remember correctly some were allowed to sit around the edges of the pitch - - the track or whatever its called.

Never ever forget them days. That's why I am a Blue Forever.

My first heroes were Micky Lill and Bobby Collins. Loved Brian Harris and Jimmy Gabriel but then came Alec Young - - loved him.

One early memory that still sticks out was the following season winning a penalty shoot-out against Borrussia Munchen Gladbach. The sheer madness that grown men will get up to.

My memories are not fading yet .................... Just getting harder to remember.

As for he West Brom game, I most remember the Alan Whittle goal - a cracker into the end I was sitting. He had become a real hero for me - I think he scored double figures in the run in after Jimmy Husband was injured.

Best I could manage was a few late sixty thousands, excluding Wembley (but quite a few of them - Man U home and away was always a 60k-er, but 'the barn' only to hold about 50,000 so the Anfield derby wasn't one of the big crowds. We got over 60,000 for the Cup replay against Wolves in 1967 I recall.

I had to watch the game on my own in the Gwladys as my mate from Ellesmere Port only just managed to get in but couldn't find me in the huge crowd. Still, one of the best nights of my Everton life (51 years) and one that I will never forget.

The crowds may be smaller these days but my belief is that the core Everton crowd is still as passionate as ever. If we ever did win anything again, it would be fantastic but I live in hope more than expectation.

My memory of Whittle's goal was that we had an indirect free kick in the penalty box about 10 yards out. Albion defenders lined up on the goal line and the ball was passed to Whittle who waited for someone to run towards him and then thumped it in through the gap. But I am no longer sure if my memory is accurate.

I remember Harvey's goal into the Park End top right hand corner from the left edge of the box. I was more or less in line from the Upper Bullens Road.

Happy days ..

The night in question, memory plays tricks, due I say, to the sensory overload of the then new factors I had to contend with, being 19, Beer, Girls, Football and Music ( nothing to do at all with old age ) I thought it was Whittle who put it in the top corner at the Park End. I remember WBA putting up stern resistance to the inevitable.

The season; The pre-season friendly Vs Dundee U. they scored first and we just laughed, we knew, just knew with absolute certainty that we would win, thats how easy it was.

Correct with TV and the Catt. they did a piece on us and Harry got sucked in to revealing a bit too much about how Sandy might be weak compared with the Ray Wilson he replaced ( well he would be any one would be ) He was ' targeted ' add in the own goal and his confidence was gone, hence Keith Newton in Jan.

The Attendances - Worlds longest running joke. It got worse when we got the first manky score board. We knew what the capacity was, we could see how full the ground was... 3/4s full, say high 30s, Up would pop the attendance at the end, we would wait for the figuure just to see how far out it was...31,386. hoots of derision from all and sundry.

I was at the Burnley game full but not OTT, but the Spurs game when Alex scored' That Goal ' was only I think 64K or something. We were first in when the gates opened and was front and centre behind the Gwladys St. goal... I have never been so crushed in all my life before or since. 64K, yeah right.

All the usuals, Bill Nicholson, Shankly, Don Revie, Busby were trotted out
I, proudly procalim, ta-daaa!, was in the 7% that got it right - Harry Catterick

If you ever are in Lytham, visit his grave and read the inscription - if you're an Evertonian and don't cry, you, my friend, are one hard bastard

Me mate brought me back a bit of the turf as a consolation though.

The games against the likes of Burnley, Blackburn Spurs, City, Utd., Wolves, and, when they eventually managed to join us in the top flight, Liverpool, were all all ticket matches. My Dad would get my Mam to queue up all day for tickets at the old Stadium by Exchange St Station while he was at work. Try asking yer missus that nowadays...
The 74,867 (including me) who attended the Burnley match on 27th Dec, a day after we'd played them on the Boxing Day, was more than we got for the Utd game on the first home match of the season, and was even more than we got for the first Derby match in the modern era, ie. after the RS promotion in 1962. Lancashire derby's were always popular with the fans and Burnley, Wolves as well as Spurs were top teams in those days.

Harry Catterick was by all accounts a real character; I have been to a couple of Everton nights at my local parish club and the old-time players spin a good few tales about him. It's a shame he wasn't more media friendly, but he did it his way and nobody bothered about this when he was winning trophies.

