Everton and the FA Cup — Seasons 1886/87 to 1896/97
Though founded seven years after the FA Cup's inaugural season of 1871, Everton FC didn't enter the competition for the first time until 1886. A history of the Moonlight Dribblers' first decade or so in the competition
Everton’s decision to enter the Football Association Challenge Cup for the first time in their eight-year history in 1886 was spawned by their success in having recently secured the coveted Liverpool and District Association Cup by defeating bitter rivals Bootle 1:0 in the final at the Walton Stiles Ground, City Road, Walton, home of Stanley Football Club, which, for the opening game of the Toffeemen’s 1883/84 campaign, had also doubled as Everton’s one‑stop chez-nous. The initial draw in this, the final season in which Scottish clubs were permitted to enter the FA Cup, gave the Moonlight Dribblers (to use a contemporary term for the Toffeemen) a home tie with north‑of‑the-border maestros Glasgow Rangers, whereupon, well aware of the fact that the rules rendered most of their first‑choice players ineligible, the omnipotent Everton Management Committee, headed by the deep-pocketed John Houlding, withdrew from the competition, opting instead to stage the match as a friendly which, true to form, the Clydesiders duly proceeded to win by one goal to nil.
At long, long last, Everton entered the FA Cup lists proper on 15 October 1887, crossing swords with Bolton Wanderers in a first round tie at Pike’s Lane, Bolton, backed by five hundred of their travelling followers in a crowd numbering around the five thousand mark. However, this was a duel which was destined to degenerate into a complete farce. The tussle ended in a narrow 1:0 victory for Bolton and that really should have been that, there is always next year. But no, firmly ensconced in their glasshouses and throwing stones like they were going out of fashion, the Everton custodians saw fit to lodge a formal protest with the Football Association on the grounds that Bolton had fielded an ineligible player. The FA investigated the affair and subsequently ruled that the match should be restaged at Everton’s Walton Breck Road facilities in Anfield. Home advantage Everton.
This clash, which took place on 29 October 1887, finished 2:2, and it was Welsh international George Farmer who earned the distinction of registering Everton’s first-ever strike in this illustrious competition, with the Toffeemen’s second goal coming from another non-Englishman, Bob Watson, a native of Scotland. The replay at Bolton on 12 November 1887 likewise ended in stalemate, this time 1:1, with George Farmer again netting for Everton, and so, seven days later, the two sides relocked horns at Walton Breck Road for what would prove to be the final time, an encounter from which Everton emerged victorious to the tune of two goals to one thanks to one strike from an obscure Scottish centre‑forward by the name of Goudie and another from Bob Watson, both of whom, it would soon transpire, had, along with fellow Scots Cassidy, rent‑a‑thug Alec Dick, Izat, Murray and J. Weir (who had replaced Murray in the Everton side in the third and fourth meetings), been illegally poached.
Everton’s first FA Cup starting eleven:
Charlie Joliffe, Alec Dick, George Dobson, Mike Higgins, A. Gibson, Murray, Cassidy, George Farmer, Goudie, Bob Watson, Izat.
The gods did not favour Everton in the draw for the next round and the Toffeemen were handed a daunting trip to powerful Preston North End, who had destroyed Hyde United 26:0 in the previous round, a score line which has never been remotely equalled since in the long history of the competition. Everton were duly thrashed 6:0, but that was not the end of the matter. On the contrary, the contest was declared null and void and Everton were expelled from the competition for having utilized financial inducements as a carrot to entice the seven Scottish players whom they had fielded against Bolton to join the club, a farcical conclusion to Everton’s inaugural FA Cup adventure, especially given the club’s rank hypocrisy in lodging their original protest against Bolton Wanderers, whose transgressions were viewed in a far less serious light by the Football Association than those committed by Everton. Bolton were duly reinstated in Everton’s stead and promptly succumbed to a 9:1 defeat at the hands of Preston North End in the rearranged second round tie. Preston went on to progress to the final, which they lost 2:1 to West Bromwich Albion, via a 5:0 semi‑final triumph over Crewe Alexandra at, of all places, Walton Breck Road, Anfield, home of Everton.
In season 1888/89, with the opening Football League campaign well underway, the Football Association powers that be ruled that twenty-two clubs should be exempted from the qualifying rounds. However, nine Football League clubs, including Everton, were not seeded and, in what can really only be viewed as a fit of pique, the Everton Management Committee withdrew from the competition in response to the first qualifying round draw which saw Everton paired at home with Ulster.
The first round FA Cup draw of season 1889/90 gave Everton a home tie against Derby County on 18 January 1890. The Moonlight Dribblers, who had contested a 2:2 stalemate in a league clash at the Baseball Ground on 5 October 1889, had been in outstanding form all season, scoring goals virtually at will. They proved far too potent a force for Derby, annihilating their shell‑shocked opponents by the, to this day, club record score of eleven goals to two thanks to hat‑tricks from Alec Brady, Fred Geary and Alf Milward and two solitary strikes by hard‑living Scottish hatchet‑man Dan Doyle and future Everton director Dan Kirkwood, a slaughter of the innocents witnessed by a crowd estimated at 10,000.
FA Cup round two saw the Toffees travel to Stoke City for a sure-fire cakewalk into the last eight against a fellow First Division outfit who had already succumbed 8:0 to Everton at Walton Breck Road on 2 November 1889 and 2:1 at the Victoria Ground seven days later. However, it was not Everton’s day and the full-strength Toffeemen made a surprise exit from the competition, losing to the underdogs by a margin of four goals to two on 3 February 1890.
In their first Championship-winning campaign Everton’s 1890/91 foray into the FA Cup came to an abrupt and disappointing halt at mid-table Sunderland in a 1:0 first round defeat on 17 January 1891, their second 1:0 defeat at the Newcastle Road ground in a month.
The Moonlight Dribblers fared no better in the competition in 1891/92, exiting stage left in the first round at home to Burnley in circumstances which can only be described as bizarre. The clash was scheduled for Saturday, 16 January 1892, but the pitch was frozen solid and both sides lodged a protest against the match being considered an FA Cup tie. Nevertheless, it went ahead, nominally as a friendly unless the Football Association ruled otherwise, with Burnley emerging triumphant by four goals to two. At the behest of both clubs, the FA did indeed subsequently declare the encounter null and void on the grounds that it had been staged in conditions unfit for competitive football, and it was replayed seven days later. In a very bad‑tempered tussle, Burnley once again carried the day, this time by three goals to one. Hostilities were resumed outside the Walton Breck Road ground and several Burnley players were threatened by Everton supporters as they returned to the dressing‑rooms at the Sandon Hotel, Everton’s headquarters, on the corner of Oakfield Road and Houlding Street, Anfield. Indeed, two Burnley players who became separated from their team-mates were actually forced to seek sanctuary from physical attack in a passing omnibus. They were subsequently located by Everton officials in a hotel and their clothes were duly returned to their possession.
On this bizarre and ignominious note did end Everton’s fourth excursion proper into what, for the club, had thus far been the murky waters of the Football Association Challenge Cup, a competition which had been in existence for exactly twenty years without the Moonlight Dribblers making the least impression at all, the 11:2 destruction of Derby County on 18 January 1890 notwithstanding. However, this sorry state of Everton FA Cup affairs was all set to change for the better, and very much so. It was not before time.
