Former Everton striker Jermaine Beckford, whose wonder goal on the final day of the 2010/11 season, marked the end of Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea reign, celebrates his 41st birthday today
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Carlo Ancelotti looks on during the match between Everton and Chelsea at Goodison Park on May 22, 2011
Carlo Ancelotti looks on during the match between Everton and Chelsea at Goodison Park on May 22, 2011
(Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Jermaine Beckford was Everton’s very own Wealdstone ‘Raider’, working his way up from the non-League club to the Premier League but while he only spent one full season at Goodison Park, the striker crammed plenty of incident into his stay.
Beckford, who celebrates his 41st birthday today, suffered FA Cup heartbreak when a traffic jam caused by the closure of the M62 saw him arrive late for a fifth round tie at home to Reading with David Moyes forced to drop him to the bench and despite introducing the Londoner at the start of the second half, Everton were unable to recover from a 1-0 deficit and crashed out of the competition to the Championship side having won at Chelsea on penalties in the previous round.
Manager Moyes would later admit that he’d made a mistake by throwing the player, who had broken the 20-goal barrier for Leeds United in League One in each of the previous three seasons, but possessed no top flight experience, in at the deep end early in the season. However, while Beckford never entirely convinced in the Premier League and would subsequently spend the remainder of his career back in the lower divisions, mostly in the Championship with Leicester City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End before finishing at Bury, he did hit double figures for Everton in all competitions and enjoyed a couple of significant highlights.
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One was scoring against Liverpool in a 2-2 draw at Anfield in the Merseyside Derby, his goal actually giving the Blues a 2-1 lead on 52 minutes before Dirk Kuyt’s 68th minute penalty earned the Reds a share of the spoils. Beckford’s big moment came on the very last day of the campaign though, when channeled his inner ‘George Weah’ to score an incredible solo goal to give 10-man Everton a 1-0 victory over Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea at Goodison Park.
Moyes’ men were up against it from eight minutes into the second half when Seamus Coleman was sent off for a second bookable offence. The Irishman had been cautioned just before the break for a late challenge on Ashley Cole and was given his marching orders following a rash lunge on Jon Obi Mikel.
Beckford’s big moment arrived 16 minutes from full-time though. Picking up possession in his own area and riding a sliding challenge from future Everton manager Frank Lampard, the Ealing-born player, who had been with Chelsea as a youngster, dribbled almost the entire length of the pitch, and while he looked like he might be running into trouble just after he got beyond the centre circle, a ricochet saw the ball fly up in the air and enabled him to escape his markers before he scooped the ball past the onrushing Petr Cech and into the Gwladys Street goal.
Recalling the wonder strike in an exclusive interview back in 2019, Beckford told the ECHO: “100% I’m going for it,” he explained when asked about his first thoughts upon picking up the ball.
“I just looked up and flicked it over Frank Lampard’s leg as he tried to slide tackle me.
“As soon as I went past him, I thought I’m off here, nobody is going to catch me. I was running towards the line, cut across the field, got a little bit of a lucky touch and I was looking at John Terry and [Branislav] Ivanovic, where those two were.
“I took my eye off the ball briefly, for a split second, and one of them got a touch on it but I read where he was going to flick the ball to. I managed to flick it up in the air, got past everybody, took it down on my knee, Cech came out, and I thought you know what, I’m going to do what I normally do here.
“My favourite finish is chipping it over the goalkeeper so that’s what I did! If in doubt, go back to what you know!
“Fortunately for myself, I saw him go down very early and I thought I’m just going to lift it. I got enough on it and fortunately it went over him into the far corner. It was lovely, absolutely lovely.”
Everton's Jermaine Beckford celebrates scoring against Chelsea
The 1-0 victory ensured Everton finished the season in seventh placed – their fifth consecutive top eight placing under Moyes – but despite steering Chelsea to a Premier League and FA Cup double the previous year in his first season working outside his native Italy, a runners-up spot wasn’t deemed good enough for another future Blues boss, Carlo Ancelotti. Despite going on to become the most-successful coach in Champions League history, Ancelotti, whose dismissal at Juventus in 2001 was announced at half-time, didn’t fare much better here as his sacking by Roman Abramovich was confirmed before he’d even exited Goodison.
Despite his fleeting stay on Merseyside, Beckford also revealed in 2019 that his young son was a keen follower of Everton... and Real Madrid! He said: “Listen, once you’ve had a taste of it there’s no way you can go back, it's the People's Club for a reason.
“The people come first. I’ve said it numerous times in the past, from the very first day I stepped through the doors I’ve been welcomed and felt like I’ve been there for years.
“That’s not easy to do. That will stay with me forever.
“Everton are one of the first results I look out for, and I always hope we end up in the Champions League. Not so much the Europa League, the Champions League – I want to aim for the top.”