My First Match

A football story for cup final day. Back in the day there was a super Everton fans' website called Bluekipper which published news, posts from the editors and posts from fans. I spent many a lunchtime browsing it in my last job. It had a regular feature called "My First Match". With the demise of the printed version of the fanzine When Skies Are Grey, in which I had pieces published a number of times, I thought many times about writing a piece for Bluekipper about my first match. But there just weren't enough relaxed lunchtimes and eventually the editors called time on their labour of love and Bluekipper was no more. Ages ago I got round to drafting a piece for the blog, but didn't quite finish it. I came across it yesterday. So tidied up and at long last finished, in fond memory of Bluekipper and my uncle Roy, here is My First Match.

My First Match was Everton 4 Manchester United 0 in the FA Charity Shield, played Goodison Park on 17 August 1963.

The online EFC history says the scorers were Gabriel, Stevens, Temple and Vernon and the attendance was 54,844. Two of them were me and my Uncle Roy. Wikipedia notes Vernon’s goal was a penalty – which is how I remember it….

My Dad was brought up just off Walton Hall Avenue in LIverpool. Born in 1925 he was of an age when he could have seen Dean and Lawton play. But he didn’t go to a football match in his life. He was never much interested in football, though I can remember him teaching me to kick the ball in the back garden. For a while I thought football was a one a side game! He wasn't too cross when I broke the largest window at the back of the house kicking the ball... 

So no Everton link with my dad, though much later he told me that one of his uncles had lived in Gwladys Street. Aged about 7 I decided I Everton was my team, influenced by a lad called Dave Parry who lived up the road. No surprise at the time – about 1960 – Everton were the big club, the other lot were in the second division. Just think, if I’d been influenced by a red, what would have been different? I guess my first match might have been at Anfield in about 1966 with my buddy and redshite fanatic, Pete Rankin. What else? Well I would probably have met and married the same girl, but we might have been an all red household, instead of half red, half blue. Half the fun? Hmmm.

Anyway, by 1962 Catterick's Toffees were on the march. I lapped up everything I could read about them. I started to ask if I could go to a match and, while he wouldn't have dreamed of taking me, Dad said he’d see what he could do. He ran a small business and one of the apprentices went to matches and said he could get a ticket. I was asked to pick a game. I looked at the fixture list, picked one several weeks ahead in early 1963 and ambitiously said “Tottenham”. This was the great Danny Blanchflower/Jimmy Greaves team and they were neck and neck with us in the title race. The week before the game a ticket appeared on the kitchen worktop and my hopes soared. Dad said “sorry Phil, it’s the wrong ticket. You’re not going in the crowd”. It was for Goodison Road, on the huge open terrace. Now that was a famous game: 1-0 to the Blues, which set us up to win the league. But it wasn’t to be my first.

 My mother’s family lived in St Helens and my Uncle Roy was a big Saints rugby league fan. I had no interest in rugby – but he did take me to what seemed a long and boring landslide win at Knowsley Road one day. But I hadn’t realised he was a blue and sometimes went to the match. Younger readers might not be aware that before 1974 the curtain raiser match between the previous season’s league and F.A. Cup winners, then known as the Charity Shield, was held at the ground of the league winners. So it was that my uncle took me to my first match and it was the 1963 Charity Shield game between league winners Everton and F.A. Cup winners Manchester United at Goodison Park. Roy advised me not to wear my school cap (not that I would have done – do they even exist now?) “in case it gets thrown in the air when they score”.

 We sat in the Upper Bullens stand, towards the Park End. The massed hordes on the Gwladys Street and Goodison road terraces were a significant distraction from the game for me. The big names for us were Vernon and Young, while it was Law and Charlton for United. But the player who took my eye was Everton's right half Jimmy Gabriel. (Both teams would have been playing in the traditional WM formation. For younger readers, think 3-2-2-3 and you'll have the idea, Gabriel being one of the two more defensive midfielders). I’d read the word “swashbuckling”, probably referring to pirates and now I knew what it looked like.  Gabby was a big favourite of the crowd and I could see why as he tussled with Paddy Crerand in United's midfield. Goalless at half time, Gabby scored (the first, the history books say) and we ran out clear 4-0 winners. The only specific incident I really remember was us getting a penalty at the Park End and Roy Vernon dummying the United goalie, Gaskell, who dived one way. Before Vernon could knock the ball in the other corner the ref stopped him and insisted on a retake. I’ve heard debate over the years about whether you can dummy a penalty and I’ve always said “I’ve seen it – you can’t – then or now”. Though the Pogba, Fernandes, Jorginho prance I’m not fond of pushes the limits on this with a significant pause before the kick. Either way I thought Roy Vernon was dead cool.

 Alex Young, "The Golden Vision", was the crowd’s big hero but Gabriel and Vernon were my first football heroes. 

When Everton came from behind to win the 1966 F.A. Cup final against Sheffield Wednesday (3-2, a classic final) I watched on TV and remember Gabby, in the closing minutes, taking the ball into the corner and holding off Wednesday players for several seconds before turning, arms aloft to acknowledge the roar of approval from the Everton fans, even though the game was still going on. It's a routine tactic now but wasn't so common then and it was the first time I'd seen it done. Gabby was a heart on sleeve player and the enforcer in that side to boot - an appropriate phrase actually.

Before long my hero would be Alan Ball, then Dobson and Latchford, Peter Reid and Trevor Steven, then Kevin Campbell and Mikel Arteta. Now (if you can have heroes at my age) it's Richarlison and the up and coming Anthony “Flash” Gordon. But Gabby was the first, which came from My First Match.

The photo is from the celebrations after the1966 final, the year Everton won the cup, Liverpool the League and England the World Cup.

PS Dad was quite right of course. The old Goodison Road terrace probably held about 20,000 people and there were enormous crushes for big matches. I wouldn't have seen a thing.

You can see most of the 1963 Charity Shield on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIY8AAMVwa8. Unfortunately it's not highlights - it's nearly the full match. The person who posted it says: "A very feisty game at Goodison Park between League Champions Everton and Cup winners United. Virtually the whole match is shown, apart from the opening minute and Everton's second goal (a twice taken penalty from Roy Vernon) which is missing from the coverage"

D'oh! But at least that confirms the penalty was "twice taken"! Gabby's goal is 35m30s in