In the first of a series of features in the build up to the historic first international match at Hill Dickinson Stadium, between Scotland and Ivory Coast, we take a look at Everton's Scottish links
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 4: Duncan Ferguson (C), Marcus Bent (L) and Tim Cahill (R) of Everton celebrate the winning goal during the Barclays Premiership match between Everton and Bolton Wanderers at Goodison Park on December 4, 2004 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Everton's first Scottish international was very much like modern-day club legend Duncan Ferguson (Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
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Scotland face Ivory Coast at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Tuesday, March 31 in a FIFA World Cup warm up match. It will be the first senior men’s international fixture to be staged at Everton’s new waterfront home, and the first time the club has hosted the Scots since 1911. On that occasion Alex Higgins scored a late equaliser at Goodison Park against England in the Home International Championships.
Tickets are now available for this latest fixture on general sale online via the Everton website, by phone on 0151 556 1878, or in person at Hill Dickinson Stadium’s Box Office during opening hours, with prices starting from £27 for Adults and £16 for Under-16s.
Premium hospitality packages across the stadium’s bars, restaurants and premium experiences are available via Seat Unique from £120 + VAT, subject to availability, click here to purchase or learn more.
And in the build up to the historic friendly fixture we look at Everton's Scottish links...
Everton's first Scottish international footballer carried all the hallmarks of one of their most famous. Jack Bell might have been a winger rather than a rumbustious centre-forward, but in all other respects he was a Big Dunc doppleganger.
Read the following contemporary description. A physically formidable forward, "when he met an opponent that was inclined to baser methods, he, too, was prepared to give force for force."
Sound familiar? Like Duncan Ferguson, Jack also played in a Cup Final for Everton, and specialised in scoring against Liverpool.
Even their stats are strikingly similar.
Duncan Ferguson scored 72 goals in 191 Everton starts for his beloved Blues. Bell managed 75 in 199.
By any comparison Jack Bell's career was just as colourful as Ferguson's.
Once hit by a hackney cab on London's Strand, Bell dusted himself down and walked away. The next day he played for Scotland against England at Crystal Palace. Obviously the Scots won 2-1!
And on another occasion he was reported to have saved a fellow pro's life during a match.
Keates' Jubilee History of Everton quotes retired Octogenarian Evertonian S. M. Crosbie. "We noticed a player circling around as if very dizzy. Jack Bell ran to him, took hold of his head, put his shoulders between his knees, pulled his head with all his might and in a few minutes the player joined the game. It turned out he had dislocated his neck and would have been a dead man in a few minutes had not Jack Bell adjusted the dislocation!"
Hard case, Liverpool nemesis, life saver - and Everton's first Scottish international, Jack Bell stood just shy of 6ft tall and weighed 12st 7lb.
He was lured south to Everton from Dumbarton … eventually.
A star striker for The Sons of the Rock, he was an integral part of a team which shared the Scottish title with Glasgow Rangers in 1891 and then won it outright the following season.
Everton dispatched their club secretary and one of their most successful recruits from Dumbarton, Alex Latta, to offer Bell £3 per week, a £10 signing on bonus and 10 shillings for a win, but Bell stayed put for a further season.
That loyalty earned him improved terms of £4 per week, a bonus of £10 and an advance on wages of £20 with 20 shillings to be repaid per week.
The switch was finalised the week after Everton's 1893 FA Cup final defeat by Wolves. He made his debut in a 3-0 victory over Preston on Easter Monday and scored his first Everton goal the following season against Aston Villa.
In 1894 he was one of the goalscorers in the historic first Merseyside derby match.
Limping from a crude challenge by Liverpool defender and one-time Everton captain Andrew Hannah, he refused to come off and his reward came when he "breasted into the net" Everton's third goal in front of 44,000 fans.
That was one of 20 goals in 30 appearances that season, and in April 1896 he was recalled to the Scotland squad for the first time in four years.
In the Victorian era it was rare for Scots plying their trade in the English League to gain international recognition – which makes John’s three Scottish appearances on Everton's books all the more significant.
The Scottish selectors' decision was justified when Bell scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory.
His next Scotland appearance was also against England, at Crystal Palace, and again resulted in a 2-1 win for the Scots. This was the appearance which came the day after his head to head with a London taxi - and just a week after a man of the match performance for Everton in the Cup Final against Aston Villa.
That match was hailed as the finest final in the competition’s history up to that point. And while Everton were on the losing end of a five goal thriller, Jack was named man of the match from a poll held of spectators.
Jack made his third and final appearance as an Everton player for Scotland, yet again against England, in 1898.
He returned North of the border later that year and was called up on five further occasions for his country - always displaying his brand of fearless frontrunning.
That bravado was gloriously illustrated in an account given in 1924 in Victor Hall’s ‘Famous Old Timers’ article for the Liverpool Echo.
"Once, in a league match of great import, the centre-half opposed to Bell early on in the game gave clear evidence that he was more disposed to 'play the man' than 'play the ball'," wrote Victor. "Whenever Bell was in possession the centre-half threw himself at him repeatedly.
"His knee was often raised dangerously in tackles without need; wild lunges were made that threatened serious injury to the player and with a hesitating referee, matters between the two players were approaching a crisis.
"Then Bell, once more getting possession, started at a great pace with a clear run for goal – the half-back waiting for Bell’s approach.
"It was a duel as to who should succeed – the waiting half-back or the striding forward.
"As they met, Bell tipped the ball 20-yards ahead, past the back, and then met him in full charge, half turning for the clash, so that he took the waiting player with his half-turned buttock across the chest shoulder high!
"Both men went down, of course – that was inevitable. But the charge was perfectly fair and only Bell arose unaided; nor did the opponent play much again in that match, or for many a day afterwards.
"He brought it on himself by his method of play, and those who played that day on both sides agreed that it was a choice of Bell or the other fellow to go down. Not many men playing then could say that they had ever stopped Bell.”
The same could be said about his successor in an Everton and Scotland jersey almost a century later!