As songs, jokes and insults pepper Wednesday’s FA Cup replay preparations, a new book celebrates the lasting affection between football’s great rivals, Evertonians and Liverpudlians. David Charters reports
AH, ON those scrapbook nights of the smoky memory, we see again the Toffee Ladies and the Liver Bird badge, those symbols of the Blues and the Reds in a city, where the magnificent bronze statues of William Ralph “Dixie” Dean and Bill Shankly stand on their pedestals at Goodison Park and Anfield, reminding the passing generations that football bestows a kind of immortality on its heroes.
Glaswegians and Mancunians would disagree, but in Liverpool we believe that our two great teams provide the keenest rivalry in British football.
“Aye, he’s talking about Liverpool and Liverpool reserves,” as Shankly might now be saying in that unforgettable accent, flinted in the hard-knuckled, knee-skinned Ayrshire of his boyhood.
But then an aggravated Evertonian interrupts with a swift chorus of, “We’re going to hang the Kopites one by one on the banks of the Royal blue Mersey”.
There has always been a delicate line between good-natured banter and tribal passion in the Liverpool/Everton divide.
You must remember that, to an Evertonian, no Blue in the history of the game has ever been offside, committed a foul or uttered a curse. Of course, Liverpudlians, too, think of their players as only being a whisker under the angels and in some cases rather higher than that, recalling their wonderful Ian St John.
Yet, not long ago, from a lofty perch in the stands, a satirist used to whisper to his friend: “I say, Carruthers, a fellow to my left seems to be suggesting that the referee is the unwashed offspring of a union not sanctified by Holy Matrimony. Also, he seems to think the hapless official may be mistaken in his interpretation of the Football Association’s offside law.”
Younger Evertonians were quick to latch onto Liverpool’s ownership controversy, dubbing it the swingers’ club, which didn’t know who its next partner would be.
However, the underlying affection between the two clubs, manifested in times of triumph and the deepest sorrow, is the subject of a book soon to be published by Peter Lupson, a devout Christian, the head of English at Kingsmead School, Hoylake, Wirral, and a football historian.
For example, a delegation of Liverpool directors were waiting at Liverpool’s Central station in 1906 to congratulate the Everton team, which had just beaten Newcastle United 1-0 in the Cup Final, at Crystal Palace, London – having already forgiven the Blues’ 2-0 win over the Reds in the semi-final.
Sadly, that affection is rarely in evidence at derby matches these days, and there is little reason to suppose there will be any improvement in relations, when they replay their fourth round FA Cup tie at Goodison on Wednesday.
But it wasn’t like that almost 20 years ago.
On April 15, 1989,ninety-six Liverpool fans were killed at their team’s semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough. An article in the following Monday’s Daily Post read: “Thousands of Liverpool and Everton supporters yesterday stood before the Kop and together they grieved for those lost in Hillsborough’s crush. From sun-up, the fans filed to Anfield to lay flowers and an array of red favours before the towering Bill Shankly Memorial Gates. Some knelt in prayer. Many wept.”
Thousands of flowers were tied to the goal netting and the scent of flowers filled the air. One of the scarves said, “To all the boys who died. From Rachel, an Everton fan.”
That is the spirit that Peter Lupson reflects in his latest book, Across the Park.
“This book is a celebration of the historic links between Everton and Liverpool football clubs,” he says.
”No book has ever explored in any depth the many points of overlap in the histories of these two great clubs. As a result, important aspects of their shared heritage have been overlooked or neglected.”
Across the Park is in two sections. The first deals with the history of the clubs. The second deals with the goodwill between the clubs, which was even evident in 1902, when the coffin of John Houlding, the brewer and founder of Liverpool, was borne by three players from each club, though he had been at the centre of their acrimonious parting of the ways, see panel.
More recently, people remember how Everton offered support and sympathy to Liverpool, its players, fans, officials and, particularly those mourning the loss of loved ones, in the weeks after Hillsborough.
Taxi drivers Jimmy Plunkett and Tommy Atkinson organised a mile of red and blue scarves tied together between Anfield and Goodison. There were memorial services at both cathedrals.
Colin Harvey, then manager of Everton, said: “We are not a divided city .. . . It was always going to be an occasion when we would come together and help each other.”
In the same mood, a rising drum-beat of anger and sorrow, love and hope, spread through the city after the murder of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old Evertonian from Croxteth Park.
Fans from both clubs wore the purple ribbons of the Liverpool Unites campaign and their fellowship reached its zenith at Anfield on August 28 last year. The Everton theme tune, Johnny Todd (Z Cars), was played before Liverpool’s European Champions League qualifier against Toulouse.
On September 22, 2008, which would have been Rhys’s 13th birthday, a cheque for £100,000 from the Liverpool Unites campaign was presented to his parents, Melanie and Stephen, before the derby at Goodison.
Peter Lupson, 62, is a keen member of the Longcroft Christian Fellowship, in Barnston, Wirral, who fervently believes that sport can help young people develop a sense of fair play and a deeper understanding of decent social values – the muscular Christianity, which led to the formation of many football clubs, including Everton. Peter helped found the Merseyside Inter-Church League in 1995/96 and is a youth scout for Wigan Athletic.
He was approached about writing the book by Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive, who had been impressed by how representatives of both teams carried the coffin of John Houlding.
“An example of goodwill between the clubs, which springs to mind instantly, is 1906, when Everton won the FA Cup and the Liverpool directors were there to greet them at the station,” says Peter, who is married to Evelyn. They have two children, Michael, 26, and Karen, 30.
Between 1904 and 1935, the clubs produced 1,100 joint match day programmes. If Liverpool ’s first team were at Anfield, Everton’s reserves would be at Goodison. The programmes listed the line-up of players of both matches, as well as details of their opponents.
“And people have been very impressed by the way the city rallies round those who are suffering in times of great tragedy and we saw that with Hillsborough and then Rhys Jones,” says Peter. “Partisan loyalties were completely suspended. The human element was so much more important.”
So bodies are hugged and hands shaken, amid the tumult and the roars. Bill Shankly spreads his arms wide and dear old Dixie leads his team out again. “There’s always another match, boys. Here’s to the next time.”
ACROSS The Park, published by Sport Media, is £6.99 and available from all good bookshops, from February 24. It can be pre-ordered by logging on to www.merseyshop.com or calling 0845 143 0001.
davidcharters