Everton’s 1892/93 FA Cup Final campaign
The first round of the 1892/93 FA Cup saw Everton paired at home with holders West Bromwich Albion, who had triumphed 3:0 over Aston Villa in the final tie at the Oval in the previous season’s competition. After having lost 3:0 at West Bromwich in a league fixture on 15 October 1892, Everton had avenged this reverse at Goodison on 14 January 1893, just seven days prior to the FA Cup clash between the clubs, winning the return encounter 1:0, with Fred Geary netting for the Toffeemen in front of a gate of 10,000. This figure more than doubled for the FA Cup clash a week later, with 23,867 supporters witnessing Everton’s comprehensive 4:1 victory, spearheaded by Geary, who netted twice. Alex Latta and Alan Maxwell completed the scoring for the Toffees.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Alan Maxwell, Fred Geary, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
Round two favoured Everton with another home tie, this time against Nottingham Forest, against whom Everton had drawn 2:2 at Goodison on 3 September 1892, the club’s first competitive match at their new home, and lost 2:1 in the return fixture on 12 January 1893. However, in the FA Cup, Everton made no mistake, triumphing 4:2 on 4 February 1893, with Alf Milward notching a brace and Edgar Chadwick and Fred Geary otherwise doing the honours.
Everton:Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Alan Maxwell, Fred Geary, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
Everton’s luck held in the quarter-final draw and the Toffees were presented with a home tie against Sheffield Wednesday, who were appearing in their sixth quarter-final in succession. Although Everton had slumped to a 5:3 home defeat versus the Yorkshiremen on 26 November 1892, the slate had been wiped clean on 13 February 1893, just five days prior to this FA Cup encounter between the two clubs, when Everton had emerged victorious from the return clash by two goals to nil. This triumph proved a reliable pointer to the outcome of the FA Cup quarter‑final tie, with Everton emerging comfortable 3:0 winners thanks to strikes from Edgar Chadwick, Fred Geary and Alan Maxwell.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Alan Maxwell, Fred Geary, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The FA Cup semi-final draw paired Everton with favourites Preston North End, who had scored a grand total of twenty goals in their three FA Cup ties thus far this season. The two league matches between these high‑flying Lancashire rivals had been real ding-dong affairs, with Preston triumphing 5:0 at Deepdale on 3 December 1892 and Everton well and truly turning the tables with a vengeance in the return clash at Goodison on 11 February 1893, emerging emphatic 6:0 winners. The semi-finals were scheduled for 4 March 1893 and while Everton were pitting their wits against Preston at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, Wolverhampton Wanderers were facing Blackburn Rovers at the Town Ground, Nottingham, eventually overturning a 1:0 deficit to triumph 2:1. Everton and Preston, meanwhile, were in the process of drawing 2:2 after extra time in what was a classic FA Cup encounter, with Paddy Gordon and Edgar Chadwick netting for the Toffeemen.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Paddy Gordon, Alan Maxwell, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The semi-final replay was staged at Ewood Park, Blackburn, on 16 March 1893, and once again stalemate ensued, with neither team managing to find the net during the two hours which this tense and tightly contested affair lasted.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Paddy Gordon, Alan Maxwell, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The third meeting between the two rivals was staged at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on Monday, 20 March 1893, just five days before the date scheduled for the FA Cup Final. Had this clash also ended in stalemate it would have been necessary to postpone the final, but the Toffeemen had other ideas, taking the lead thanks to an Alan Maxwell strike just before the break. Preston equalized in the second half through one J. Gordon and duly proceeded to lay siege to the Everton goal in a desperate attempt to break the deadlock. However, young Richard Williams between the sticks for Everton was equal to anything and everything which the Preston forwards had to offer, and with only three minutes remaining on the clock before extra time once again beckoned, Everton, in the shape of Alex Latta, broke from defence and won a corner. The ensuing corner‑kick found Paddy Gordon, no relation to the Preston goal scorer, unmarked in the box and he it was who, amid scenes of wild celebration among the hordes of travelling Everton supporters, headed the Toffeemen to victory and the first FA Cup Final appearance in the club’s history. A remarkable reception awaited the Everton players upon their return to their home city, with goalkeeping hero of the hour Richard Williams being carried shoulder high from Exchange Station by jubilant supporters.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Paddy Gordon, Alan Maxwell, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The stage was now set for the FA Cup Final between Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers, the vanquished 1889 FA Cup Finalists, at the home of the Manchester Athletic Club in Fallowfield, Manchester, the following Saturday, 25 March 1893. Everton, whose reserve team had hammered the middling‑to‑poor Midland outfit’s first-choice eleven 4:2 at Molineux just seven days previously, were overwhelming favourites to lift the trophy. Indeed, hubristically inclined Evertonians were wondering not whether, but by what cricket score their full-strength side would triumph.
Amid dramatic scenes of crowd congestion which would ensure that Fallowfield would never again be selected as the venue for the FA Cup Final, a crowd officially put at 45,067, but far closer to 60,000, assembled at the Fallowfield arena. Twenty minutes prior to kick‑off the crowd broke through the crush barriers and encroached onto the pitch, in the wake of which chaos, according to James Corbett in his Everton – The School of Science, “many were injured, some seriously.” The police had their hands full in endeavouring to force the spectators back across the touchlines so that the match could start, but they were eventually successful and the 1893 FA Cup Final commenced with the majority of the, given the circumstances, surprisingly good‑humoured, crowd being unable to see any of the action at all.
Everton, sporting their first-choice colours of ruby shirts and dark blue shorts, or knickers in contemporary parlance, dominated the early play against their, on paper and past and current form, inferior opponents, but the stray feet of spectators encroaching over the touchlines prevented the Toffees from playing their normal wingers‑based attacking game. Under these circumstances, both teams resorted to pumping the ball up the middle of the pitch in order to avoid collisions with the surrounding fans, tactics which detracted from the quality of the encounter and rendered the wingers of both sides all but redundant. The first half thus proved a disappointing affair the highlight of which, at least according to an account contained in the Wolverhampton Wanderers v Everton programme dating from Saturday, 25 October 1975, which is confirmed by James Corbett, though not in the two match reports which I have thus far succeeded in unearthing, was a disallowed Everton goal.
The 1893 FA Cup Final was played at Fallowfield, Manchester in front of 45,000 spectators
Be that as it may, when the two teams emerged for the second half, the start of which had been delayed while spectators were again cleared from the playing area, Everton, unsurprisingly given the tremendous amount of effort which they had invested in their three hard‑fought semi-final clashes with Preston North End, appeared to look jaded and heavy‑legged. Sensing an opportunity to steal a march on their lacklustre opponents, Wolves now began to pressurize the Everton goal, but Richard Williams, the Toffeemen’s semi‑final second replay hero, who had had a quiet game so far, had no difficulty in parrying the goal‑bound efforts of the Wolves forwards. Then, on the hour mark, there occurred the most controversial moment of the clash. Five‑times England international and Wolves captain Harry Allen, a veteran of the 1889 FA Cup Final which the Black Country side had lost 3:0 at the Oval to the Invincibles, Double‑winning Preston North End, lobbed a ball high into the air and towards the Everton goal, and he was the most stunned player on the field of play when Everton’s otherwise faultless young goalkeeper Richard Williams allowed this half‑hearted effort to sail past him and drop into the net.
