Everton v Fulham
Everton
Dunlop, Parker, Meagan, Labone, Gabriel, Kay, Scott, Stevens, Young, Vernon, Temple
Fulham
Macedo, Cohen, Langley, Mullery, Keetch, Robson, Key, Brown, Cook, Haynes, O’Connell
Everton’s return to the First Division in 1954 hadn’t initially been a resounding success. During the remainder of the 1950s the club had struggled and spent most of its time skirting around the lower regions of the table.
But as the 1960s dawned, change was in the air at Goodison Park. ‘John Moores, founder of the Littlewoods empire, had started investing in the club, a process that would culminate with him becoming chairman in 1961’ says Greg Murphy, who wrote an expansive analysis of Everton’s boardroom from the 1960s to the 2000s in the Everton fanzine, When Skies are Grey a few years ago.
‘Moores had a simple aim’, Murphy continues, ‘to restore Everton to the elite of the game. And he was going to do this by underwriting investment in players, developing the stadium, improving the club’s commercial performance and getting the right people in charge on the playing side.’
When Moores had first taken control at Everton, the man in the managerial hot seat was Johnny Carey.
‘Although not a popular figure with the players, Carey played an expansive style of football that was open and enjoyable to be part of. It made for a good side, although not a great one. I think we were entertainers but not necessarily winners. It was the sort of side that could be great to watch but which doesn’t win titles’, says Derek Temple, who made his debut for Everton in 1957.
Moores wanted more than to be simply entertained. He wanted silverware. After a catastrophic run of form during the 1960/61 season, a dismal slump that had seen Everton’s incipient title hopes disappear, Carey was sacked.
In his place came the Sheffield Wednesday manager and former Everton player, Harry Catterick.
‘Harry had done great things at Wednesday’ says the left-half, Tony Kay who played for Catterick at both Everton and the Yorkshire club. ‘You have to remember that they had finished runners-up in the league in 1960/61 behind the magnificent Spurs Double winning side, which was no small achievement. He was highly regarded and you could understand why Everton prised him away.’
Like Carey, Catterick was never a particularly popular manager with his players, as Rob Sawyer, author of Harry Catterick: The Untold Story of a Football Great explains:
‘He was a product of his times, a man who had grown up in the more austere environment of the 1920s and 1930s; very old school. He believed that the manager didn’t mingle with the players. He was the absolute boss and they were employed to do his bidding. Admiration and respect for him was mixed with a sizable dose of fear – few players felt much fondness towards him at the time.’
On arrival, Catterick recruited sparingly but judiciously, seeking to create a side that was more resilient.
‘Harry tried to put together a side that was “complete”, that possessed less weak links’, thinks Kay. ‘In particular, he recognised that the Blues had a soft underbelly and perhaps lacked that touch of nastiness that all great sides have. He created a side that could measure up to most in the physical stakes.’
Although Everton only finished fourth during Catterick’s first season in charge (one place higher than Carey the season before), there was a sense of upward momentum about the team.
‘They were simply a better team’, argues David France, author, football historian and founder of the Everton Collection. ‘There was a sense of solidity about them, a feeling this was a team [and a manager] that understood how to win games and manage a season. You had the feeling at Everton that the only way was up, that the club was really going places.’
And so it proved. As the 1962/63 campaign began, Everton started well and remained in the higher reaches of the table throughout the season, giving the fans the belief that here was an Everton side that finally, realistically had a shot of the title.
‘The only worry’, explains lifelong Blues, John Flaherty, ‘was that perhaps we lacked experience. Although unquestionably steelier, this was a side unused to big occasions and the pressures involved in going for big prizes.
And then there was the weather to take into account. With similarities to Everton’s successful 1890/91 title winning campaign, the 1962/63 season was blighted by an uncommonly cold winter.
In parts of England it was one of the coldest winters since records began. Rivers, lakes, and even in places the sea, froze over. Snow law on the ground for months and for several weeks the football calendar was blighted.
Although it affected everyone, the fixture pile up created by the harsh winter made the league more unpredictable. There were so many games rescheduled for April and May that if a club unfortunately chose that period to have a poor run of form it could significantly affect what might otherwise have been a good season.
Fortunately for Everton, the pressures of hunting for the title and the added stress of the fixture pile up were competently navigated. As the season came to a close, the Blues found themselves in a three horse race with Leicester and Spurs for the club’s first title in a generation.
‘We played Spurs at home in the April in a game that was vitally important’, remembers David France. ‘Despite boasting the likes of Jimmy Greaves, Dave Mackay and Terry Dyson, the recent Double winners were outplayed by us. Although just the one goal separated the sides [Alex Young’s], the scoreline flattered Spurs. We had dominated them. It was the performance of champions.’
The impact of beating and outplaying Spurs was tangible. As the season came to a close, Everton were imperious; strong, confident and at times unplayable.
‘We knew we were good’, says Tony Kay, ‘and as the season’s end neared, all we had to do was trust in our ability, maintain concentration and take each game as it came. It also helped that we looked the better side of those chasing the title.’
Spurs and Leicester were faltering, the long season taking its toll. The Foxes in particular, appeared to buckle when it mattered most, taking three points from their final six games.
As Everton’s final fixture came around, the Blues were top of the table. A win at home against Fulham would cement matters mathematically and bring the title home.
‘What a time to be at Goodison that day’, recalls David France. ‘I felt blessed somehow to be part of the tens of thousands who were there watching that game. There was something magical in the air that afternoon. The atmosphere was almost overpowering and is not something I have ever forgotten. The roar that greeted those players as they came out was breathtaking.’
In front of more than 60,000 fans, the game began. ‘Fulham were no pushovers and boasted some decent players, such as Robson, Haynes and Cohen. They might not have enjoyed the best of seasons but we could take nothing for granted. We had to be at our best’, remembers the Everton winger, Derek Temple.
The players and the crowd were given a huge boost after just five minutes when Everton went ahead through Roy Vernon.
‘Parker put the ball through to him on the edge of the penalty area and he collected it off Mullery, dribbled through, drew Macedo out of the goal and put the ball over the line’, reported Charters in the Liverpool Echo.
Everton were dominant and within minutes had got a second, once again through Vernon. ‘It was the start everyone had wanted. We were just a few minutes in and cantering towards the title. Goodison was shaking’, remembers David France.
Although Fulham threatened to spoil the party when they pulled one back though Key after 20 minutes, their goal was an aberration. The London side were never really in the game and not long before the break, Scott effectively killed them off when he restored Everton’s two goal advantage.
‘At half-time it felt like the celebrating had already begun’, recalls lifelong Blue, John Monro ‘We had been so good, you just felt like the day was ours.’
In the second half, although not as clinical as in the first, Everton continued to dominate, with Vernon and Young combining consistently to make life uncomfortable for the Fulham defenders.
‘With five minutes to go Vernon scored his third’, wrote Charters. ‘A long clearance from Dunlop was headed through by Young. Vernon chased it. Although Mullery was with him, Vernon won the chase and then drew ‘Macedo out of the goal and send the ball over the line from a narrow angle.’
When the referee signalled the end of the 90, Goodison revelled in victory. ‘As a supporter, I had not experienced anything like that before’, explains John Monro. ‘It felt great to be back on top again. It was no wonder people were on the pitch dancing.’
For the players, the feeling of being champions was equally satisfying. ‘I recall being up in the old Main Stand after the game with the team, the champagne flowing and cigars being passed round and remember just feeling great’, says Tony Kay.
Everton had come a long way in a short time. The days of struggling in the second tier with a team made up of youngsters and lower league ‘finds’, a board hamstrung by self-imposed austerity and the weight of expectation hanging heavy over Goodison now seemed like a distant memory.
‘Everton were the ‘Mersey Millionaires’, a side on the up, backed by the deep pockets of John Moores’, says Greg Murphy. ‘For the first time in a very long time, the future looked very bright.’
This is an edited extract from Everton’s Greatest Games
JIM KEOGHAN 