OF ALL the colourful anecdotes about Duncan Ferguson’s career featured on the ‘Big Dunc’ DVD, the story concerning his sending off at Wigan during his final season sums up his unique character that both thrilled and frustrated Evertonians.
With just 10 minutes remaining of the 1-1 draw at the JJB Stadium, Ferguson, who had been introduced as a substitute just seven minutes earlier, was sent off for the final time in an Everton jersey.
His offence was punching Wigan’s Austrian international Paul Scharner but at least Ferguson received the rare honour of being congratulated by the opponent on the receiving end of his swing with Scharner declaring: “Duncan Ferguson elbowed me in the neck three times and I was beginning to get a bit angry.
“I swore at him in Austrian and I know he couldn't possibly have understood it. Even so, he suddenly swung round and thumped me in the stomach.
“He got sent off, but I began to appreciate how he earned his reputation as a hard man. It was a nice punch, I have to say.”
On the Big Dunc DVD it is even jokingly suggested that Ferguson deliberately got himself sent off because he wanted a rest that manager David Moyes wouldn’t give him!
The DVD describes Ferguson as a ‘comic-book hero’ but with the physical nature of football rapidly being eroded fellow Goodison legend Graeme Sharp fears that real life players like ‘Big Dunc’ could soon be confined to the pages of fiction.
Sharp said: “Duncan could well be the last centre-forward of his kind we see in the Premier League.
“We no longer seem to have the same physical aspect of the game.
“The way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if FIFA eventually tried to outlaw tackling. Of course there were several occasions when Duncan lost his cool but he wasn’t necessarily a dirty player, he was competitive.
“I come from the old school of thinking that strikers need to work very hard and that means making sure centre-backs know that they’ve been in a game. When Andy Gray and I played up front together for Everton you had to compete and it was for the better of football when it was a more physical game.”
