Cliff Marshall - Goodison Pioneer

Also, good to see that Cliff chose us for the style of football and was prepared to stick his neck out and stand up for that, eventually leaving on a point of principle. I wonder how he would have got on with Smith or Moyes?!

For younger blues it is impossible to imagine what it was like for black players back then and how tough it must have been, especially running out at away games.

(to give you some idea, imagine the reaction of supporters now to a player running out with a green face).

Language and words that would land you in court now were commonplace back then and nobody turned a hair.

It was toe-curling at times and I remember a (red) mate telling me that Garth Brooks (when playing for Stoke I think) was subjected to an entire 90 mins of (literally) orchestrated racism from those masters of wit on the Kop.

It was a shame Cliff moved on so soon but if it's any consolation, he was just about the coolest looking Everton player I've seen.

I remember remember seeing him for the first time and thinking 'he looks boss!'

As for The Gladray, almost fell of my seat when I read Cliff's Auntie ran it.

Again hard to describe to the young'uns but back then, when the alehouses used to close in the afternoon, and you were 'out on one', this place was a magnet for all kinds of bevvy merchants (as was the L & D, Royal Tiger and one or two places on the dock road).

Illicit bevvy, strippers, 'I Can't By Without You' coming from the speakers and badly drawn pictures of Shaft on the walls - what more could you want?

I remember being in there on a couple of occasions when a large black lady came in with a plate full of spiced meat on skewers.

Think they were 50p a pop and 10 of us bought the lot.

No idea what the meat was but to this day, I still think about how great it tasted.

Happy days indeed.

Best wishes to Cliff, I hope he can contribute to our Club. And how good it is that nobody ever thinks of Amokachi, Campbell, or Lukaku in terms of the colour of their skin.

To onlookers it almost must seem like the Everton hierarchy must have had an agenda regarding the non-recruitment of black players, I also know that the likes of Les Ferdinand quite rightly took great pleasure in scoring against us. Thankfully a shameful part of our history consigned to the past, but always potentially on the fringes.

Eugene #497 – "It was toe-curling at times and I remember a (red) mate telling me that Garth Brooks (when playing for Stoke I think) was subjected to an entire 90 mins of (literally) orchestrated racism from those masters of wit on the Kop".– Those red cunts don't like country music.

Garth Brooks is an American Country singer.

When he heard I was from Liverpool, he asked that question we've all been asked, 'red or blue?'

'Blue' I replied.

He looked a bit perturbed and asked me why Everton had never had any black players.

I felt a little uncomfortable but I was able to compose myself enough tell him he was wrong.

That not only had Cliff played for Everton in 1975/76 but also we had the first black player to score in an FA Cup final.

He was astonished and said "Oh...well....I'll have to look them up"

Now of course Trebilcock might be described as the first mixed race player to score in a cup final but no such distinctions were made back then (well..some did make them, but again using terms that would make you wince).

Dermot, they unfortunately have ruined Ring Of Fire for me forever - they should stick to tunes from 'pop' songs (and stealing Celtic songs and Poor Norwegian Tommy or whatever other witless dirges they drone on about over there).

Consequently, I am occasionally forced to throw in the odd 'mistake' to prove this is not the case.

A massive shame he was only able to stick around for the odd few games as it seems he had a promising career ahead, but fair play to him for sticking to his guns and moving on when forced into David Moyes style tactics.

I see your Gladray,and raise you Dutch Eddies

Very very scary and a completely different 'vibe' to The Gladray (mind you it was about 3am rather than an afternoon session)

I remember there being just stools with no tables.

One of my mates (a big feller) was standing at the bar and a feller pulled the label out of the back of his jumper and said "Extra large eh?"

This was said in a way that suggested my mate had somehow flaunted his 'extra largeness' and was somehow issuing a challenge.

When a feller took my wrist and said to me 'nice watch', I thought, let's go, and we did.

As we came down the steps, a taxi-driver waiting said "Johnson?"

We said "Er...yeah right Johnson, let's go"

That was my only venture there.

A few weeks after, there was a piece in the Echo about someone being refused entry there and blasting the door with a shotgun.

