• Good defender on the ground

• Weak in the air
• A bit laborious coming forward

After progressing well in the reserves Graham moved to the fringes of the first team during 1996-97, watching 9 games from the bench, and making his debut appearance on Teesside.  Strangely, Allen did not feature as one of the youngsters that Dave Watson would call upon to help steady the ship after Joe Royle left. 

After figuring prominently in the early pre-season friendlies of July 1997 – and playing his first full match in the Umbro Cup against Ajax Amsterdam – he has slipped back into the reserves.  Perhaps Howard Kendall concluded, after a good long look at young Graham, that he was not quite ready for the first team.

But the winter injury crisis of 1997-98 has forced Howard Kendall to use almost every member of the squad at some stage or other. After another sub appearance, Graham Allen got his baptism in a critical match at Goodison Park against Chelsea.  While he did not pay particularly well in what at times was a 5-man back line, Everton's shaky defence only allowed one goal and is looking better than it was.

In the match, he got caught out of position a few times, but he is a centre-half by trade, pushed into the right wing-back role. As he charged back to cover, he demonstrated he has a very good turn of speed, tackles well and he also looked quite composed on the ball as he went forward.  He didn't seem to let his mistakes affect him and on the assumption that his future is as a centre-half, he looks like he could be quite a good one.

But at the end of February, Allen was looking at a surprise move to Wigan Athletic. Kendall's take on this was: "Graham's ending his contract this season, and obviously he wants to play first team football after playing in the Pontins League for some time.  He's made it clear to me he doesn't want to go, but we are strong at right back and in central defence and Graham feels he now needs to be involved at senior level."

However, by mid-April, Howard Kendall convinced Graham to stay for at least another couple of years and fight for a role in the first-team squad.  So he signed a 2-yr extension to his contract, only to become the fist casualty of Walter Smith's new regime when, after a loan spell, he moved on to Tranmere Rovers as part of the British Record transfer of a goalkeeper and teenager, when Steve Simonsen joined Everton.

Cup Statistics include all other non-league senior matches, as counted by Everton FC in the Matchday Programme