Tommy Eggleston Remembered

Tommy’s close friendship with Bobby Robson at least explains why he virtually swopped the young and excellent David Johnson for that pony, Rodney Belfitt. Friends don’t always do you the best favours, do they?

I think that Wright was actually a Harry Cooke "spot" as the Chief Scout was impressed with how he got "in the thick of it" when playing for Walsall against Everton.

As for the Johnson exit and Belfitt arrival – we certainly got the bad end of that deal – whoever sanctioned it (Tommy was Assistant Manager to Harry Catterick at the time).

I’m going to print that photo and put all their names on it so I never, ever forget the greatest football team I’ve ever seen. And it’s going on the bedroom wall, where it belongs.

you really need bringing up on your 1960’s Everton Studies Colin... these were the players / men of my youth!!!! scary thing is that it only seems like yesterday!

Please say I’m right. This is after all my dream team.

Subs: Rankin, Hurst, Whittle?..........I give up. Oh, the shame and I didn’t google it.

But back to Keith Newton, sadly never played to his true potential and played out of position and struggled to the end of his time here...

Roger Kenyon played a major role in the run in when Labone got injured and served Everton well for some years afterward. But you’re right, Colin, he had a fine head of hair... almost Hicksonian at times. Sadly passed away, as have Sandy Brown, Alan Ball, Gordon West and Brian Labone from the 69-70 squad. RIP, you heroes!!!

Like a sadly diminishing core, those formative days of my teens were the very happiest I have had as an Evertonian. Rob Sawyer’s recent book on Harry Catterick brought them all back to me and the words therein of of my good friend, David Exall – then the Programme Editor – says it all:–

"It was just like poetry in motion. I get quite tearful even now when I think back to how good they were and how brilliantly they played."

I still hold it against my dad to this day for not letting me run on the pitch which I never fail to remind him of...

Tommy Wright and Sandy Brown were our full backs most of that league winning side I think.

Plenty of talented Brits around in those days.

In the early hours I began to realise that my formative years as an Evertonian were of such high standard that so little of what has followed the sixties has seemed of any quality. It’s as though in 1970, the football gods slammed the door on Everton, opening it only on rare occasions since.

No doubt that explains my distrust of those whose utterings get far more headlines than their performance and why so many of those who talk so easily of ’greatness’ have never really witnessed it!

Gordon Lee’s team could’ve reached the stars but, as the man himself infamously said, "if I want to see stars all I have to do is look at the sky".

You’ll hate me for saying this, Phil, but I haven’t been so excited as I am now since those halcyon days. I think we are close to something special again.

As for the picture, it came with the family when we emigrated to Canada, and hung on my bedroom wall.

I will open up the record books when I get a moment at home to give the full grist on who played when and what etc. Want to do it tonight but Jackson Browne in Manchester beckons.

Sue, interesting about John Hurst... always No 10 yet in the middle. Quite unusual for those days re the numbers.

1969-70 Appearances

Gordon West was indeed dropped in the 1970-71 season following a poor run of form (he was inclined to these during all of his Goodison career) including a European Cup game stinker which we won comfortably against Kevlavik. Andy Rankin played in all of the other European games and was in goal for the infamous Cup semi-final when Labone went off at half time and we lost our 1-0 lead to the RS at Old Trafford. Gordon did make a popular reappearance at the end of that season, I think, and played some games in the following season, a little more portly, before leaving us to David Lawson!

The stats don’t lie... they all played most of the games and so must have been a regular trio.

To all those I have misled over the last forty years a big apology and I shall start taking more water with it.

Unfortunately Tommy was hit by injuries from about 1971 onwards and played his last game in April 1973 after which he was forced to retire at just 28.

Seamus, eat your heart out!

Tommy Jackson did play in the semi-final and Alan Ball missed that game.

And didn’t Roger Kenyon play in this game as well?

That game you refer to when Everton played Kevlavik was a night I was ashamed to be an Evertonian. Gordon West made an error early in the game which cost us a goal. Gordon was booed by the crowd behind the goal, he then stood around the penalty spot every time the ball was at the other end.

To treat a genuine lad like Westy stunk.

In the we won, I think 5-2 or 6-2 but I got no joy out of that night nor out of the victory.

It was the one and only time I saw The Cat throw his arms round every member of his team. Bally, standing in for injured Labby received the trophy from Man Utd’s Louis Edwards.

That night was the happiest of my life and my missus knows it !

You are most probably right, glad your wife enjoyed the night as well!!!!!!!

Lots of great memories of that season. For those wondering about John Hurst, when he first came into the team he was played more forward but didn’t have the pace and got a lot of stick. In the Championship winning team he was moved back although retaining the number 10 shirt. Scored the winner at Arsenal on the opening day (1-0) and was a rock in the team remembered for the Holy Trinity. He anchored the team and helped Kendall, Ball and Harvey to do the damage they did. A players’ player. Happy days.

