Why Dixie Dean is a modern-day great

May 5 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

Dixie Dean scores in a Liverpool derby

"EVEN AT the age of 10 I was conscious of the tension and the fact that the minutes were going by," says Dick White, recalling the growing anxiety inside Goodison Park on the day Dixie Dean struck his record 60th league goal.

It may be 80 years ago but the drama of that historic day remains etched in White’s mind.

He said: “People didn’t have wristwatches in those days and everyone was taking their watches out and looking up at the clock. The minutes were going on, and he only needed one goal.

“Then we got this corner and the great man rose majestically and it was there. The explosion as it went into the net was absolutely fantastic. I think they must have heard the noise at the Pier Head.”

With eight minutes of the season remaining, Dean had his hat-trick and his 60th goal.

White remembers Dean taking the congratulations of both sets of players – save for Arsenal stalwart Charlie Buchan, “overshadowed” on his final league appearance – not to mention “two gentlemen somewhat the worst for wear who ran on to the field to embrace him, thrusting their beery faces into his.”

Yet White, now 90 and still a season-ticket holder at Goodison, nearly missed the opportunity to see history made. He recalls: “My father did not believe in hurrying so I wasn’t allowed to go racing up early. I was fretting and fuming.

“When we got to the corner of Bullens Road and Gwladys Street, there were people in all directions and massive queues.”

Carrying the four pence he needed for the Bullens Road boys’ pen, White was distraught when the gate closed as he neared the front of the queue. Yet salvation came in the kindness of a stranger.

“I was in a hell of a state but there was a gentleman walking along Bullens Road and he gave me the eight pence I needed. ‘Now you’ve got a shilling.’ I don’t think I even thanked him. I ran, joined the men’s queue at Gwladys Street, paid the shilling and went in.”