There used to be a great photo above the bar in the Marlboro alehouse in Slater Street, of The Cat and Shankly... does anyone know if it's still there?

Not sure how many of these we will see in the near future, but there are some great memories out these until it comes around again

One day we'll be back up there, keep the faith!

Alan Whittle's contribution to that run-in was amazing but a goal from Colin Harvey was icing on the cake. Great player that he was, that didn't happen too often.

Attendances - I don't know if they had fire regulations back then, but the visitors did get a slice of the gate I think. We always thought the club kept as much of that as they could, hence the "official" figure.

Adam - don't forget the effect that all-seater stadiums have had. Back then, going to the match didn't seem to be an expensive activity. Perhaps someone will put me right by saying that a ticket costs the same number of pints of bitter as it did then, but I'm sure that crowds now consist of older men with more money to spare than used to be the case.

I need to lie down.

When the room stops spinning.

Hope is all I have, but I'm blue to the core

I was a 70s kid and picked up everton around 84/85.

Mine went ecwc, league, losing fa cup, lost double, league, lost fa cup, crapness, fa cup, utter crapness, best of the rest.

I do worry for the new generation, the hope and belief for the young.

It's not been easy for us either. The first years were pure glutiny, Wembley, trophies, best keeper in the world, top goal scorer in 86, to then getting tanked by villa, relegation scraps, and selling heros to stay a float.

My analogy is everton is like a tramp walking around in a jaded old suit. Clearly once upon a time he was the boy, the aristocrat, but now his shoes are knackered, his suit is frayed, he smells of wee and looks in bins. His speech unclear talking of a by gone age.

The last paragraph...."like a tramp walking around in a jaded old suit. Clearly once upon a time he was the boy, the aristocrat, but now his shoes are knackered, his suit is frayed, he smells of wee and looks in bins. His speech unclear, talking of a by gone age. "

Do I know you?

You seem to know me...

My first season ticket cost 3 pound 3 shilling ( 21x3) in 1963. I had to do a Kenwright and mortgage my future paper round earnings for 5months to pay for it. Later on I was ' Granville ' complete with bike for a Butchers shop on ( 108 )County Rd. the things you did to get by. In comparison my first wage packet in 1966 as an apprentice was 3pnd 16/8d so we might assume from that that a season ticket cost abour a third to a quarter of a working mans wages. What does a season ticket go for now 700, is there anybody out there still banging a clock card in a factory and are you getting 2000+ per week in your hand??

The price hike rot set in in 84; you could get a ticket for the main stand for 4 pnd inclding a 50p program. The next season it went to 4.50 and no program.

The price in relation to pints of beer. I think the admission in 1969 as 4shillings and I distinctly remember walking out of a pub in Aigburth around then saying... half a crown for a pint of Double Diamond, you can stick it.

Brown bitter in The Fantail was 1/10d, because I remember asking my dad what he drank and how much it cost !

There are obviously a great many variables here but the conclusion about the relative increase is unmissable. Its hard to quantify, but here's a go in very round figures -

1970 - 10p a pint; 30p admission = x3
2012 - £2.50 a pint; £30 admission = x12

So going to the match is four times more expensive than it was on this measure. Given that we can't stand any more, the price of having a seat has probably doubled anyway.

I remember the photo in The Marlboro. I was in there a few weeks back and don't recall seeing it but that's not to say it's been taken down. The pub has been renamed to some Irish name now but still good for a pint.

Most people, I presume, will have, as their inscription "loving father, husband" etc on their gravestone
From what I recall (bit blurry now) Harry's has all this but proudly "Manager of Everton Football Club...etc"
Reminds me of a few things Ramon Wilson told me about himself...
1. His biggest regret was not being allowed to join Everton when he was 18
2. Losing to WBA in 68 - he says he'd swap the 66 FA cup win for winning in 68
3. On his grave he will have "Englishman, Yorkshireman, Evertonian"

Derek@888 - Memories
I remember my first pint of Double Diamond in the Little House in Smithdown Road, just off Lodge Lane circa 68/9
Bitter was 1/10d (jukebox 3 for a shilling) and the landlady let me have the DD on the house to try it
"Very nice", says I, "I'll have another"
"That'll be 2/6d" she says
"2 and 6!!!!" Bloody `ell, you won't sell much of that, Lily - that's only 8 for a pound"