As Hill Dickinson Stadium prepares its first Merseyside Derby, we look back at Everton's most memorable home matches against Liverpool
History is being made on Sunday as Hill Dickinson Stadium hosts its first Merseyside Derby.
For the first time in almost 132 years of going to Everton for league matches, Liverpool will not cross Stanley Park. Instead of their previous trip of a mere 800 yards at the closest point from Anfield to Goodison Park, the Reds will instead make the two-mile journey to the waterfront and the Blues’ new 52,769 capacity home.
To preview the big event, we’re looking back at 20 of Everton’s most memorable Merseyside Derbies played on home turf in a two-part special. Given that this is being written by the ECHO’s Everton reporter telling the story of the Blues at ‘The Grand Old Lady,’ Liverpool’s 5-0 win in 1982 is not included but for historical context, they’re not all home victories and there is even one Reds success on the list.
Here is part two...
11. ICONIC EIGHT-GOAL THRILLER IN FA CUP REPLAY
February 20, 1991: Everton 4 Liverpool 4
The magnitude of what’s at stake often ensures Merseyside Derbies become wars of attrition, but this wasn’t the case on a night that produced an eight-goal thriller with Everton equalising four times and Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish subsequently resigning. Neither side was able to deliver a knockout blow, but Ken Rogers of the ECHO compared the end-to-end goal glut to one of boxing’s greatest occasions.
He proclaimed: “I have often wondered what it must have been like to have been in the crowd the night Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier took each other to the brink of human endurance, exchanging punch for punch, blow for blow in the legendary Thriller in Manila. Now I know.
"I was one of 38,000 mesmerised football fans who marvelled, gasped and marvelled again at a sporting spectacle of similar heavyweight proportions. Everton 4 Liverpool 4… it was one of those FA Cup occasions we will look back on in years to come and proudly declare: ‘I was there!'”
Ric George described the goals. Of Liverpool’s 32nd minute opener, he said: “Kevin Ratcliffe was dispossessed by Ian Rush who sped goalwards, drew Neville Southall and shot towards an unguarded net. Andy Hinchcliffe’s clearance on the line was therefore miraculous but only temporary respite as Rush nodded on the loose ball for Peter Beardsley to rifle home.”
Everton drew level a minute into the second half as “Hinchcliffe curled in a delicious left-wing cross for Graeme Sharp to power a header which Bruce Grobbelaar could only push onto the inside of his post.” Liverpool restored their lead on 71 minutes when “Beardsley cracked a tremendous left-foot shot which flew past Southall.”
The Blues equalised again two minutes later “as the ever-hopeful Sharp cashed in on a misunderstanding between Steve Nicol and Grobbelaar to slide in." The Reds went ahead for a third time on 77 minutes “when a short corner was worked to Jan Molby and he clipped over a cross which the inevitable Rush nodded in."
Everton took the game into extra time though, with a goal a minute from the end as substitute Tony Cottee – introduced just four minutes earlier – “pounced onto Stuart McCall’s neat pass to score clinically.” Liverpool went 4-3 up on 102 minutes as despite earlier Southall heroics, “not even the great Welshman could stop John Barnes scoring with a magnificent curling right-footer from the edge of the area.”
The hosts would hit back again though for a final time, as “Goodison erupted six minutes from the end when the alert Cottee shot between Grobbelaar’s legs after Glenn Hysen had let Molby’s back pass run on.”
12. BILLY KENNY RUNS THE SHOW FOR FIRST PREMIER LEAGUE DERBY SUCCESS
December 7, 1992: Everton 2 Liverpool 1
On the night, jubilant Evertonians were just delighted to toast Peter Beardsley downing his former club Liverpool in a comeback victory but in time they would come to have contrasting regrets over both him and the other hero of the hour, Billy Kenny. Despite both starring against the Reds, neither match-winner Beardsley nor man-of-the-match Kenny would kick a ball again for the Blues after the 1992/93 season had finished.