It ultimately transpired that he had lost sight of the ball in mid-flight because he was temporarily blinded by the sun shining into his eyes. The Everton players were outraged, though with the referee rather than the at‑fault Richard Williams, for he had neglected to stop the game when an Everton player about to clear his lines had had the ball unfairly whisked from his feet by a spectator. Wolves had subsequently gained possession and it was from this move that Allen had scored for the Midlanders. Everton’s vociferous protests did not sway the referee and the out‑of‑kilter and disgruntled Toffeemen failed to create anything remotely close to an equalizer during the remaining thirty minutes of the encounter. The Wolves players were mobbed by their ecstatic followers when the final whistle blew, but for Everton this was not the end of the matter. In a fit of pique and bad grace, the club lodged an appeal on the grounds that the crowd conditions had been inappropriate for the purpose of staging a competitive match and demanded that its status should be changed to that of a friendly and that the FA Cup Final should be restaged at a different venue the following week. This line of argument cut no ice whatsoever with a stonewalling Football Association, which countered that Everton should have lodged their objections prior to the commencement of the match and ruled that the result would stand. It was on this rather ignominious note that Everton’s first full‑scale foray into the magic of the FA Cup came to its conclusion.
As for Wolverhampton Wanderers, the importance which was attached to their first unexpected triumph in this or any other competition can be gauged by the fact that not only, as the Wolverhampton Wanderers versus Everton programme dating from 22 September 1973 reveals, did all the members of the victorious Wolves team receive a silver replica of the FA Cup from club supremo Sir Alfred Hickman, but also by the fact that one delighted well‑heeled follower even constructed a row of houses in Wolverhampton named Fallowfield Terrace in honour of the club’s achievement, a success which was widely welcomed in press circles given the fact that the Midlanders had fielded eleven Englishmen, whereas the luckless Everton side had featured no fewer than six Scots.
Everton: Richard Williams, Bob Kelso, Bob Howarth, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Alex Stewart, Alex Latta, Paddy Gordon, Alan Maxwell, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
However, when all is said and done, and their substandard performance and unexpected defeat in the 1893 FA Cup Final notwithstanding, the Everton FA Cup men of 1893 had created history in securing the club’s first appearance in an FA Cup Final and paving the way towards a grander Everton FA Cup tradition than that which the Toffeemen had hitherto enjoyed in the first twenty‑one years of the competition’s existence.
The Everton FA Cup Class of 1893
Dickie Boyle
A Scot hailing from Dumbarton, Dickie Boyle was signed from reigning Scottish Champions Dumbarton in 1892, making his debut for the club during a 2:2 draw against Nottingham Forest at Goodison on 3 September 1892, the opening game of the 1892/93 season and the Toffeemen’s inaugural First Division match at their new home following the club’s precipitate departure from the facilities located in Walton Breck Road that summer. A half-back with a ferocious tackle and a powerful shot, Boyle specialized in executing incisive passes for the purpose of releasing the Everton forwards. His stint at Goodison spanned almost eight‑and‑a‑half years, during which time he made 222 First Division appearances for the Toffees, including the inaugural clash with the new kids on the Walton Breck Road block at Goodison on 13 October 1894, and a further twenty‑one FA Cup appearances, scoring seven league goals and one solitary FA Cup goal, the twenty‑yard strike from a free kick which briefly gave Everton the lead in the 1897 FA Cup Final. Although he did not gain full international honours with Scotland, Boyle did appear in an England versus Scotland Inter‑League match at Bolton in season 1892/93. His final appearance in Everton’s colours came in a 1:0 victory versus Derby County at the Baseball Ground on 13 April 1901. After having failed to feature in a single Everton starting eleven during season 1901/02, he returned to his native Scotland, signing for Dundee in June 1902.
Edgar Chadwick
Hailing from Blackburn, Edgar Chadwick, a skilful inside-left born on 14 June 1869, signed for Everton from Blackburn Rovers in July 1888, just in time for the commencement of the inaugural 1888/89 Football League season, which, for Everton, began at 04.25 p.m. on Saturday, 8 September 1888 at the club’s Walton Breck Road ground in a 2:1 home victory over Accrington, during which encounter the Accrington goalkeeper, Dick Horn, fell heavily on Chadwick’s foot, fracturing a rib in the process and being forced to vacate the field of play. In a season which, incredibly, saw Everton field thirty-five players in just twenty‑two Football League fixtures, Chadwick enjoyed the distinction of being the only ever‑present during this historic campaign, in which he was also the club’s leading scorer with six strikes.
Although standing only five feet six inches high and of slight build, he was a crowd‑pleasing attacker famed for his blistering pace and keen eye for an opening, and in an Everton career spanning nearly eleven years he went on to record a total of 270 league and thirty FA Cup appearances for the Toffees, scoring ninety‑seven and thirteen goals respectively in the process. A League Championship winner with Everton in season 1890/91, during which season he formed a near‑telepathic partnership with Alf Milward, and a veteran of both the Toffeemen’s inaugural encounter with the latter-day Walton Breck Roaders on 13 October 1894 and second losing FA Cup Final appearance in 1897, he graced the Everton jersey for the last time in a 2:1 victory over Wolves at Molineux on 29 April 1899, the final day of the 1898/99 season. Having gained seven full England caps during his time at Everton, including one in a 4:1 England triumph over Scotland at Ibrox in a Home Championship encounter in which he netted England’s opening strike after just thirty seconds, Edgar Chadwick left Goodison for Burnley in May 1899. Via a stint with Southern League Southampton, for whom he was leading scorer with fourteen strikes in the 1900/01 campaign, a season in which his new club suffered a 3:1 home setback versus Everton in an FA Cup third round tie at the Dell on 9 February 1901, and in whose colours he featured in his third losing FA Cup Final, this time, after the original clash, in which he also played, had ended 1:1, in a 2:1 defeat versus Sheffield United in the 1902 FA Cup Final replay at the Crystal Palace, he returned to Liverpool to spend a further two seasons at Walton Breck Road, the ground where his Football League career had began fourteen years previously, though this time in the God-awful colours of the unloved Livers, to resurrect a very early contemporary twentieth century term of reference for Everton’s neighbours from hell. It was against this Johnny-come-lately outfit, in a match in which, true to character, the Anfielders had resorted to launching physical attacks on their underdog opponents, that his Southampton side had triumphed 4:1 in an FA Cup second round tie at the Dell in February 1902, thus avenging the 2:0 defeat which Everton had incurred at the hands of their insufferable rivals in the first round replay at Goodison Park on 30 January 1902.
Fred Geary
Standing barely five feet two inches high and weighing just nine stone six pounds, the original Mighty Mouse, Fred Geary, a lightning-paced centre-forward born in Hyson Green on 23 January 1868, joined Everton from Grimsby Town in the summer of 1889 aged twenty-one, notching the first of what would eventually be an impressive haul of twenty‑two braces for the club on his Everton debut, a 3:2 victory over Blackburn Rovers at Walton Breck Road on 7 September 1889. In just ninety-one First Division and seven FA Cup outings for the Moonlight Dribblers, Fred Geary, a Championship winner with Everton in season 1890/91, a campaign in which he contributed twenty league strikes in only twenty-two appearances, would score a total of eighty‑six goals, including, besides Everton’s first-ever goal at Goodison Park in a 4:2 victory over Bolton Wanderers in a friendly fixture on Friday, 2 September 1892, Everton’s historic first league goal at the same venue in the 2:2 draw with Nottingham Forest next day, Saturday, 3 September 1892, a formidable strike rate of a goal every 1.14 games. However, during his last two terms on the Toffeemen’s books his appearances in Everton’s colours became infrequent and, in somewhat controversial circumstances considering the fact that, to the displeasure of the Everton custodians, during the summer of 1894 he had been recruited by erstwhile Everton and now Liverpool supremo John Houlding to run one of his public houses, for a fee of sixty pounds he re‑crossed Stanley Park to join the Livers in May 1895, pocketing a Second Division Championship medal during his first season at the club before retiring from the game at the end of the 1898/99 campaign. He eventually returned to his first love Everton in the capacity of groundsman, though, as is evidenced by the following announcement contained in the Everton v Liverpool programme dating from Saturday, 4 February 1911, he also continued to ply his erstwhile avocational trade as a publican for many years:
FRED GEARY
The old centre-forward, Fred Geary, who has for many years been mine host of the Cabbage Hall Hotel, is to change his quarters, and will in future be at home to his friends at the Stanley Arms Hotel, Westminster Rd. There is a fine bowling green attached to the hotel, and also a comfortable billiard room – which is only to be expected seeing that “Fred” is such an expert on both greens. I trust that many friends will visit him in his new premises, and that he will be successful in the undertaking. I know that Fred will give all his friends – old and new – a cordial welcome.
