Stephen Reeves — Being Number Two to Everton’s Number One

Rob Sawyer in conversation with Stephen Reeves

Being an understudy to Neville Southall at Everton was a double-edged sword. You got to train with, and learn from, one of the World’s best between the posts — but you knew that your chances of dislodging the Welshman from the first team were miniscule. One goalkeeper to spend the early 1990s at Bellefield alongside the Everton legend was Essex-born Stephen Reeves. After frequently warming the Blues’ bench, he was released in 1995 on a free transfer by Joe Royle, who explained: ‘He’s a decent keeper. It’s nothing to do with his ability…he needs regular reserve team football at this stage of his career and after recalling Jason Kearton from Notts County he would have been behind him and Neville in the pecking order’.

Below, Stephen, who now lives in Northern Ireland, describes his life in football and his more recent role as a coach to his son’s team.

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I was born in 1974 and grew up in Dagenham. Essex is vast, and West Ham is the team. My dad died when I was one, so my mum brought us three lads up. My older brother Robert, a goalie, was at West Ham United with the likes of Tony Cottee, Mark Ward, Frank McAvennie and Tony Gale — that was a good side. Paul Ince was there, too and Phil Parkes was the keeper then. Robert finished playing at a young age, he got released after a year as a pro. He works for my other brother now; they are still in Essex, in Ramsden Heath.

I used to go along and watch Robert at West Ham on a Tuesday and Thursday evening and ended up starting to play for them. I signed for them when I was eight. I was playing for England Schoolboys while in the Hammers youth team. At half-time in one match the coach slaughtered me after I had missed a cross. It was really harsh criticism; he called me every word under the sun. I had never been spoken to like that so I went home and decided not to go back. It was a right rigmarole. I had meetings with Billy Bonds, the manager, and they wanted to keep me. So, it was agreed that if I left and someone sold me, West Ham would collect 50 percent of the fee.

I then ended up going to Manchester United in around 1990. Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd had been ringing my mum’s house trying to get me to sign. I ended up going up there with David Beckham, but I just didn’t like the city. Chelsea were interested and Everton, too. Neville Southall was the best goalkeeper in the world, so, in 1991 I went to see Howard Kendall. One of the first things he said was: ‘You’ve had more clubs than I have!’ When he heard about the sell-on clause he said, ‘We can get round that — we won’t sell you’. So, I thought, ‘fantastic’ and I ended up signing.

That first year away from home was tough. At 16 it was a bit of a culture shock. I was in the same digs as Jason Kearton had when he came over, backing onto Bellfield, I couldn’t get away from the place! It became a bit easier when I signed pro after 12 months and I got my own place in Waterloo. I loved it, it was a great time, to be honest. When I was an apprentice at Everton, I took Frank Lampard to Goodison Park for a week. As he is from Romford, I picked him up and took him up to Bellefield and he stayed with me while on trial. But I don’t think he had any intention of signing really, with his dad being from West Ham and his uncle being their manager.

Everton’s goalkeepers in my time there were, Nev, Jason, Gerry Peyton and then the younger lads like James Spear. It was a good laugh — the keepers’ union was brilliant. We had lots of goalkeeping coaches, Peter Bonetti was coming in, Mark Harrison was there as well. Peter was freelance, doing a day a week and Mark was employed by the club. Nev took quite a few sessions, ripping you to pieces, but it was all said in jest. He was brilliant and ended up being my agent — he’d do anything for you. He is very individual — he says what he thinks and doesn’t care, but he has a heart of gold. People can take him the wrong way, but he is all for helping people. He was an unbelievable trainer — first in and one of the last to leave.

Dave Watson was the captain. Peter Beardsley and Gary Ablett were lovely guys while Graham Stuart and Vinny Samways were London lads and nice guys. Billy Kenny was a character, he had real potential but it didn’t work out. Everton had a humble squad with level-headed guys - there were no real prima donnas there. Even Maurice Johnson was a nice guy — he had flash cars and watches but didn’t come across in an arrogant way. Duncan Ferguson was bonkers but had a heart of gold — on his parents’ wedding anniversary he took all the lads to an Italian restaurant in town. There are some stories about our end of season tours, but I might get in trouble for them!

I played a lot of A team and then mainly the reserves when Jason went out on loan. I got to play at Goodison quite a lot, but there wasn’t a big turnout for those games. I got to be on the bench for the first team and came close to getting on just once when Nev took a knock at Newcastle So, I was told to warm up, it was freezing cold — but it didn’t happen. Nev would have played on with a broken leg.

I sat on the bench in every round of the 1995 FA Cup except the semi and final as Jason came back from loan. I didn’t get a medal as they were quite stingy back then — but I was part of the day and there for the celebrations in London. Nev didn’t drink, that was just his way.

I left Everton after the final and then went to Chelsea for nearly a year. I had the chance to sign for Oxford United previously but was guided to go to Chelsea due to Nev being mates with Eddie Niedzwiecki. In hindsight it was a poor division; had I gone to Oxford I would have been playing first team football. I did finally join them in 1996. Denis Smith was the manager then — I had a good time there but it was in the reserves and on the bench, which was frustrating.

Also, my knee was getting worse. I had dislocated a cartilage in my knee and it was getting worse and I struggled a lot. I’d be training for one day and then resting for two. I went to see a specialist, Dr Banks, who told me I could play on for two seasons but I would be riddled with arthritis in later life. It wasn’t the sort of news I wanted at that young age but it was decision time to jack it in. It was difficult to know what to do next. I went to a PFA event with Paul Parker where they analyse you. Then they asked us what we’d like to do. I didn’t have a clue as I had always played football. We said: ‘Tell us what we can do and we’ll give it a go.’

I had a friend at Bank of Scotland and he suggested I go along there. I went into finance and have been there ever since. I ended up back in Liverpool and met my wife and lived near Sefton Park, by Lark lane. I loved it there but then Louise passed away* — her parents were wonderful and got me through a really tough time. Then a couple of years later I met my new partner Sarah in Liverpool and we had a son, Reuben.

Sarah had studied at Liverpool but was originally from County Down. We loved the city, all my friends were there but when Sarah’s mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Both of my parents had passed by then, so there was nothing dragging me towards London. So it was the right decision to move to Northern Ireland to be closer to her family and Rueban could be closer to his grandma. And he we are; life is good.

I grew up being a West Ham fan — I don’t think I had any choice — and Reuben is now, too. He plays with Rosario, a community-run football club with a 4G pitch and a really good set up. I have been roped into coaching the goalkeepers — so I got out Neville’s In Search of Perfection book that I feature in. Reuben says I look like Buzz from Home Alone in the photos in it.

*Louise died in 2014 at the age of 41 from autonomic neuropathy issues linked to type 1 diabetes, which she’d had since she was 16.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Stephen for sharing his memories with me
Paul Owens
Graeme Park

Other sources: Liverpool Echo, Evertonian magazine and In Search of Perfection by Neville Southall.

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