Ken Rogers wrote: “Liverpool were so confident their main sponsors Carlsberg took a tongue-in-cheek advert out in the ECHO which included a special form to mark down the goalscorers. The Blues had just one line, the Reds five.
“To adapt a famous advertising slogan, it was 'probably' the biggest own goal ever committed prior to one of these fiercely contested clashes.”
At first, proceedings appeared to be following the form book as Liverpool centre-half Mark Wright opened the scoring on 62 minutes “with a soaring header from a well-struck Mike Marsh corner.”
However, “the visitors were still celebrating when Maurice Johnston grabbed the equaliser, turning on a sixpence before curling a left foot shot into the far corner” of Mike Hooper’s goal.
The winner, a low drive from outside the area, came five minutes from the end with Rogers remarking: “Enter Beardsley to send home spirits soaring as high as the satellite that beamed the game live to the nation (Sky coverage was still a novelty in the Premier League’s debut season). Christmas had come early for everyone wearing blue.”
13. EVERTONIANS LOOK ON AS REDS TEAM-MATES COME TO BLOWS
September 18, 1993: Everton 2 Liverpool 0
When it comes to Merseyside Derby dust-ups Steve McManaman’s spat with Bruce Grobbelaar stands out as it was particularly entertaining for Evertonians given that it involved two Liverpool players fighting with each other as a result of a Blues goal. There have been many other memorable flashpoints in the heated fixture over the years, but they have all involved protagonists from opposing sides.
In 1999, on the night of what proved to be Everton’s last win at Anfield for over 21 years, there was the catchweight contest that saw both Reds goalkeeper Sander Westerveld and Blues striker Francis Jeffers sent off for trading blows. A similar scenario between David Unsworth and Robbie Fowler at Goodison Park in 1997 also saw the pair given their marching orders.
Bruce Grobbelaar clashes with Liverpool team-mate Steve McManaman in 1993
Bruce Grobbelaar clashes with Liverpool team-mate Steve McManaman in 1993
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Other incidents of note include Mamadou Sakho squaring up to Romelu Lukaku at Goodison in 2015, with the resultant chest bumping producing yellow cards for both men, a bizarre coming together of opposition captains Paul Ince and Duncan Ferguson at Anfield in 1998 and of course last season’s post-match mayhem that we’ll come on to later.
Back in 1998, the self-styled ‘Guv’nor’ initiated contact with the Blues centre-forward but in the same movement was somehow thrown to the turf by the giant Scot. Jumping back up, for a moment it looked like Ince might try and give Ferguson something in return but then thought better of it, patted him on the back of the head and the game just carried on.
The handbags between Grobbelaar and McManaman was a ‘sit back and eat some popcorn’ moment for jubilant home fans though as their side triumphed with goals from Mark Ward (27) and Tony Cottee (85).
14. DOGS OF WAR UNLEASHED BY ROYLE APPOINTMENT
November 21, 1994: Everton 2 Liverpool 0
At the time of his appointment, Everton were rock bottom of the table and seemingly plummeting out of the Premier League without much of a fight, but this was the night that Joe Royle first unleashed what he came to call his ‘Dogs of War.’ With a third of the season already gone and the Blues in 22nd place, having lost eight out of 10 Premier League games between August 24 and October 22 (they were also dumped out of the League Cup by second tier Portsmouth), it was going to be a real dogfight just to stay up despite their last day escape against Wimbledon in the previous campaign.
David Prentice of the ECHO wrote: “Quite simply, Everton wanted the points far more than Liverpool – and once again it was visiting taunts of impending relegation which seemed to light the touchpaper. Chants of ‘Going down’ were followed almost instantly by a 56th-minute header from Duncan Ferguson that set Goodison alight.”
Duncan Ferguson leaps up high above Liverpool's Neil Ruddock and goalkeeper David James to score his first goal for Everton
Duncan Ferguson leaps up high above Liverpool's Neil Ruddock and goalkeeper David James to score his first goal for Everton(Image: Albert Cooper/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
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Having broken his scoring duck, this was also the night that Ferguson began his love affair with the club. The Scot’s aerial threat also prompted Everton’s second goal a couple of minutes from the end.
