September 27 – To Everton the Spoils

EVERTON take on Liverpool today in the Merseyside derby in the ever-unpopular lunchtime kick off, and if history is anything to go by, which it isn’t, the portents are good for the Blues.

Until David Moyes came along and dragged Everton kicking and screaming to the upper reaches of the Premiership, life was a bit of a struggle for Toffees fans as the team battled relegation on a regular basis.

It was all a far cry from the club’s title and cup winning heydays in the mid 1980s, but in 1998 they had a new dawn, unfortunately it was a false one. Walter Smith, the fantastically successful former Glasgow Rangers manager took the reigns and rallied the team for a time.

Perhaps the highlight of his tenure occurred on this day in 1999 when his team took on Liverpool at Anfield.

Everton had started the season well and unusually went into the match above their neighbours in the Premier League. The Blues started the match as well as they had the season when Kevin Campbell put them ahead after just four minutes. Franny Jeffers passed the ball to Campbell who took one touch before burying it past Sander Westerveld.

Although the Everton fans were celebrating, they must have been thinking they may have scored too early, and would have recalled the previous season’s derby when Olivier Dacourt’s early opener was cancelled out quickly as Liverpool came back to eventually win 3-2.

This year would be different however and Everton pressed forward looking for a second goal. With just under half an hour gone the game took on a true derby-day feel when Don Hutchison escaped a booking for a bad tackle on Dietmar Hamman, before Michael Owen was yellow carded for a two-footed challenge on David Weir.

Owen was at the centre of the action again just minutes later as his tumble in area under a Michael Ball challenge did not earn a penalty kick from referee Mike Riley.

The second half nearly started as well as the first had for Everton but Jeffers was showing some of the form he would later produce for Arsenal when twice in the first two minutes of the second half he was sent through in the Liverpool half but on the first occasion he failed to look up to spot Barmby’s run and then he missed an absolute sitter in a one-on-one with Westerveld.

With 75 minutes on the clock, to use the accepted parlance, the game boiled over. Jeffers clattered into Westerveld and the Dutchman responded by grabbing the young striker around the throat. They traded blows until teammates pulled them apart and Riley then sent them both off.

Liverpool had used their three subs so Steve Staunton had to go in goal, but Everton couldn’t force him into an error, and it was Everton ‘keeper Paul Gerrard who had a few saves to make, including a shot from Jamie Redknapp.

There was just time for a young Steven Gerrard to get himself sent off for a high tackle on Campbell as the Reds finished with just nine men, and Everton held on to record a famous victory that had their fans dancing in the stands.

In the absence of any footage of Jeffers and Westerveld trading blows, we’ll leave you with a compilation of Everton’s goalscoring hero Kevin Campbell’s best moments with the club.

Last year on this day we were talking about this, and and usual we will be back tomorrow with more football history.