Everton is a club 30 years older than Town, having been formed in 1878. Strangely enough Everton actually occupied Anfield from 1883 to 1891 and moved to Goodison Park the following season when Liverpool was formed and took over Anfield. The first ground was Stanley Park for 4 years then Priory Road for 2 years. The club is locally known as The Toffees presumably because of Everton Toffees.

All league games between Town and Everton have been in Division 1 except for 1952/53. Everton were relegated at the end of 1950/51 and Town followed them the next season. The two fixtures were notable because the Easter Tuesday home match (gate 30,721) was famous and could be called the Glazzard Metcalfe match as Jimmy nodded in 4 of Vic’s centres in the 8-2 thrashing of the Toffees. Davie, Metcalfe himself, Gunn and Cavanagh were the other Town scorers that day. This was Town’s highest post WWII score and I am proud to say “I WAS THERE”. The Monday match at Goodsion had been lost 1-2.

Hostilities began in 1920/21 when Town entered Division 1 and the first two years were not good for Town. The very first game was at Leeds Road on 9th October 1920. The estimated gate was 26,500 and Town lost 0-1. The return match was one week later and this time the result was 0-0 with an estimated 50,000 watching. Town finished 17th and Everton 7th. Next season was much worse. Sammy Wadsworth(P) and Billy Smith scored for Town as the Toffees won easily 6-2 (est 40,000). Four days later Eveton completed the double at Leeds Road 2-1 Frank Mann scoring in the losing cause (est 20,000).

The season next Town won a bit of revenge by themselves completing the double over the Toffees. This time it was 3-0 at Goodsion Park (Mann(2), Byers) on 30th December 1922 and a week later 1-0 at Leeds Road (C.Wilson) gates, still only estimated were 20,000 and 17,500.

In 1929/30 Everton suffered its first of only two relegations from the top flight finishing 22nd on 35 pts even though they had beaten Town at Leeds Road in the 41st match 2-1.

Town has won only 8 times at Goodison Park but the wins have produced 6 doubles, the first noted above and then, 1924/25 both 2-0, 1925/26 3-0, 3-2 and once more in the 20s in 1928/29 3-1 at home and 3-0 away. The final two doubles came in the 1930s, 1933/34 both 1-0 and lastly 1935/26 2-1 and 3-1.

For their part the Toffees have won 4 doubles, the first already detailed and then 1936/37 3-0 at Leeds Road and 2-1 on home turf. The next came, oddly enough in their relegation season of 1950/51 3-2 at Goodsion Park on opening day where yours truly attended with my dad among 51,768 (best gate ever at either ground) and at Leeds Road 2-1. Everton were 22nd on 32 points having the worst goal average of 3 teams and Town finished just above in 19th place on 36 points.

Town’s brief return to the top flight in 1970-1972 produced poor results, 1-1 at Leeds Road on 5th December 1970 (Worthington-gate 27,658) and 1-2 at Goodison on 6th February 1971 (Worthington-gate 37,213). In the start of the Great Slide both games ended up as draws 27th December 1971 2-2 away (Worthington, J J Lawson) and 1st April 1972 at home 0-0.

The worst gates came in 1935/36 at home when Town completed its last double when only 3,404 bothered turning up to watch Town win 2-1 (Chester, Lythgoe). The lowest gate at Goodison would find a lot of teams green with envy to draw so many, when only(!) 15,561 saw the Toffees trounce Town 4-0 on 23rd March 1955.

Prior to this season somewhat surprisingly the only time the sides have met in any cup competition was the League Cup 2nd round match up in 1998/99 the home game ended up 1-1 (the Chief scoring for Town) but the return game went Everton’s way 2-1 with Stewart hitting the onion bag in a losing cause.

This time around I think that the Greedy League side will be too powerful for Town, particularly after the shambles last Saturday and expect Town to bow out 0-3.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 1:24 am and is filed under Blast From The Past. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.