“Goal-a-game” Geary, who, along with Everton team-mate Johnny Holt, holds the distinction of being the first Everton player to be capped for England, an occasion which, true to character, he celebrated in fine goal-scoring style with a hat‑trick against Ireland in Belfast on 15 March 1890, died in January 1955 aged seventy-seven.
Paddy Gordon
A native of Scotland, outside-right Paddy Gordon joined Everton from renowned Scottish outfit Renton in 1890. He debuted for the club in a 2:0 victory over Bolton Wanderers at Walton Breck Road on 18 October 1890, but made only two further league starts during that, Everton’s first Championship‑winning season. He remained very much on the fringes of the first team, registering a total of just four league appearances and one FA Cup outing in season 1891/92, notching one league goal in the process. Although he made eleven league and four FA Cup starts for the club in the 1892/93 campaign, he continued to play the role of a bit‑part player and his appearance on the losing side in the 1893 FA Cup Final was his Everton swansong. He re‑crossed Stanley Park en route back to Walton Breck Road a few months later.
Johnny Holt
Born in Blackburn in 1869, Johnny Holt, the “Little Everton Devil”, a tireless, skilful centre‑half standing just five feet four and tipping the scales at a mere ten stones, joined Everton in 1888 from original local rivals Bootle, with whom he had enjoyed the distinction of featuring in the first eleven from a Merseyside club to contest an FA Cup tie in the Capital, the occasion being an 1888 quarter‑final fixture versus Old Carthusians at the Oval which Bootle had lost 2:0. He featured in seventeen of Everton’s twenty-two First Division fixtures during the inaugural 1888/89 Football League season, missing just a handful of first team games in the next nine campaigns. During the course of his distinguished Everton career, which saw him qualify for the medal especially minted by the Everton custodians to mark the club’s 1890/91 Championship-winning season, he made a grand total of 225 First Division appearances, scoring three goals, and twenty-seven FA Cup appearances, including the 1893 and 1897 FA Cup Finals, notching one solitary strike in the 5:2 demolition of Second Division Burton Wanderers in an FA Cup 1st round tie at Goodison on 30 January 1897. While on Everton’s books he, along with team-mate Fred Geary, enjoyed the distinction of being the first Everton player to be capped for England when he featured in the England XI which defeated Wales 3:1 in a Home Championship fixture at Wrexham on 15 March 1890, with a second England XI featuring hat-trick hero Fred Geary defeating Ireland 9:1 in another Home Championship encounter in Belfast that same day. All told, he won nine full England caps whilst on Everton’s books, his last during a 3:0 Home Championship victory over Scotland at Goodison on 6 April 1895, and a further one following his switch to Reading in October 1898, of which England won eight and drew two. A very fine international record indeed.
Bob Howarth
Born in Preston in 1865, full-back Bob Howarth won the Double in season 1888/89 and the Championship in season 1889/90 while with his home town club as well as appearing in the Preston North End side which lost the 1888 FA Cup Final 2:1 to West Bromwich Albion at the Oval. He joined the Everton playing staff in November 1891, debuting in a 2:2 draw at Blackburn Rovers on 5 December that same year. Besides featuring in the Everton side which lost 4:2 at home to Burnley in the bizarre FA Cup first round tie which never was on 16 January 1892, he also made a further ten league appearances for the Toffees that season, the club’s last at the Walton Breck Road ground. He started the next season in his regular right-back slot, in the process earning the distinction of featuring in the Everton eleven which appeared in the club’s inaugural league fixture at Goodison, a 2:2 draw with Nottingham Forest on 3 September 1892. He remained Everton’s first‑choice right-back for the rest of that and the majority of the following season, and by the time he returned to Preston North End at the end of the 1892/93 campaign he had made a total of fifty-nine First Division and nine FA Cup appearances for Everton and one full international appearance for England as an Everton player alongside team-mate Johnny Holt in a Home Championship fixture in Belfast against Ireland on 3 March 1894, an encounter which ended 2:2. Bob Howarth died in August 1938, aged seventy-three.
Bob Kelso
Born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire, on 2 October 1865, bone‑crunching defender and full Scottish international Bob Kelso joined Everton from Newcastle West End in 1888, debuting for the club in a 2:0 home defeat versus Preston North End on 19 January 1889. This was his first and last appearance for the Toffees during that inaugural Football League season. He left the club for Preston North End later that same year and played a key role in their 1889/90 Championship-winning side before rejoining the Toffeemen in the summer of 1891. He made his second Everton debut in a 4:0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on 5 September 1891. Prior to joining Dundee in May 1896, he had featured in a total of eighty‑nine Everton league matches, including the 3:0 victory over the Livers in the inaugural all-Liverpool clash at Goodison on 13 October 1894, notching five goals in the process, one of which was Everton’s first‑ever goal as the visiting side at their old Walton Breck Road stamping ground in the return clash with their Johnny-come-lately rivals on 17 November 1894, an encounter which ended in a 2:2 draw, and fourteen FA Cup clashes. The curtain came down on his Everton career in a 4:0 FA Cup second round defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 29 February 1896. Bob Kelso died in August 1942, aged seventy-six.
Alex Latta
Born in Dumbarton in 1867, Scottish international outside-right Alex Latta moved to Everton from his home town club in 1889 in time for the commencement of the second Football League season, making his debut for the club alongside fellow Everton newcomers Andrew Hannah, Dan Doyle, Charlie Parry and Fred Geary in a 3:2 home victory over Blackburn Rovers, the opening fixture of the campaign. Boasting lightning acceleration, excellent ball skills and the ability to shoot with both feet, Alex Latta featured in nineteen First Division and two FA Cup Everton starting elevens that season, scoring nine league goals in the process. Although he only managed ten league starts in the Toffeemen’s 1890/91 Championship season, he still received one of the commemorative medals which the Everton custodians arranged to be minted for all their qualifying players, i.e. all the active members of the squad who had been on the club’s books at the start of the campaign. A veteran of Everton’s inaugural home and away fixtures against their rivals from across Stanley Park in season 1894/95, in both of which encounters he scored Everton’s second goal, thus becoming the first Everton or Liverpool player to register strikes in Derby clashes at both Goodison and Anfield, before he retired from the game at the end of the 1894/95 season to launch a successful yacht‑building business he had featured in a grand total of 136 First Division and twelve FA Cup outings for the club, hitting the target on sixty-nine occasions in the league and once in the FA Cup. He died in August 1928, aged sixty-one.
Alan Maxwell
Hailing from Scotland, Alan Maxwell, a forward, moved to Everton from amateur Lanarkshire outfit Cambuslang in October 1891, making his first appearance in the club’s colours in a 4:0 defeat at Preston North End on the thirty‑first of that month. He featured in a further fifteen Everton starting elevens that season, all in the league, notching a total of four goals. He became a regular first-team player in season 1892/93, appearing in twenty‑three First Division fixtures and all seven FA Cup ties, scoring a total of seven and three goals respectively. He made four starts at the beginning of the next season before moving to Darwen in November 1893, against whom he had recently notched two goals in Everton’s 8:1 demolition of their Lancashire rivals on 21 October 1893 and with whom he would experience the bitter disappointment of relegation come mid-April 1894.
Born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on 12 September 1870, outside-left Alf Milward was recruited by Everton from Great Marlow in late 1888, debuting for the club at the tender age of eighteen in a 3:0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers on 10 November 1888, Everton’s tenth fixture in that inaugural Football League season. Possessing an abundance of pace, skill and courage, the muscular Milward featured in another six Everton games during that ground‑breaking campaign, scoring two goals in the process, and was virtually a permanent fixture in the Everton starting eleven for the next eight‑and-a-half years, winning a Championship medal in season 1890/91, during which he forged a particularly effective partnership with Edgar Chadwick, and featuring in Everton’s 1893 and 1897 FA Cup Finals as well as the first all‑Liverpool clash with the Walton Breck Road newcomers on 13 October 1894. All told, before joining newly-formed New Brighton Tower in 1897, he made 201 First Division and twenty‑three FA Cup appearances for the Toffees, scoring eighty‑five league and eleven FA Cup goals, including a hat-trick during the 11:2 annihilation of Derby County in an FA Cup first round tie at Walton Breck Road on 18 January 1890, a score line which remains the club’s highest victory in a competitive match to this day. From New Brighton Tower he moved to Southern League Southampton, for whom he was leading scorer with twenty-four goals in season 1899/00 and in whose colours, alongside his 1897 FA Cup Final Everton team‑mate Peter Meehan, he suffered his third and last FA Cup Final defeat in a 4:0 reverse at the hands of Bury at the Crystal Palace in 1900, though not before having had the pleasure of starring in the Southampton side which defeated Everton 3:0 in the first round of the competition at the Dell on 27 January 1900. Capped at full international level four times during his time with the Toffees, Alf Milward was one of four Everton players in the England eleven which defeated Scotland 2:1 in a Home Championship fixture at Blackburn on 6 April 1891, an eleven in which Bob Howarth, who joined Everton six months later, also featured. Following his successful stint at Southampton, he moved to New Brompton, the latter‑day Gillingham, in 1901, on whose books he remained for a further two years before retiring from the game at the age of thirty‑two.
Alex Stewart
Born in Greenoch, Scotland, in 1869, wing-half Alex Stewart joined the Toffeemen from Burnley in December 1892, making his debut for the club in a 2:1 success at Notts County on the seventeenth of that month. However, his stint on Everton’s books would be brief, and while he did feature in all seven FA Cup ties which the Toffees contested that season, the curtain fell on his Everton career three weeks after his appearance in the FA Cup Final when he made his twelfth and final First Division outing in the club’s colours in a 5:0 home victory over Derby County on 15 April 1893. He left Goodison for First Division rivals Nottingham Forest later that year.
Richard Williams
Goalkeeper Richard Williams, the hero of the FA Cup semi-final second replay victory over Preston North End and the Everton villain of the piece in the FA Cup Final, joined the Toffees from amateur outfit Brombrough Pool in 1891, making his debut for the club in a 3:0 victory at Derby County on 24 October 1891, his first and last appearance between the sticks that season. He started eleven league and all seven FA Cup games in the 1892/93 season, becoming Everton’s regular first-choice goalkeeper in the process, this in a season in which the Toffees fielded no less than six different players between the posts. Still in pole goalkeeping position at the start of the 1893/94 campaign, he went on make a further thirty‑eight league and four FA Cup appearances for Everton during the next two seasons before joining Luton Town in 1895.
Seasons 1893/94 to 1896/97
Following the 1893 Fallowfield debacle, it was Goodison Park, the world’s first purpose‑built football stadium, which was selected to host the 1894 FA Cup Final but, alas for Everton enthusiasts, a dream triumph on their home patch was not to be, with the Moonlight Dribblers succumbing at the first hurdle in that season’s competition, losing 1:0 at Stoke City. Notts County would eventually triumph 4:1 over Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup Final at Goodison Park, becoming the first Second Division side to win the coveted prize in the process, a feat witnessed by a crowd estimated at 37,000.
Following a 3:0 victory at Southport Central in the first round, thanks to a Jack Bell hat‑trick, and a 3:2 win at Blackburn Rovers in a second round replay in the wake of a 1:1 draw at Goodison, season 1894/95 saw Everton fall at the last eight hurdle, going down 2:0 at Sheffield Wednesday.
The last eight also proved to be Everton’s one-hurdle-too-far saloon in the 1895/96 FA Cup campaign, with a 2:0 victory at Nottingham Forest in the first round and a 3:0 victory over Sheffield United at Goodison in the second round being in vain as the Toffeemen once again succumbed to defeat at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday, the eventual winners, this time by a margin of four goals to nil in a third round tie staged at Olive Grove, Sheffield, on 29 February 1896.
And so to season 1896/97 and Everton’s second bite at the FA Cup Final cherry.
Everton’s 1896/97 FA Cup Final campaign
The Toffeemen embarked upon their 1896/97 FA Cup adventure with a home tie against Burton Wanderers who, at that time, alongside local rivals Burton United, were struggling to keep their heads above water in the Second Division. At the end of the campaign it would be Burton United who would avoid the dreaded drop whereas, after just one season in the Football League, Burton Wanderers would walk the relegation plank, never to reboard the Good Ship Football League at any future point in time. Thus, on the face of it, Everton faced a fairly simple task upon the commencement of their quest to reach their second FA Cup Final in four years, and so it ultimately proved, with the Toffeemen horsewhipping the underdogs 5:2 on 30 January 1897 with goals from Jack Bell, Edgar Chadwick, Johnny Holt and Alf Milward being supplemented by the gift of an own goal by a Burton Wanderers player.
Everton: Bob Menham, Davie Storrier, Smart Arridge, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, John Robertson, Jack Taylor, Jack Bell, Andy Hartley, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
Everton’s name came out of the hat first in the draw for the second round of the competition, followed by that of Bury, meaning that the Toffees had home advantage in the encounter with the Gigg Lane outfit on 13 February 1897, the first clash of the season between these two old Lancashire rivals. With Peter Meehan featuring at right-back on his Everton debut, the Toffeemen duly strolled into the next round, triumphing 3:0 thanks to two strikes from Jack Taylor and one effort from the ever-reliable Alf Milward. Bury would exact a revenge of sorts by achieving a league double over Everton later in the season, but no matter, it was the men from Goodison Park who went marching on in the FA Cup and who would have the last laugh by finishing the season one point and two league table placings ahead of the men from Gigg Lane.
Everton: Bob Menham, Peter Meehan, Smart Arridge, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Billy Stewart, Jack Taylor, Jack Bell, Andy Hartley, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
With fortune once again favouring the brave, Everton were handed yet another home tie in the third round, this time against lowly Blackburn Rovers on 27 February 1897. A Goodison gate of 16,000 witnessed the Toffees reach the semi-final of the competition for only the second time in their history, with an Andy Hartley brace securing a 2:0 victory for the home side. Oddly enough, Everton’s next two First Division fixtures were both against Blackburn Rovers, and revenge was duly exacted, with Blackburn triumphing 4:2 at Ewood Park on 6 March and 3:0 at Goodison on 13 March. Badly needed points they were, too, it should be noted, given the fact that they eventually finished third from bottom, just two points ahead of second‑bottom and relegated Sunderland.
