David Moyes' Everton defeated Liverpool 3-0 at Goodison Park on September 9, 2006
Everton's Andrew Johnson celebrates scoring the third goal against Liverpool
Everton's Andrew Johnson celebrates scoring the third goal against Liverpool(Image: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Some 20 years ago today, Everton celebrated their biggest win over Liverpool in living memory and Blues boss David Moyes reflects on it as a landmark moment.
On September 9, 2006, Tim Cahill fired the Blues ahead on 24 minutes with a right-foot shot from seven yards out before summer signing Andrew Johnson bagged a brace. On 36 minutes, the then club record £8.6million recruit from Crystal Palace doubled the hosts’ lead at Goodison Park with a cool finish after shrugging off Jamie Carragher’s wild challenge before completing the rout four minutes into second half stoppage time, heading over the goal line after Pepe Reina had made a hash of dealing with a long-range strike from Lee Carsley.
It was Everton’s most emphatic margin of victory over the Reds since goals from Colin Harvey, Johnny Morrissey, Fred Pickering and Derek Temple sealed a 4-0 pounding at Anfield almost 42 years earlier on September 19, 1964, when Moyes himself was a one-year-old.
Dominic King wrote in the ECHO the following Monday: “Everton delivered the kind of performance that many have spent years fantasising about. But how many fans will have leapt out of bed yesterday morning with sore heads to buy every paper and watch repeats of Match of the Day, Football First and Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement to make sure it wasn’t a dream?
“Fear not. There was nothing imaginary about the way Everton systemically dismantled and tormented a side that has visions of challenging Chelsea for the Premier League.
“On this evidence, such claims seem fanciful. Conjuring up a breathless performance that oozed calm and class, the 11 men David Moyes selected for duty secured a result which will be talked about for many, many years to come. Emphatic doesn’t really do their efforts justice.”
Recalling the win in between his West Ham United exit and return to Everton, while speaking to this correspondent in his episode of Goodison Park: My Home in September 2024, Moyes told the ECHO: “It was an incredible day for us all. Liverpool are a club who are always up there, challenging for trophies, and they can spend with the best.
“We weren’t. We were the little boy down the end of the street, trying to fight against everybody and we were still doing that.
“It think that was a moment for us to say: ‘By the way, we’re on the map here.’
“We’d had four years and we were beginning to be in there. It was always really tough to play against Liverpool, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher were great players for their club.
“They stood up for all that they wanted. In the end, over the years, the fight those two players had made it really difficult.
“For all the great players that they had, those were the two we had to fight all the time to overcome the two of them. We tried to do everything to try and stop them, we tried to kick them, all sorts, but thankfully that day we got a brilliant result.”
Tim Cahill is congratulated by team-mates Lee Carsley and Mikel Arteta after scoring the opening goal during the match between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park on September 9, 2006
Tim Cahill is congratulated by team-mates Lee Carsley and Mikel Arteta after scoring the opening goal during the match between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park on September 9, 2006(Image: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
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Johnson, who famously photographed making a three-nil gesture with his fingers after netting in the dying seconds, was the second of three strikers in consecutive calendar years that Moyes broke Everton’s transfer record to bring to the club. James Beattie came in from Southampton for £6million in 2005 and Ayegbeni Yakubu joined from Middlesbrough for £11.25million in 2007.
The Glaswegian gaffer admitted that it was always a tough challenge to get the right fit in that position. Moyes said: “I think a centre-forward was probably always my biggest difficulty because centre-forward is where you needed your biggest money and it wasn’t something we had a lot of. We were struggling to get a centre-forward who could fit into the wages and what we wanted.
“We were doing our best to try and come up with people who could give us that, whether it was AJ or Yak, there had been Marcus Bent and many more as well. You’re always hoping that you can get one that comes to the fore.
“There were others we brought in like Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta and Leighton Baines in the other positions who went on to do really well but the centre-forward position was always tough.”