Thanks Rob for another great article.

Nowadays it’s Ossie, Lukaku and even Martinez. Nothing really changes, does it?

I don’t know about Westy getting stick in that Keflavik match – he gave all of us in Gwladys St plenty when he stuck two fingers up at us!

Well every one who booed him, and there were plenty, deserved the two fingers and more.

Just a quick word about John Hurst with his shirt number confusing Ken Wolstenholme. This wasn’t the first time Catterick had used this tactic, Colin Harvey wore the No 10 shirt in the final against Sheff Wed with Gabriel wearing No 4 and Brian Harris No 6.

Fred Pickering, who Catterick bought from Blackburn for £60,000, was controversially left out of the final for Mike Trebilcock who came from Plymouth... sorry, can’t stop when I start.

They were all talented players but it’s the less talented ones who really get stick week-in & week-out: I remember Brett Angell getting dog’s abuse when attempting to warm up before a game, and my little lad was convinced that Neil McDonald’s first name was actually Fuckoff, as in the stadium-wide cry of "Fuck Off, McDonald!" that ensued as another attempted cross ended up 20 rows back in the Gwladys Street.

Same at all clubs, though – both Ian Bowyer and Paul Power were effectively forced out of Man City by the boo boys and both went on to greater things.

I will always wonder what would have happened in the 1970 World Cup if he hadn’t turned down the chance to go. If he’d have deputised for Banks, would we have lost to West Germany? Westy RIP.

I cried in 1964 when he told me that Fred Pickering had been signed to replace Alex – although Young outlasted him here, so it wasn’t really true – and I never became a fan of the ex-Blackburn man for all his goals in our cause.

I was daft like that. Then.

I see what you are saying but I was near the front of Gwladys Street that night and some of the remarks were very personal and maybe Gordon was unwise to show his displeasure with the fans but I know from his reaction that he was sickened by what was shouted to him.

It always amazes me that fans(?) seem to think they can abuse players no matter how distasteful, and then take umbrage if a player responds back.

I was at the Keflavik game that September night. Here we are, Champions with a not too good a start to the season in our first European Cup game against some Icelandic part timers who everyone expects us to stuff. Except the plucky Icelandics were up for their big night and had a go.

Westy fluffed a few early attempts and eventually one goes past him and we are one down. Cue the bubbling stick he’d been getting behind the goal to turn into a louder load of verbal. Earlier he had turned to the Street End, hands outstretched, saying "Come on... give us a break. Get off my back." but now the verbals got to him and he turned and gave them the V-sign and told them to "Fuck Off" clearly.

It was rumoured Catterick saw this as the reason to leave him out the next league game and he didn’t surface for a while later. He was – as someone stated – a man who fell out of love a lot with his job... something I can certainly relate to.

I think his aloofness was a lot to do with his nerves and concentration. He used to throw up in the toilets in the dressing room before games and smoke like mad. How he ever did live the life of a performer in front of large crowds, I will never know... but he was a great great servant.

Harry Catterick – Champions twice and Cup Winners once in an 8-year period when Spurs, Man Utd, and Liverpool were in their pomp. Nicholson, Busby and Shankly were his opposition. Say no more.

Roy Vernon – IMHO, he was a better striker than Dennis Law and Jimmy Greaves.

Only in recent years have I realised how important Dennis Stevens and John Hurst were to the team.

Brian Labone was a great captain and great centre half.

It broke our hearts when Alan Ball was sold to Arsenal.

When both of those teams were in full flight, the brand of football they played was both breathtaking and unique. They moved the ball up the pitch so quickly and they "pressed" the ball like a wolf pack when they didn’t have it. Although they were all talented footballers those two characteristics were coached into them – take a bow, Tommy and Harry.

My dad (God rest his soul) always used to say to me before he passed away "We will be great again". He had followed Everton since before the war and into the Moyes era. He was referring to those two teams when he used the word "great" – they truly were.

Last but not least – I believe we will be great again despite all the seemingly insurmountable financial restraints that bar our way. There is just something "great" about Everton Football Club. I can’t put my finger on it but it sets us apart from most other clubs.

If I’ve wandered off topic into the realms of nostalgia, take it easy on me – it’s Everton’s fault.

You’re right though, we are destined for greatness. I can feel it in my bones. We are a club that goes through cycles and our time is coming again.

But, if you mean ’great’ in the sense of winning the Premier League and European trophies, as other clubs see it, then only a miracle can EVER make that happen.

The artificial wealth of Chelsea and Man City – limitless in spite of ’Fair Play’ standards being introduced (phony to the core!) – has effectively turned the English game into a copy of what prevailed in Scotland before Rangers got themselves sold to ’a wrong ’un’!