Ahhh the good old days.
That's the Dutch Eddies I remember.
I think the owners name was Johnson.
Many a misspent hour in Dutch Eddies.

Mention of the the Gladray bring back memories , it was a right old place and I remember Cliffies Aunt and Gloria the stripper-what a place and I bet that was some party the Blues had. Eugene is right, Dutch Eddies was called the Tudor and could get rowdy but it was quiet compared to some of the other L8 places-The Fed, The Ibo or the Sierra Leone.

Silver Sands,Somali,The Nigo.
Great days

That is after 8 pints in the nearby Qeen Vic... 8 pints for a pound! Good old days...

I used to have to get the 80 bus from Garston!

Liverpool had a mixed race fullback named Molyneux and I think he must have been their first.

Actually most racial insults from the terraces at both Anfield and Goodison were pretty tame in those days because I well remember St John being pelted with banana's and he was a Scot ! Gordon West received a red handbag which he tossed into the back of his net at the start of one derby match.

It was not until much later when Barnes and Johanneson played that nasty racism reared its ugly head. Probably because they were both really top class !

Interesting I just found this short clip about the Gladray on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmptQujYuiY

As Peter and Eugene mention, younger supporters would struggle to imagine how dire the treatment of black players was at grounds, including Goodison, well into the 1980's and even 1990's. I recall as a young teenager being stunned at the "Everton are White" chants and monkey noises so the likes of Cliff, Clyde Best, Garth Crooks, Cyrille Regis et al had real guts. The last time I recall hearing "N word" comments sat amongst Evertonians was at an away game in 1998 so great progress has been made. However we should not be complacent - I was gutted to hear a proportion of Goodison attendees making "hissing gas" noises when Spurs visited in 2004.

Pound to a penny, if you do hear it and pull them, they back down sharpish.

There was I thinking that Earl Barrett was the first black guy to play for us! Although it was pretty strange that we had no black guys playing for us for so long, when other clubs broke the seal many many years before that. I remember as a kid being told that Everton were a racist club and that's why we had no black players in the 80s and early 90s. Hopefully that was bollocks at the time but it was certainly odd that it was only in the mid-90s that we started to sign black players (after one Cliff Marshall 20 odd years before).

Shame that he lost heart for the game at just 22, sounds like he was pretty handy. Many people would give anything to have a chance at playing professionally so seems odd that he jacked it in so early.

Anyway – glad to hear he's still involved with the club after all this time.

As a 13-year-old, I remember Cliff's games at Goodison Par. As someone previously stated, there was something cool about him. Pity he never hit the heights, he could have changed a lot of attitudes at GP.

The Gladray.... an experience.... Did anybody ever spend an afternoon or several at the Yankee Clipper in town, 3 o'clock closing days?

As for whether the lack of black players before came about by accident or not, I guess try asking Gordon Lee, Howard Kendall and Colin Harvey. As the 3 Managers between Cliff Marshall under Billy Bingham and Daniel Amokachi under Mike Walker, they will have identified who they wanted to sign. Either they didn't want any black players (coincidence or not) or they were quietly told not to go there. Nobody knows except them.

I do believe that Howard Kendall Mk 2 wanted to sign Ian Wright, Brian Deane and of course, Dion Dublin, although because of our 'reputation' by then, most black players were probably a bit wary. Certainly Ian Wright was and what a signing he would have turned into. Instead we got Maurice 'Rocking Horse' Johnston. Oh deary me!

I remember Clifford quite vividly. I remember a game at home to Derby and I think Gemmill had done him with a right nasty tackle and Cliff shouting. "Mickey, mickey." To which Bernard came running towards Gemmill and stamped his foot maybe an inch away from Archie's as much to say "One more time and your mine!" We were standing in the paddock right next to it in stitches.

But you've shocked me because I thought Cliff played more than 8 times — I'd have said at least 20 but there you go Did Tony Hibbert play in the same side as him because it feels like he's been around for 50 years. Hasn't changed much, has he...

I have got loads of photos of Cliff from when he played. I will get them out and send them to you.

It's traditional to blame Evertonians for starting it.