Derek Temple 1957-67

Picture the scene: it is a Saturday afternoon in north London in May, 1966; the day of the FA Cup Final. Sheffield Wednesday have been pegged back from 2-0 up to 2-2 with a brace of firmly struck Mike Trebilcock goals. There are ten minutes to go, and the trophy could still go either way... Everton are under pressure. Colin Harvey clears the ball into the Wednesday half, where defender Gary Young has the situation under control – but the ball slips under his foot, and Everton forward Derek Temple darts in sharply to seize possession. He carries the ball for an eternity towards the goal, and on finally reaching the penalty area cracks a low drive past Ron Springett and into the net. 3-2, and the Cup is won.

That FA Cup victory was to prove the only major honour in Temple's career, and it had taken a long time to come. Fitting, then, that he should score the winning goal. He was courted by both the big Merseyside clubs as a free-scoring schoolboy, choosing Everton ahead of Liverpool and making his debut in blue as a centre-forward in 1957. That same year, his progress was suspended by a call-up for National Service and a promising partnership with Dave Hickson ended. When he returned from East Africa two years later, Hickson was nearing the end of his time at Everton and Temple was out of form. A transfer was rumoured but never materialised, and instead he settled down to work on his strength and fitness.

In 1961 the incoming Harry Catterick switched Temple to the wing, and it was there that the swift, fluid Temple found his niche. The left flank was his habitual stomping ground but, after Catterick signed Johnny Morrissey, Temple often moved to inside-forward to accommodate the newcomer. During his first season as a wide player he scored ten goals in seventeen games – many the result of a knack of timing his runs into the area perfectly in order to finish off a cross from the right. He was also capable of making chances for himself out of nothing, and England manager Alf Ramsay was one man whose eye this caught. He gave Temple a solitary cap in a match v West Germany in 1965.

Despite his skills with both feet and his Cup-winning goal, he was never truly popular with the fans. Sixteen months after scoring at Wembley he left Everton for Preston North End in a £35,000 deal.

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