Everton: Bob Menham, Peter Meehan, Smart Arridge, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Billy Stewart, Jack Taylor, Jack Bell, Andy Hartley, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
Everton’s luck also held in the semi-final draw, at least to the extent that they were paired with Derby County and thus avoided reigning League Champions, First Division table‑toppers and FA Cup favourites Aston Villa, who were drawn to play the Johnny‑come‑latelies from across Stanley Park, who had reached their first FA Cup semi‑final by triumphing 1:0 at Nottingham Forest in a quarter-final replay, meaning that there was now a real prospect of an all‑Liverpool FA Cup Final clash on the cards. For their part, Derby County were also riding high in the league and would eventually finish a very respectable third on goal average behind second‑placed Sheffield United, meaning that emerging victorious from this, the first meeting of the season between the two clubs at the Victoria Ground, Stoke, on 20 March 1897, was not destined to be a cakewalk for what was a frustratingly middling Everton side given the fact that it boasted what was widely regarded as the most exciting forward line in the country.
Nevertheless, thanks to three individual strikes from Edgar Chadwick, Andy Hartley and Alf Milward, it was indeed Everton who carried the day, triumphing 3:2 in a frantic second half after a lacklustre opening forty-five minutes had failed to produce any goals at all to excite the emotions of the 25,000 partisan Everton and Derby County supporters in attendance. Everton would subsequently record a league double over Derby County later that season, triumphing 5:2 at Goodison and 1:0 at the Baseball Ground, but first there was the minor matter of the FA Cup Final against Aston Villa, the 1887 and 1895 FA Cup winners, who had, gratifyingly enough, outclassed the Livers 3:0 in the other semi‑final at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, and now had a hat-trick of FA Cup successes very firmly in their sights.
Everton: Bob Menham, Peter Meehan, Davie Storrier, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Billy Stewart, Jack Taylor, Jack Bell, Andy Hartley, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The final tie of the competition, the first time these two founder members of the Football League had met in the FA Cup, was held at the Crystal Palace on 10 April 1897. Uniquely, should the gods favour them in the FA Cup Final and Championship‑chasing rivals Derby County fail to secure both points in their league clash at Bury that same afternoon, Double‑chasing Aston Villa would capture both major domestic trophies in one fell swoop. Given the importance of the occasion, the two clubs kept their FA Cup Final plans under wraps, both booking into top-secret pre-match venues. However, this cloak‑and‑dagger approach was fated to misfire, for when the Everton players filed down the stairs of their hotel on the morning of the match they found their FA Cup Final opponents awaiting breakfast in the same hotel dining-room. Good humour prevailed and the two sets of players eventually opted to travel to the Crystal Palace stadium together.
Here they were welcomed by a vast crowd of 65,891, including six special trainloads of Everton supporters, easily the largest gathering which had ever assembled to witness a football match to date, and, in contrast to the low-budget McFare which had been on offer when Everton last appeared in the final four years previously, what a feast‑fit‑for‑a‑king of a football match it was. In an FA Cup Final which, to this day, still ranks as one of the finest of all time, both teams, Aston Villa in their traditional claret and light blue and Everton, whose first‑choice strip was still ruby shirts and dark blue shorts, in royal blue shirts and white shorts, played superbly well. Following an evenly balanced first fifteen minutes, during which the magic sponge had needed to be applied to players from both sides, the game erupted into life when, on eighteen minutes, Aston Villa’s John Campbell burst through the middle to take a pinpoint pass from the Aston Villa captain Johnny Devey in his stride and drive a right-foot shot beyond Everton goalkeeper Bob Menham, who seemed deceived by the swerving flight of the ball. Undaunted, not only were the Toffeemen, who featured no less than seven Scots in their ranks, level within five minutes when man of the match Jack Bell collected Andy Hartley’s forward pass and calmly slotted it past the advancing Jimmy Whitehouse in the Aston Villa goal, but actually in front within ten when, on twenty-eight minutes, Dickie Boyle smashed home a free kick from twenty yards out. Game on.
Game on indeed and, in the fashion of true Champions, Aston Villa duly accepted the gauntlet which gallant Everton had thrown down at their feet. Following two breathtaking parries by Bob Menham in the Everton goal, on thirty-eight minutes they were back when Freddie Wheldon, marvellously targeted by Jimmy Crabtree, drove the ball home for the equalizer past Bob Menham, who was caught completely flat-footed in the Everton goal. With the bit firmly clasped between their claret-and-blue teeth, Aston Villa now forced their opponents onto the back foot, and just sixty second before the interval, following a poorly cleared corner, Jack Reynolds sent a looping ball into the Everton box where it was met by the head of Jimmy Crabtree and flew into the Toffeemen’s net beyond the stranded Bob Menham.
The action-packed second period remained goalless, though both sides came close to increasing their tallies, with one header from Aston Villa’s John Reynolds rebounding off the Everton crossbar and a stinging right-foot shot from his team-mate Charlie Athersmith crashing back onto the field of play off an Everton post. For their part, the Toffees also came agonizingly close to an equalizer, with Everton captain Edgar Chadwick, who squandered a golden open-goal opportunity two minutes from full time, Jack Taylor, Andy Hartley and the outstanding Jack Bell all causing Aston Villa’s custodian Jimmy Whitehouse some hair‑raising moments of anxiety. However, Everton’s valiant efforts to retrieve the game notwithstanding, it was Aston Villa who, in a truly thrilling contest, carried the day and, in the wake of Derby County’s defeat at Bury, completed the coveted Double in the process. Of the Aston Villa players who took the field of play at the Crystal Palace that afternoon of Saturday, 10 April 1897, only right-half Albert Evans would survive to witness Tottenham Hotspur emulate this Double‑winning feat sixty‑four years later. As for Everton, who, in a 2:1 victory at Villa Park on Saturday, 26 September 1896, had inflicted one of only four defeats which Aston Villa had suffered all season, there was but the consolation prize of having played their full part in the greatest FA Cup Final spectacle which had hitherto been witnessed. However, they would be back, and this time, in 1906, at the same Crystal Palace venue, it would be third time lucky for the Toffees, who would also reach, though lose, the FA Cup Final the very next year, 1907. But that tale of delight and despair is a story for another day.
Everton: Bob Menham, Peter Meehan, Davie Storrier, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt, Billy Stewart, Jack Taylor, Jack Bell, Andy Hartley, Edgar Chadwick, Alf Milward.
The Everton FA Cup Class of 1897
Long-serving Everton stalwarts Dickie Boyle, Edgar Chadwick, Johnny Holt and Alf Milward also featured in the 1893 FA Cup Final versus Wolverhampton Wanderers and their pen pictures are therefore contained in the Everton FA Cup Class of 1893 section.
W. G. “Smart“ Arridge
Left-back Smart Arridge was born in Sunderland in 1872, but raised in Bangor, North Wales. He attended Friars Grammar School in Bangor, which he represented at football prior to joining his local outfit Bangor FC, with whom he won the inaugural North Wales Coast Senior Cup in 1895. Universally recognized as a gentleman footballer despite specializing in the shoulder charge, Arridge played for Bootle in the inaugural 1892/93 Second Division season, joining the Toffeemen when their bitter local rivals folded at the end of that, their first and last Football League season, despite having finished a respectable ninth. He remained very much a fringe player at Everton during his first two seasons, featuring in the starting eleven only four times, twice in 1893/94 and twice again in 1894/95, before progressing to become a first team regular in seasons 1895/96 and 1896/97, in both of which he made twenty-three First Division and two and three FA Cup appearances for the club in 1895/96 and 1896/97 respectively. He left Everton for New Brighton Tower in 1897 before ending his career at Stockport County with eight full international appearances for Wales to his credit, including three whilst on Everton’s books. He died in Bangor in 1947 aged seventy-five.
Jack Bell
An outstanding outside-left and, having chested in a right‑wing cross in the second half, notcher of Everton’s third goal in the inaugural clash with the Johnny‑come‑latelies from across Stanley Park at Goodison on 13 October 1894, which, gratifyingly enough, Everton won 3:0, crowd‑thriller and 1897 FA Cup Final man of the match Jack Bell, born in Dumbarton on 6 October 1869, joined the Toffees from his home town club in 1893, making his first appearance in a 3:0 Goodison victory versus Bolton Wanderers on 3 April 1893. Chairman of the Players’ Union, in which capacity he denounced the prevailing transfer system, Bell, after having made 130 First Division and seventeen FA Cup appearances for Everton, notching fifty-two and six goals respectively in the process, attracted a hail of brickbats in August 1898 by asking Tottenham what they would be prepared to offer him for his playing services before eventually opting to move north of the border and sign for Celtic. However, within twelve months he was back on Merseyside playing for New Brighton Tower, from where he rejoined Everton in August 1901. He went on to make another forty‑seven league and five FA Cup appearances for the club, including, alongside his 1896/97 Everton FA Cup Final team‑mate, Jack Taylor, Everton’s very first FA Cup clash with their neighbours from hell, an encounter which ended in a 2:2 draw at Anfield on 25 January 1902, and the replay at Goodison Park on 30 January 1902, which, no doubt to the delight of the ailing John Houlding, ex‑Lord Mayor of Liverpool (1897‑98), Conservative councillor for Everton and Kirkdale (1885‑1902), Orangeman and Grand Master second only to the King himself in order of Freemason seniority, who, just forty‑six days later on Sunday, 17 March 1902, would succumb to his poor health in a hotel in Nice, France, ended in an Everton set‑back to the tune of two goals to nil, a startling reverse indeed for the Toffeemen given the fact that, just nineteen days previously on 11 January 1902, they had thrashed their unloved rivals 4:0 in a league clash at the same venue. Jack Bell scored a further ten league and two FA Cup goals in Everton’s colours before moving to fellow First Division outfit Preston North End in mid‑1903, where he eventually became the club’s first manager‑coach in 1909. A Scottish international, he gained ten full caps for his native country, three of which during his first stint on Everton’s books.
Note:
Judging by a comment contained in the Programme Pickles section of the Everton v Liverpool programme dating from Good Friday, 29 March 1907, Jack Bell, at the ripe old footballing age of thirty-seven, was still going strong four years after leaving Everton, for, so it is stated: “Bristol City were lucky to beat Preston North End [by 1:0 the previous Saturday, 23 March 1907]. Jack Bell is the most surprising player of present-day football. He was the best man on the field at Bristol.”
Andy Hartley
Another Scot hailing from Dumbarton, Andy Hartley, a forward, joined Everton from Scottish Champions Dumbarton in 1892. He made a goal-scoring debut for Everton in a 4:2 victory over Wolves at Molineux on 18 March 1893, a game in which Everton fielded virtually their reserve side in advance of the FA Cup Final at Fallowfield, Manchester, against the same opponents a week later, which Everton’s full‑strength side duly lost 1:0. He remained somewhat of a fringe player throughout his Everton career, managing just fifty league and eleven FA Cup appearances for the Toffees before moving to Liverpool in December 1897, though, alongside his 1896/97 Goodison team‑mates Jack Bell, Dickie Boyle, Johnny Holt and Billy Stewart, he did enjoy the distinction of featuring in the first-ever all-Merseyside clash on 13 October 1894. This somewhat meagre Everton playing record notwithstanding, he still managed an average of one goal every 2.18 games whilst on the Goodison Park playing staff.
Peter Meehan
A Scot born in Broxburn, West Lothian, on 28 February 1872, right‑back Peter Meehan who, according to Thomas Keates in his History of the Everton Football Club 1878‑1928, was “the best‑paid main in the team”, joined Everton from Celtic in January 1897. He made his debut in the FA Cup 2nd round tie versus Blackburn Rovers at Goodison on 13 February 1897, which Everton won 2:0. Subsequently to earn the dubious distinction of being the only player on either side to have his name misspelt in the 1897 FA Cup Final programme, in which it appears as Meechan, all in all, he made seven First Division and four FA Cup appearances for Everton in season 1896/97 and a further seventeen league appearances, blasted by Thomas Keates as “wretched”, in season 1897/98 before being transferred to Southampton in August 1898. Featuring alongside his 1897 FA Cup Final Everton team-mate Alf Milward, Peter Meehan, a full Scottish international, suffered a second FA Cup Final defeat with this then Southern League outfit in their 4:0 defeat versus Bury at the Crystal Palace in 1900, although en route to this disappointment he at least had the pleasure of witnessing Southampton eliminate his old club Everton from that season’s competition by three goals to nil in a first round tie at the Dell on 27 January 1900.
Bob Menham
A native of North Shields, goalkeeper Bob Menham joined the Toffees from Luton Town in January 1896, aged twenty-five. Replacing the hitherto ever-present H. F. Briggs in goal, he marked his Everton debut with a clean sheet in a 0:0 draw against Liverpool at Goodison on 21 November 1896, becoming the first Everton player to make his inaugural appearance for the club in an all‑Liverpool clash in the process. He featured in goal for Everton in all five FA Cup games during the 1896/97 FA Cup run in addition to making eighteen First Division appearances for the club that season, his last being a 2:1 home defeat versus Bury on 24 April 1897, Everton’s final fixture of the 1896/97 campaign. However, scapegoated for the 1897 FA Cup Final defeat, for which, in his History of the Everton Football Club 1878‑1928, Thomas Keates unequivocally blamed “feeble goalkeeping”, his days between the Everton sticks were numbered and he moved to Wigan County in the summer of 1898. He ended his goalkeeping career at Swindon Town, for whom he made a total of 106 appearances during seasons 1898/89 to 1902/03. Bob Menham died in January 1945.
John Robertson
Yet another native of Dumbarton, John Robertson, a half-back born on 25 February 1877, joined Everton from Morton in October 1895, making his Everton debut in a 1:1 draw at home to Bolton Wanderers on 6 April 1896. In season 1896/97 he remained very much a fringe player, featuring in the first eleven just three times. He became established in the first team the next season, appearing in twenty-six league and five FA Cup games and scoring one goal before moving to Southampton in May 1898. Whilst on Everton’s books he also played for Scotland at Celtic Park, Glasgow, in a 3:1 defeat versus England on 2 April 1898. He died in January 1935, aged fifty-seven.
Billy Stewart
Yet another Scot and veteran of Everton’s inaugural encounter with their unloved rivals from across Stanley Park on 13 October 1894, Billy Stewart, who, according to Thomas Keates in his History of the Everton Football Club 1878‑1925, had captained the Everton side in the 1897 FA Cup Final, was born in Arbroath and signed for Everton from Preston North End in 1893. A solid half-back and long-throw specialist whose running and jumping action was subsequently outlawed by the Football League authorities, he made his Everton debut in a 3:2 defeat against Sheffield United at Goodison on 2 September 1893, the first game of that season. He went on to make 122 league and fifteen FA Cup appearances for the club, netting six times in the process, including, on one occasion, the winning goal in a narrow 1:0 victory over Derby County at the Baseball Ground on 20 April 1897, before moving to Bristol City in 1898. He final appearance for the Toffees, in the 1897/98 FA Cup semi‑final versus Derby County at Molineux, was marked by his injury‑induced departure from the field of play early in the contest, an Everton setback which the Rams, aided and abetted by what one eye‑witness, quoted by Thomas Keates, termed “one of the most humiliating exhibitions of poor form by an Everton League team”, duly exploited to the tune of three goals to one, thus exacting revenge for their defeat at the hands of Everton at the same stage of the competition almost exactly a year earlier.
Davie Storrier
A Scot born in Arbroath on 25 October 1872, Davie Storrier, a full-back whose football career began with minor Scottish outfit Dauntless, helped Arbroath to Northern League Championship success in season 1892/93, a highly prized title in those days contested by such leading Scottish lights as Perth, Dundee, Angus and Aberdeen. His fine performances in Arbroath’s colours soon attracted the attention of scouts from south of the border and he duly joined Everton in 1893, aged twenty-one. Although remaining very much a bit‑part player for his first two seasons at the club, he was an established fixture in the side in seasons 1896/97 and 1897/98. After having made a total of fifty-five First Division and ten FA Cup appearances for the Toffees, Davie Storrier returned to his native Scotland, signing for Celtic in May 1898. During a three-year stint with the Glasgow club, he captained the Celtic side which defeated Rangers 2:0 in the 1899 Scottish Cup Final and also featured in the Celtic eleven which defeated Queen’s Park 4:3 at the same stage of the competition twelve months later. However, in 1901, by which time he had full Scottish international honours to his credit, Storrier was suspended by Celtic “on suspicion of malingering”, whereupon he quickly moved to Dundee for an unhappy ten‑game spell before moving south to join Southern League London outfit Millwall, where his playing days came to an end in 1904, though not before he had had the pleasure of featuring in the Millwall side which defeated Everton 1:0 in appalling weather and playing conditions in an FA Cup third round tie at North Greenwich on 7 March 1903. Upon his retirement from football he returned to his home town of Arbroath, where he died in 1910, aged just thirty-seven.
Jack Taylor
Yet another Scot hailing from the football hotbed of Dumbarton, Jack Taylor, who featured on the right wing in the 1897 FA Cup Final, originally joined Everton as an inside‑right from St. Mirren in 1896, debuting for the club in that position in a 2:1 victory over Sheffield United at Goodison Park on 5 September 1896. Revered in latter‑day Everton circles as a formidable and skilful stopper, it was not, in fact, until 1 October 1904 in a 1:0 defeat at Middlesbrough that he actually featured in an Everton side at centre‑half, a position which, however, having variously played at inside‑right, right‑half, left‑half and on the right wing, he henceforth made his regular berth in the starting eleven. In a truly distinguished Everton career spanning thirteen‑and‑a‑half years, this versatile and talented footballer amassed a grand total of 400 First Division and fifty‑six FA Cup appearances for the Toffeemen, meaning that in the 125‑year history of the club only five Everton players have graced the club’s colours on more occasions, namely, Neville Southall, Brian Labone, Ted Sagar, Kevin Ratcliffe and Mike Lyons. According to the Everton v Liverpool programme dating from Saturday, 4 February 1911, the sixty‑six league and fourteen FA Cup goals which he notched for the Toffees during the course of his long career included Everton’s inaugural FA Cup strike against their cross‑park enemies in a 2:2 draw in a second round tie at Anfield on 25 January 1902, the first‑ever FA Cup clash between the two clubs1, though this is not confirmed by any of the Everton records in my possession, all of which credit Everton’s brace of goals in this tussle to Sandy Young and Jack Sharp.
In addition to the 1897 FA Cup Final, Jack Taylor, the sole Everton survivor from that thrilling contest, was team captain in both the 1906 FA Cup Final, in which Everton, having eliminated the Livers 2:0 in the semi‑final at Villa Park, defeated firm favourites and losing 1905 finalists Newcastle United 1:0, and the 1907 FA Cup Final, in which equally firm favourites Everton were, in turn, defeated 2:1 by Sheffield Wednesday. His last appearance for the Toffees came in the FA Cup semi‑final replay versus mid-table Second Division outsiders Barnsley at Old Trafford on 31 March 1910, in which, according to the Sheffield Wednesday v Everton programme dating from Saturday, 22 December 1962, largely in consequence of the fact that, just ten minutes after the start, Jack Taylor suffered a broken larynx, an injury which terminated his long and distinguished professional career, Everton were comprehensively vanquished by three goals to nil2. Jack Taylor died in 1949 aged seventy‑seven.
1 I quote: “And now to previous meetings between the Blue and Red forces in the Cup contest. The twain were first brought together in this connection on January 25th, 1902, the game being down for decision on the Anfield enclosure. A draw of two goals was the verdict. […] For the Anfielders Robertson (penalty) and Hunter scored, while Taylor and Sharp added points for the Blues.”
[2] Following a 1:1 draw at the Crystal Palace, Barnsley lost the 1910 FA Cup Final replay 2:0 against Newcastle United at Goodison Park in front of a crowd numbering 55,364. This was the second occasion on which Everton’s ground had staged the final tie of this illustrious competition. It was also destined to be the last, though, as the Everton versus Portsmouth programme dating from 24 April 1948 reveals, the 1948 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Manchester United, which the latter won 4:2 with two goals in the last ten minutes, was scheduled to be replayed at Goodison Park: “A draw at Wembley today and we have the all-Lancashire opponents fighting the replay here on May 1st.” The Everton versus West Bromwich Albion programme dating from Saturday, 29 September 1962 reveals that, six years later, there was an even closer call. I quote: “In 1954 they [West Bromwich Albion] nearly achieved the “Double” but finished second to neighbours Wolves in the League. They beat Preston 3-2 in the Cup Final that year, Frank Griffin scoring the winning goal in the closing minutes – thus depriving Merseysiders of a chance to see a Cup Final as the replay had been fixed for Goodison Park.” It was an even closer call still ten years later when, at the very death, West Ham United defeated, coincidence of coincidences, Preston North End by the same 3:2 score line at Wembley, courtesy of a dramatic winning strike two minutes into injury time, for, once again, as a notice in the programme for the Everton versus West Ham United First Division clash on Saturday, 24 April 1964 reveals, the replay was scheduled to take place at Goodison Park on Thursday, 7 May 1964.
Sources:
Publications:
Jon Berman and Malcolm Dome, Everton Greats – Where Are They Now? 1997
James Corbett, Everton – The School of Science, 2003
David France and Becky Tallentire, Gwladys Street's Holy Trinity, 2001
George Orr, Everton in the 60s, 1995
Steve Pearce, Shoot. The ultimate stats and facts guide to English league football, 1997
Ivan Ponting, Everton – Player By Player, 1992
Ken Rogers, Goodison Glory, 1998
Various official Everton programmes, 1962-1975
When Skies Are Grey, issue 105, December 2003
Databases:
Tony Brown and Andy Ellis, Everton F.C. 1887-1999. A Year-by-Year History, 1999
Jeff Hurley, Everton AFC Database (1887-1996), 1996
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