In this scenario, even the business skills of the American entrepreneurs at Man Utd and Liverpool (near misses don’t count!) have been impotent because in both instances they play by business rules to turn a profit.

Of course, despite my gut-feeling that we are a ’seventhish’ club which can aspire to a Top Four place from time to time, is that really the measure of greatness? I don’t think so. But we can enjoy some great times in the endeavour to do better!

I must say, I was never a fan of Denis Stevens or Fred Pickering as neither had the natural ability of those players they replaced. Stevens was a workhorse and would have been an average top division player, as was Pickering, who was pretty clumsy. We hardly ever replaced star players of the early ’60s with their equals and that is why IMHO we never created the conveyor belt of trophies that Liverpool unfortunately did.

We remember great days and seasons because they are distant memories now. The Everton team I watched in my very young years was a bloody awful one and I think we had a home gate of about 13,000 for one match, which gives recent fans some idea of what we went through between 1949 and 1953. That is why the team that John Carey assembled is lauded today.

The season before he was sacked was when the team played the best football but that was in home matches and the away form was not good for some unknown reason. Catterick signed Kay who was brilliant and would have graced any side. But, he tended to sign on lesser skilled players and went for steel.

Our away results improved and we started to win titles but, having been a decent-level player myself, I always enjoyed watching flair players who really entertained the fans so I missed the likes of Ring, Vernon, Collins and Young. Those players will be remembered for much longer than Stevens and Pickering etc.

I actually saw Matthews, Lawton and Finney play against us and Lawton, who had been one of our greatest ever centre-forwards, returned with Notts County to Goodison Park and seemed to win every header. I know that he scored at least one goal and we got stuffed 4-1.

The season Liverpool were relegated, Finney’s Preston North End beat them 5-1 at Anfield and Finney missed a penalty although he tore them apart during the game.

I actually played against a couple of ex-Everton players when they played for Rochdale in the old 3rd Division North. Maybe someone will remember Eddie Wainwright and Jackie Grant?

I’ll take most Evertonians’ word that we have one!

Gordon West was apparently the PFA rep at Everton and an old mate of mine who was in the Everton junior teams then told me the story of how he came in to tell the kids all about the PFA and why they should join. He was wearing crappy old swimming trunks with a Jockstrap on his head. Apparently he started with a rendition of the Beatles’ ’You Can’t Do That’ which went: ’I’ve got something to show you that might cause you pain, It’s a 2 foot dick with a varicose vein’. It’s amazing the stuff that sticks in your mind (and a bit worrying)!

I loved Dennis Stevens. I know he replaced one of my favourites in Bobby Collins, but he did a great job for the Blues, grafted all over the pitch always with the team in mind. They came first to Dennis.

I never worried when I went to away matches if Alex Young wasn’t playing as long as Stevens and Johnny Morrissey were in the team – that’s how important they were to the side.

When we played away at Southport in the 3rd round of the FA Cup in 1968 they tried to combat this by getting their big lump of a centre forward, Eric Redrobe, to stand right in front of Westy, a legitimate tactic in those days. Redrobe never fouled, but every time Gordon dropped to one knee and got a free kick, much to Eric’s annoyance. He eventually got booked, which Gordon found hugely amusing.

I once vividly remember West getting involved in a derby match fracas when he raced half the length of the pitch and then gently pushed St John in the chest... it was hilarious.

The return derby match came around and West was given a pinkish handbag which he tossed into the back of the net and St John received a bunch of bananas. St John was sent off on at least three occasions for punching opposing players and the joke was that he was the only centre forward with a Lonsdale Belt. :0)

Pancho Pearson of Man Utd was knocked spark out by St John and the Liverpool striker did not even wait for the referee to act. Pancho later said he did not even remember the punch which was a great left hook!

A favourite ditty, when playing rivals Tranmere, to the tune of "The Hole in the Elephant’s Bottom" was....

Ay, ay, ay ay
Reeves is better than Yashin,
Redrobe is better than Eusebio
And Rovers are in for a thrashin’

Was in line for an Ivor Novello. Regards to Charlie!

On the surface it does looks like we need a financial miracle to win a premiership - but perhaps there is another "more excellent way".

It seems to me "winning" is 75% a state of mind and the remaining 25% ability. There is no reason why our footballers can't be as fit, strong and fast as Chelsea's Man City, or any other team on the planet.

The only thing is you need a General to bring the best out of "the team". I am hoping that Roberto Martinez is such a general.

I have said this many times on ToffeeWeb - history is full surprising victories - even in football. Perhaps the most outstanding example of this was England winning the World Cup in 1966. The architect of that footballing miracle was Sir Alf Ramsey (who as you know led Ipswich to the first division title in 1961-2)

Here is an interesting link http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Ramsey#Tactics

I just can't bring myself to subscribe to the idea that money will always win - it crushes hope and aspiration.

Up the Blues.