Prentice said: “Ferguson challenged David James who, panic-stricken, punched the ball against the Everton striker where it dropped into Paul Rideout’s path, and he slid the ball in from eight yards.”
15. CADAMARTERI'S TEENAGE KICKS LIFTS KENDALL'S STRUGGLERS
October 18, 1997: Everton 2 Liverpool 0
The 1997/98 season was arguably Everton’s grimmest of the early Premier League era but among all the Goodison Park gloom, teenager Danny Cadamarteri – for a fleeting spell at least – sparked some raw energy into what appeared to be a sinking side, and this was his finest hour.
Among this chaos, Everton somehow managed to pull off a memorable Merseyside Derby scalp, just three days after Kendall was involved in an on-field spat with some of his players after he’d asked them to warm down following a 4-1 League Cup exit at Coventry City. David Prentice wrote in the ECHO: “A respectful handshake, offered before the final whistle, isn’t what you expect from a Merseyside Derby match.
“But Neil Ruddock’s magnanimous gesture to substituted Everton hero Danny Cadamarteri was in keeping with the rest of an astonishing afternoon. The wag who sent Tales of the Unexpected booming out of the Goodison public address system five minutes after the final whistle summed up the afternoon perfectly.
“Everton stepped out as the biggest underdogs since Joe Royle’s first match as manager. They ended it as top dogs in the city once again – after spectacularly rediscovering the passion and spirit which had been so missing in midweek. It was an amazing transformation.”
Danny Cadamarteri celebrates his goal for Everton against Liverpool in October 1997
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The Blues got the break they needed when they went ahead on the stroke of half-time as “David James fisted the ball against a startled Ruddock and in for an own goal.”
However, it was the youthful vigour of Cadamarteri that sealed the win 15 minutes from the end.
Prentice said: “He smuggled the ball away from Bjorn Tore Kvarme, charged purposefully forward before cutting inside Ruddock, ignoring the better-placed Duncan Ferguson and crashed a right-footed shot into the net.”
16. CARSLEY PILE-ON AS BLUES MOVE TOWARDS BEST PREMIER LEAGUE FINISH
December 11, 2004: Everton 1 Liverpool 0
The enduring image of Everton’s victory in the 200th Merseyside Derby is the one of their players piled on top of each other celebrating Lee Carsley’s match-winner, but the hero of the hour was nowhere to be seen. Manager David Moyes was so delighted by the photograph – which symbolised his first ever success against the Blues’ neighbours – that he ordered a framed copy for every member of his squad.
However, recalling the match several years later, Carsley told The Independent: ‘I find it ironic, because I’m still asked to sign that picture of my goal celebrations and I’m the only Everton player not on it.
“That was a great day, people still talk to me about it, but after the goal I fell to the floor, everyone jumped on me and then Tim Cahill piled on top. He is the only one looking into the camera and he’s probably signed as many copies of that photograph as I have.”
Tim Cahill celebrates as the Everton team pile on top of goal scorer Lee Carsley during the Goodison derby in December 11, 2004(Image: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
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In a way though, the picture sums up hard-grafter Carsley’s understated but integral contribution to the Everton cause even if he wasn’t necessarily the player who immediately caught your eye with his winner against Liverpool one of just 13 goals in 198 appearances for the club (averaging less than two per season). The fruitful 2004/05 season, in which Everton shocked the football world, going from 17th on 39 points the previous campaign to finishing fourth with their highest Premier League placing to date, was by far Carsley’s most prolific on Merseyside as he found the net on five occasions.
David Prentice wrote in the ECHO: “Lee Carsley placed an effective restraining order on Steven Gerrard, but elsewhere Everton tried to be as expressive as a team can be under the constricting restraints of a derby match.”
The goal came in the 68th minute and Prentice remarked: ‘Carsley was a popular goalscorer. After he picked up a loose clearance and curled in a 20-yard drive with the inside of his right-foot, he was promptly submerged beneath a battery of ecstatic team-mates.”
