Goodison Park hosted the first derby between Everton and Liverpool 130 years ago – there was no “Merseyside” to prefix the occasion back then – with the hosts triumphing 3-0 on 13 October 1894. Saturday’s game will be its last, barring a meeting in the FA Cup, with Everton relocating to a magnificent new stadium at Bramley Moore dock next season. There have been 119 derbies at Goodison. The local rivals have won 41 apiece. Before the final league derby at the historic old ground, we select six of the most memorable encounters.
11 March 1967 Everton 1-0 Liverpool
The season opened with the Charity Shield at Goodison, where before kick-off Ray Wilson and Roger Hunt paraded the World Cup trophy they had won that summer. Behind the England teammates, Ron Yeats held aloft Liverpool’s league championship trophy and Brian Labone Everton’s FA Cup. The city was, therefore, in a frenzy when the teams were drawn together in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Demand for tickets was so high that Liverpool took the then mind-blowing decision to erect eight giant screens inside Anfield and transmit live coverage of the tie from Goodison. With 65,000 inside Goodison and a further 40,000 watching at Anfield, it was the biggest audience for a single FA Cup tie outside a final. Alan Ball cemented his blossoming love affair with Everton by scoring the winner.
6 November 1982 Everton 0-5 Liverpool
A derby so nightmarish for Everton and so perfect for Liverpool that the Kop still sings about the destruction Ian Rush wreaked on his boyhood club to this day. Rush scored one, Rush scored two, Rush scored three and Rush scored four as he condemned Everton to their heaviest derby defeat at Goodison. And that only tells part of the tale. Howard Kendall had given an Everton debut to Glenn Keeley, signed on loan the week before in response to a defensive shortage. Keeley had not played all season due to a stand-off with Blackburn and was unaware of the newly introduced rule that players would be sent off for professional fouls. Liverpool were dominating and winning 1-0 when Keeley hauled down Kenny Dalglish as he raced through on goal in the 37th minute. “I honestly expected to get a booking,” he admitted many years later, “so when I get sent off it came as a shock.” Rush ran riot in the second half, Keeley never played for Everton again and their shellshocked goalkeeper, Neville Southall, was loaned to Port Vale afterwards to recover.
3 May 1989 Everton 0-0 Liverpool
A football game that meant little but a Merseyside derby that meant everything. Eighteen days after the Hillsborough disaster, Liverpool played their first competitive match at an emotionally raw Goodison. The entire city was in despair but was united that night not only by grief, but solidarity and respect. “The Kop thanks you all. We never walked alone,” read a banner in the Liverpool end. Fans carried 95 intertwined Liverpool and Everton scarves around the pitch before kick-off in memory of those unlawfully killed at Hillsborough. It would be 97 now. The thunderous chant of “Merseyside, Merseyside” that preceded the minute’s silence, and the explosive roar that followed the quiet, will never be forgotten by those present. As the late, great David Lacey wrote in his Guardian match report: “Football was a trivial reason for 95 people to die but football will help the city learn to live with its sorrow. As the fans formed a chain of 95 blue and red scarves knotted together it became clear that the crowd of nearly 46,000 had come, not only to remember those who were lost, but to remind each other that soccer and Merseyside were indivisible.”
20 February 1991 Everton 4-4 Liverpool
A classic FA Cup tie that had lasting repercussions for Liverpool. Kenny Dalglish’s team were top of the league going into the fifth-round replay but showing signs of ageing. Four times they led and four times Everton drew level, with Tony Cottee equalising in the 89th minute and six minutes from the end of extra time after Liverpool errors. Dalglish would later claim one of them was hesitation on his part, when stalling over a decision to drop Jan Molby into defence. That, however, was a sign of a more deep-rooted problem. “Match of a lifetime” was the headline in the Liverpool Echo. It was not an exaggeration, but the story would be eclipsed less than 48 hours later when Liverpool convened a Friday morning press conference. Dalglish had resigned. The trauma of managing Liverpool through the Hillsborough disaster, including attending as many funerals as possible, had taken an inevitable and heavy toll on the club legend. The venue for the second replay was decided by a toss of a coin. Liverpool, led by the caretaker manager Ronnie Moran, were beaten 1-0 at Goodison.
16 April 2001 Everton 2-3 Liverpool
Liverpool have a habit of inflicting late torment on their local rivals and before Sadio Mané and Divock Origi there was a 36-year-old Gary McAllister, from almost 40 yards. Gérard Houllier’s team had to win at Goodison to preserve their chances of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time, having let a top-three place slip in the preceding games. And Liverpool had not won at Goodison in 11 years. It was a nasty occasion inside and outside the ground, the evening kick-off on an Easter Monday not helping. There were 12 bookings, two in the direction of Igor Biscan, and the 10 men of Liverpool were ruing a penalty miss by Robbie Fowler and a late David Unsworth equaliser when they were awarded a free-kick 44 yards from goal in the 93rd minute. McAllister stole a few yards and, with everyone inside Goodison expecting him to deliver to the far post, the wily veteran swept an audacious free-kick inside Paul Gerrard’s near post. Liverpool, belief rekindled, went on to complete a cup treble and pip Leeds to third.
24 April 2024 Everton 2-0 Liverpool
The most recent Merseyside derby was also one of the most celebrated by those of a royal blue persuasion. Everton had not tasted a derby victory at Goodison for 14 years. Jürgen Klopp had never lost at Goodison. Sean Dyche’s team were fighting to avoid relegation. Liverpool were challenging for the title. What unfolded was “horrible to watch” according to the outgoing Liverpool manager and unrecognisable to Everton fans as their team performed with an intensity and quality that had been largely absent during another troubled campaign. Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals that sparked chants of: “You lost the league at Goodison Park.” The old place genuinely shook that night as Evertonians turned it into a bear pit. It may be decrepit, littered with obstructed views and with shocking facilities, but it will be sorely missed when it’s gone.
