In this week's Royal Blue column, Chris Beesley examines Everton's record away to Manchester United
Everton players arriving for training at Finch Farm on Friday, November 21
Everton players arriving for training at Finch Farm on Friday, November 21(Image: Tony McArdle/Everton FC Official Photography Library/SmartFrame)
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Ahead of Everton’s return to action against Manchester United on Monday, Pat Nevin claimed that David Moyes “won’t care” about his record at Old Trafford. But long-suffering Blues supporters certainly do!
The former Everton winger and fellow Glaswegian insisted: “Here’s the truth, David Moyes won’t care. That’s the reality, managers don’t care about things like that. It’s just another game, it’s three points.”
Although it must be stressed these are not of course the words of Moyes himself, when you ask players about fixtures in which their team has struggled in the past, they were invariably tell you that it’s a different team and it doesn’t impact on the result, but in reality, the Blues’ record away to the Red Devils in the modern era is wretched.
Other than the one season that Moyes himself was Manchester United and Bryan Oviedo’s late strike secured victory for Roberto Martinez’s men – now almost a dozen years ago – the last time Everton triumphed in the fixture was back on August 19, 1992 in what was their first-ever Premier League away game. Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap was at number one in the UK charts when goals from Peter Beardsley, Robert Warzycha – the only non-British player in the Blues matchday squad – and Mo Johnston gave Howard Kendall’s side a handsome 3-0 success against Alex Ferguson’s charges.
Back then it was no biggie. It was Everton’s fifth win at Old Trafford in nine years.
Kendall was the two-time title-winning manager while Ferguson was still waiting to break his duck. Younger readers might struggle to comprehend it, but those brace of titles secured under Kendall in 1985 and 1987 had put the Blues two ahead of United in the League Championship count, as the biggest domestic prize had not been in the Old Trafford trophy cabinet for a quarter of a century.
Things would all change the following May though as United would lift their first of 13 Premier League titles to date, to not only eclipse Everton but eventually Liverpool too, although the pair of course currently stand level again on 20 apiece. Ferguson – who along with another serial title winner Arsene Wenger of Arsenal, is now the only other man to have taken charge of more Premier League games than Moyes – would collect more honours over a golden 20-year period than United had picked up over the preceding century, but since he retired, the titles have dried up.
Hand-picked by ‘Sir Alex’ and invited around to his house to be told so while he was still in charge of the Blues, Moyes became the first in a string of managers to take up what has become a poisoned chalice. Despite signing a six-year contract at United, he was sacked the following April, after a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park, where a fan dressed as ‘The Grim Reaper’ who wielded an inflatable scythe in his direction in the away dugout, displayed eery foresight.
Since then, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick (who served 29 games in an interim role), Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim have all failed to get United back to the top of the tree. The latter even finished last season with just 42 points – some six less than Everton, who were placed above the Red Devils for only the second time in the Premier League era (the other being 2013/14 when Moyes got the chop).
Yet for all these declining fortunes at Old Trafford – combined with the rise of course of their previously hapless rivals from across town, Manchester City, who Ferguson dubbed: “The noisy neighbours,” soon after Sheikh Mansour’s takeover – that Oviedo-inspired night remains the Blues’ only success at Old Trafford. That’s something that needs to change.
Moyes steered Everton to nine top-eight finishes during his first spell in charge, including a highest-ever Premier League placing of fourth in 2004/05, the same season he picked up the second of this three LMA Manager of the Year awards while as Blues boss, but those away days against the division’s elite still haunt him in a much longer-lasting manner than pranksters in fancy dress. Moyes never won with Everton at Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea during his first 11-year spell.
Since returning to the club in January, he’s suffered another couple of defeats at Anfield – the ground where a cheeky bookmaker once erected a mock statue of him with the inscription: “For services to Liverpool Football Club” – plus another loss at Stamford Bridge, a ground where Sunderland last month triumphed for the fourth time since the Blues last picked up three points there 31 years ago. Moyes is Everton’s most consistent manager of the past generation but with this bright new dawn that the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium has brought, there also needs to be a sea change in attitudes when it comes to approaching games like this, rather than the same old sob stories after returning empty-handed.
Like the derby, this feels like a fixture that has for too long been lost in the heads of the Blues’ players before they have even taken to the pitch. There’s a familiar wise, old head back in charge, but Everton must face Manchester United and others on their list of bogey sides with fresh optimism and ideas.
Evertonians invited to live event at Waterstones
Spirit of the Blues is out now
Spirit of the Blues is out now
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Evertonians are invited to come to a live event at Waterstones Liverpool at 6:30pm on Tuesday November 25 to celebrate the club’s 133 years at Goodison Park. While Blues are now enjoying life at Hill Dickinson Stadium, their new 52,769 capacity home on the Mersey waterfront, as a fanbase that prides itself on knowing their history, supporters will never forget the unique role that ‘The Grand Old Lady’ played in English football.
ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley’s book Spirit of the Blues: Everton’s Most Memorable Matches & Goodison Park’s Greatest Games takes readers on an absorbing ride though over 100 fixtures from Everton’s first at Goodison Park in 1892 to their last on May 18 this year. Joined by master of ceremonies Sam Carroll, and fellow author Steve Zocek, who has written Kendall’s Glory Years: In Their Own Words, Chris will be talking about Spirit of the Blues at Waterstones before he and Michael conduct a Q&A session on all things Everton. Tickets must be booked in advanced and can be obtained from the link below.
Click here to get your tickets for the Spirit of the Blues event at Waterstones Liverpool.