17. ANDREW JOHNSON GESTURES BIG WIN
September 9, 2006: Everton 3 Liverpool 0
Jubilant Evertonians hardly needed a reminder of the score but in case any of them were still rubbing their eyes in disbelief, Andrew Johnson’s celebratory hand gestures showed them anyway, it was 3-0 against Liverpool. This was the Blues’ biggest victory over their neighbours since they’d triumphed 4-0 across Stanley Park at Anfield back on September 19, 1964, almost 42 years earlier which made it the most-emphatic Merseyside Derby success for Everton in living memory for many inside Goodison, including home manager David Moyes who was just a one-year-old when goals from Colin Harvey, Johnny Morrissey, Fred Pickering and Derek Temple sealed a pounding for the Reds on their own turf.
Dominic King wrote in the ECHO: “Andrew Johnson did not need a second invitation to wreak havoc. How he took it.
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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“Petrified his pace would cause problems, Liverpool simply did not know how to handle Everton’s record signing and made a string of errors for which they were ruthlessly punished. Playing a key role in the move that led to Tim Cahill (a right-foot finish from seven yards out) grabbing the first goal in front of a baying Gwladys Street on 23 minutes, Johnson enjoyed the kind of derby debut that usually appears in the pages of Roy of the Rovers.
“Two chances came his way (his first goal on 36 minutes a cool finish after shrugging off Jamie Carragher’s wild challenge) and both were gleefully gobbled up, the second particularly sweet after Jose Manuel Reina – did the crestfallen goalkeeper earn his second name after the ham-fisted waiter in Fawlty Towers? – comically blundered in front of the Park End (Johnson headed over the goal-line deep into stoppage time after the Spaniard had made a hash of dealing with Lee Carsley’s long-range strike).
“Goodison most definitely has its new hero.”
18. THE GREATEST DERBY WINNER MANY NEVER SAW
February 4, 2009: Everton 1 Liverpool 0
Everton youngster Dan Gosling’s dramatic extra-time goal that knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup was the greatest Merseyside Derby winner than many armchair fans never saw. After almost two hours of pulsating but goalless action at Goodison Park and the prospect of a first-ever penalty shoot-out between the local rivals looming, ITV accidentally cut away from the game to an advertisement break.
Anchorman Steve Rider apologised, saying: “Well, it was a dream strike from Gosling and Liverpool’s goose was cooked, and technically I’m afraid it came at a pretty bad time for us as well. If you missed the goal our apologies for the technical problems we had at that time.”
Dan Gosling is congratulated by team-mates Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka after scoring the winner in the FA Cup fourth round replay between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park on February 4, 2009
Dan Gosling is congratulated by team-mates Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka after scoring the winner in the FA Cup fourth round replay between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park on February 4, 2009 (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
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Dominic King of the ECHO said: “Apart from a big engine, Gosling also has his share of skill and the composure he showed to take a cross down under pressure before dispatching a shot past Pepe Reina – Liverpool’s star man alongside Jamie Carragher – had the hallmark of quality.
“And what of the man who served up the chance? There is no logical reason why Van der Meyde has such a following on the terraces, given some of his escapades in recent years, but finally he has provided a moment of sheer delight.”
19. NOT JUST A WIN, AN EXORCISM
April 24, 2024: Everton 2 Liverpool 0
The 2023/24 season was the most-testing campaign beleaguered Blues had ever known as Everton were handed two separate points deductions, but they overcame those setbacks to ensure their final year at Goodison Park would be in the Premier League with a first Merseyside Derby win on home turf since 2010, pushing them towards survival as part of a hat-trick of successes in an incredible week.
Centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, who was the team’s breakthrough star of the season having returned from a loan spell at PSV Eindhoven looking like a potentially generational talent, broke the deadlock on 27 minutes after some penalty box pinball as he stretched out one of the long legs in his 6ft 5in frame to hit a left foot shot that was too hot for Alisson to handle as it squirmed through the Brazil international’s hands and into the net.
