Today marks 40 years since the joint parade between Liverpool and Everton when Merseyside put up a united front
The joint homecoming victory parade 40 years ago today
The joint homecoming victory parade 40 years ago today(Image: Mirrorpix)
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Through modern eyes, what happened 40 years ago today seems like one of the most peculiar occasions in English football. Cast your mind back four decades and Merseyside reigned supreme over English football. Everton and Liverpool were undoubtedly the two best teams of the 1980s and regularly vied for top honours, in addition to bragging rights in the city.
This was none more evident than on May 10, 1986 when the Reds took on the Blues at Wembley in the FA Cup final. Iconic broadcaster Clive Tyldseley remembers the game like it was yesterday and told the ECHO it felt like the Merseyside Derby to end all derbies.
The 71-year-old said: "It felt like there would be no more conversations after this game. It was just that big." Liverpool triumphed in the game at Wembley 3 - 1 after the Reds fought back from a goal down to clinch the FA Cup - and seal an historic double.
Although May 10 represented a final between the two best teams of the time, the day after saw something much more unusual. Although Everton had finished as runners up in both the league title and FA Cup race, a joint parade had already been arranged between the two teams around the city.
While it was certainly a misguided concept, ignoring the fact one team could win both trophies, the political context at the time meant the teams had taken on an extra significance outside of the sport. In the context of Margaret Thatcher's Britain, Liverpool felt like a city cast aside amid soaring unemployment, with government papers having since revealed senior Tory ministers at the time lobbied for Liverpool to be abandoned to a fate of "managed decline".
But, even as the city was looked down upon, there was nobody better at the nation's game than Merseyside, serving as a reminded to the rest of the UK that our region would never be going anywhere quietly.
To modern eyes, the joint parade seems bizarre, but looking back on live broadcasts from the time, it was then deemed quite normal. A Grandstand report alluded towards the historic significance as the two teams landed back in Liverpool on a British Airways plane on this day 40 years ago.
The footage is available to watch on YouTube as the broadcaster said: "A unique arrival home that unites this city which has suffered so many trials and tribulations in recent times."
Clive has similar memories as he was on the media bus covering the parade when he worked for Radio City. He told the ECHO: "I was on top of the bus with our sort of rather archaic outside broadcast facilities, which were off-air more than they were on-air. It was me with a great big aerial sticking out of a backpack trying to interview the players, as hungover as any of them really from what we'd done the night before."
Although you may expect the parade to have only enticed Reds fan wanting to celebrate both trophies, footage from the Grandstand broadcast shows people with Everton flags. Clive also remembers: "I can almost see, looking down from the Liverpool bus, people in blue and white with their hands like that going, 'Well done.'
"And that would be a difficult thing to do, and obviously they wanted to say their thanks to their own team. But there was a genuine. response. I think "Mersey Pride" was a phrase coined maybe around about that time."
It's mixed emotions watching the footage back as it's heartening to see a display of footballing unity that has most certainly been lost in the modern era. Social media has made football fandom so divisive and tribal and you could never imagine two rivals being able to co-exist harmoniously on a joint parade.
However, the harmony was brought about through real social upheaval, the likes of which we hope never befalls Merseyside again.
As the Grandstand broadcaster ended the new broadcast, he said: "A footballing city united in its pride. This city and its people have kept its pride through all of its recent problems. Today has enjoyed itself and is still enjoying itself hugely."
While it's great to see the people of Merseyside unite in typical defiant Scouse style in 1986, it's hard to not think of the great cost that led to that point.