Centre-forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had seen Sean Dyche’s methods cure the injury issues that had restricted him to just 18 games in both of the previous seasons after what the Yorkshireman called ‘a factory reset’, went on to play 39 times in 2023/24 but despite having become just the fourth player to break the 50-goal barrier for the club in the Premier League earlier in the campaign, he then endured a 23-match scoring drought.
Nevertheless, he sealed this win with a classic Everton number nine’s header in front of the Gwladys Street as he nodded home Dwight McNeil’s right-wing corner kick at the back post on 58 minutes.
Joe Thomas of the ECHO said: “After so many years, so many disappointments in this fixture, and so much heartbreak and heartache, it was an emotional one. This is a club and a fanbase that has suffered their lowest as their biggest foes have ridden the crest of a silverware-laden wave.
"All those taunts, all those jibes, all that devastation – all now a thing of the past. The underdogs bit back, roared on by a crowd that has deserved far more nights like this in recent years.
“‘You lost the league at Goodison Park,’ was the cry that rang out as this game entered stoppage time (departing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, previously unbeaten against Everton in front of fans, went into the match with only goal difference keeping his side off the top of the table).
“This was not just a win, it was an exorcism. It was the night a tormented fanbase banished some of its most spiteful ghosts.”
20. THE LAST ACT
After 120 matches over more than 130 years, an explosive volleyed goal with virtually the last kick of the game by captain James Tarkowski ensured Everton didn’t finish with a losing record against Liverpool in Merseyside Derbies at Goodison Park.
Incredibly, after facing off against each other since 1894, Everton and Liverpool went into Goodison’s final Merseyside Derby with 41 victories apiece at the ground.
However, while the all-time record was delicately poised ahead of a fixture that has been delayed by a couple of months due to a postponement in December when 60mph winds from Storm Darragh were battering Merseyside, ensuring David Moyes had now replaced Sean Dyche in the home dugout, the returning Blues boss acknowledged that there was now a gulf between the two sides and he faced a big task trying to bridge that gap.
Backed by deafening roars from the moment that they took to the field to the strains of Z-Cars, Everton started brightly though and took the lead on 11 minutes. Joe Thomas of the ECHO, wrote: “Jarrad Branthwaite seized on the ball, took a quick free kick and threaded a pass behind the away defence for Beto to latch onto. He coolly finished past Alisson to send Goodison wild.”
That joy was short-lived however, as just five minutes later, Liverpool netted an equaliser out of nothing with Thomas remarking: “As Salah chipped a cross into the box Alexis Mac Allister was an underdog in a fight that should have pitched him against Branthwaite, Tarkowski or Jake O’Brien, all of whom tower above him. Somehow he drifted between all three and glanced in to level.”
Everton kept probing though so, just moments after Abdoulaye Doucoure had spurned an inviting opportunity at the other end, it seemed particularly cruel when Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool ahead on 73 minutes.
Thomas wrote: “It was Liverpool that delivered what looked set to be the knockout blow.
“Tarkowski half-cleared a cross that could have been swallowed up by Jordan Pickford and Branthwaite blocked the shot that followed into the path of Mo Salah. Of course he scored.”
For all Everton’s efforts, both on the night and over the previous 13 decades, it appeared as though Liverpool would have the last and longest laugh at the Blues’ long-time home.
Their travelling fans who had previously been drowned out for most of the game certainly thought so as they belted out: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “We won the league at Goodison Park.”
With just seconds remaining though, they would be silenced with a glorious Goodison moment that will live for Evertonians forever.
Tarkowski’s goal, which Thomas wrote: “took the roof off this sporting colosseum,” was greeted with wild scenes of jubilation from Everton supporters, including one wielding the corner flag in delight and the centre-back remarked: “I had an 80-year-old grabbing me and then a five-year-old kid pulling me to the floor, there were stewards everywhere, it was chaos, but it shows what a moment it is.”
A hectic postscript to what was the 38th derby draw at Goodison, saw four red cards shown after the final whistle to Abdoulaye Doucoure, Curtis Jones, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff.