Memories of Goodison Park

Warning – it's a tear-jerker.

I mentioned after the Palace game that I had been sitting next to a Norwegian guy, a Spurs fan who was visiting Goodison for the first time. He dropped me an email over the weekend which includes the following lines:-

“It was also great to experience Goodison and the history of the ground before you become ‘modern' in a couple of years. I like Spurs' new stadium, but I miss the history of White Hart Lane. The new stadium almost comes with a ‘wipe your feet before entering' sign, which takes away much of the charm”.

Well worth watching – especially the last few minutes with the music, great goals on great occasions and us fans cheering them all home.

Anyone who witnessed those days and nights won't have dry eyes at the end of it, what an emotional day that last game at Goodison will be.

Brilliant!

Except that the Alex Young goal – I think the third of the compilation at the end… that's a mighty funny-looking Goodison Park!

Hi Dave [2]

You and I are in the company of older fans who have witnessed good and bad games, in what I consider was the finest ground in the country. I think that the Goodison Road Stand was a thing of beauty despite the slight obstruction, and that of the terracing below.

I have no doubt that, like myself, you have watched games from all the vantage points, but I believe that the view from the terrace of the Park End and Bullens Road corner was the prime spot to view that "Magnificent Stand".

Michael #3, I'm pretty sure it's Molineux!

Hi Michael Kenrick [3].

If you are referring to the curved walls behind the goals, they were installed following the throwing of a dart at Bill Brown (Spurs goalkeeper) in a match against Tottenham.

I think it's very hard to watch that and not wonder: Where did it all go wrong? Yes, we're still playing in the top flight but sadly not one of the top teams.

When I started watching Everton, we had just come up from the 2nd Division, so I have only watched us play in the top flight. The team then had Dunlop, Donavon, Tansey, Tommy Jones, Wally Fielding, Cyril Lello, Tommy Eglington and my first-ever idol, Dave Hickson.

Then, when the best Chairman this club ever had, Sir John Moores, took over, we became a real force to be reckoned with, and the league trophies and cups followed.

But since we were one of the clubs pushing for the Premier League, we have never been the force we were. Now I feel so sorry for our brilliant young supporters who most have never seen us lift the league trophy and, in the last couple of years, have had to endure our escaping relegation.

Peter (5),

Yes, I thought the game was at Molineux especially with that pin point pass from Roy Vernon but dismissed the thought because the article was about Goodison Park, so yes Peter the game was at Molineux.

John (4). Yes, I thought the Main Stand on Goodson Road was a magnificent building, much better than the reconstructed one. Me and my mate bought season tickets for the new stand in 1970 and were not very impressed with our seats near the back of the stand, we never used it again preferring The Upper Bullens by far.

I was also amazed with the Cage, aka, the Boys Pen. I never used that one, I used the one that was situated in The Lower Bullens Road paddock, graduated from there to The Ledge in Gwladys Street. The Upper Gwladys stand as I got older and posher, and stood in The Park End a good few times and The Park End stand now and again.

But I think The Bullens Road stand is the best view in Goodson Park and a lady I was stood in the queue for my Luton cup ticket this morning agreed with that. We had a good chat about all things Everton, it was a long queue with only three windows open for service with three closed… Everton that!!

Oh my God, where do you start. I'm in bits now, lord knows what I will be like at the end of next season.

That Alex Young goal was at Goodison first game of the 1967 - 68 season vs Man Utd, we won 3-1, Bally got the other 2. Something like 68,000 in Goodison that day.

Dave is correct – the semi-circles were created following a dart being thrown at Bill Brown.

Hi Dave [8],

You and I may well have stood side by side in the Boys Pen during the late '40s. I think that we were destined to meet, which we did via 'ToffeeWeb'.

My response to Michael Kenrick may have been off course, because there were, as you have pointed out, both home and away games featured in the "Memories Of Goodison Park" submission.

Hi Steve, I believe the season after, A couple of Everton fans presented Billy Brown with an imitation dart before the Everton v Spurs game, it must have unsettled him, he let four goals in.

Going onto the semi circle behind the goals, there was another game against Leeds Utd that may have also had a bearing of the future semi circle behind the goal.

The teams lined up as follows:

Everton: Andy Rankin, Barry Rees, Sandy Brown, Jimmy Gabriel, Brian Labone, Dennis Stevens, Derek Temple, Alex Young, Fred Pickering, Roy Vernon, Johnny Morrissey.

Leeds United: Gary Sprake, Paul Reaney, Willie Bell, Billy Bremner, Jack Charlton, Norman Hunter, Johnny Giles, Jim Storrie, Rod Belfitt, Bobby Collins, Albert Johanneson.

The official who was in charge of the match was the experienced referee Ken Stokes from Newark.

Colin Harvey of Everton recalled that “an air of menace pervaded the ground”. Jack Charlton never looked forward to playing at Goodison viewing supporters there as “the worse before which I have ever played…..there always seemed to be a threatening attitude”. Players of both sides could not fail to sense the tension in the air.

The game commenced and within seconds Bobby Collins had gone over the top on Everton winger Derek Temple and Everton forward Fred Pickering was fouled by Billy Bremner. The Everton crowd screamed their displeasure, the tempo was set. Next, Jack Charlton was the victim of a cynical challenge by notorious Everton hard man Johnny Morrissey, who was allegedly one of the two names that Jack kept in his little black book for future retribution.

If Leeds had ever thought that their tactics were going to intimidate Everton they were mistaken. Everton matched Leeds challenge for challenge and a whirlwind start to the game culminated when Sandy Brown jumped into a tackle with Johnny Giles. Brown, a player who could look after himself, reacted furiously to the challenge, complaining of stud marks on his chest and threw a left hander at Giles, leaving the referee with no other recourse but to send him off. Only four minutes had elapsed since the kick off! The atmosphere, already at fever pitch, now saw players from both sides flying into a series of reckless challenges which only served to add to the febrile brew of crowd hostility.

Incredibly though, Leeds showed that they could play football if allowed to do so and after fifteen minutes Bobby Collins floated a free kick into the Everton goal area and defender, Willie Bell, connected with a fierce header that left the Everton defence helpless and gave Leeds a 1-0 advantage. This was more than the home support could take. One irate Everton fan climbed onto the pitch and headed towards Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter. Fortunately, Johnny Morrissey helped the opposition players by restraining him and preventing a potentially serious assault. Morrissey was the one Everton player you didn't mess with.

Gary Sprake, the Leeds goalkeeper, was pelted with coins throughout the match and any Leeds player foolish enough to venture near the touchline was met with a volley of missiles. The game reached a flashpoint on thirty ninth minutes when Willie Bell flattened Everton's Derek Temple near the touchline causing Temple to be stretched off. The Leeds trainer, Les Cocker and match referee Ken Stokes were hit by objects thrown from the crowd and trying to convince the Everton fans that Bell had been hurt as well, his trainer told him to lie on the floor whilst he called for assistance. The ambulance man's terse and angry reply that Cocker could fetch his own fucking stretcher showed how caught up everybody appeared to be in the emotion of the match.

Referee Ken Stokes had by now decided that, in the interest of player safety things could no longer continue in this fashion. He made the decision to stop the game and took the unprecedented step of ordering both sides to return to the dressing room to “allow the players and the supporters to cool down.” The players left the field to frenzied chants of “Dirty Leeds” ringing in their ears. According to a number of reporters who were present, the referee had decided to abandon the game but changed his mind on police advice. The players remained in their dressing rooms for ten minutes. Both captains, Labone and Collins went back out onto the pitch to appeal for calm from the supporters. The police issued an ultimatum via the tannoy system that the game would be abandoned if any more missiles were thrown.

Both managers used this unexpected opportunity to tell their players to calm down. Winger Albert Johanneson complained that one of the Everton players had called him a “black bastard, In these less enlightened times, Revie advised him to call his opponent “a white bastard, which incredibly appeared to relieve the tension in the dressing room.

Referee Ken Stokes was also active during the unscheduled break. He went to speak to each team and let them know in no uncertain terms that if the players didn't stop kicking each other and start playing football instead then he would abandon the match and report them to the Football Association.

The match resumed but the carnage continued. The game continued with an undercurrent of barely concealed aggression. Norman Hunter was booked and Bremner and Collins from Leeds and Stevens and Vernon from Everton were fortunate to escape further sanction from the referee. Despite having to defend a barrage of attacks from the Everton side roared on by their fanatical supporters, Leeds led by their inspirational captain Collins held on for the win. Fortunately the crowd had responded to the police ultimatum and there was no invasion of the pitch when the final whistle blew.

At the end of the game the Leeds party decided to make a quick exit from the stadium fearing further confrontation with the home support. An angry baying mob was gathered outside the stadium and surrounding streets but on leaving Goodison and although the team coach was pelted with objects, it appeared that most of the home support was intent on taking revenge on the match referee who they blamed for not taking firmer action against Leeds. Mr Stokes was advised by ploice to remain in his changing room for several hours after the game whilst police cleared the angry supporters from the vicinity.

ps: Lovely to hear from you, John Snr.

Stephen... and the curved walls (rather elegant I always felt) replaced a sort of temporary Heath Robinson affair built out of old scaffolding poles and lengths of timber.

And I always liked Bill Brown!

I think another factor why Everton fitted the semi-circle behind the goals so quickly was with the World Cup coming up, to help being selected for one of the venues. I always thought it made Goodison stand out, those semi circles.
,
Loved going in the old Park End, until they bricked it up, then it was the Gwladys Street for me in the eighties and beyond, until the new park stand was built, now I'm back to being a Park Ender.

I believe that the goal from Alan Ball against Newcastle was his last for the blues. He was off to Arsenal a few days later.

Hi Brian [11] I remember the Leeds game very well, as the Stanley Park End was my spec in those days.

I lived in the Townsend Lane area, and we drank in the pub we knew as, 'Ma Pate's (The Willow Bank). We would leave the pub at 20-to-3 and the first turnstile we reached was at the Park End.

Following the 'Bill Brown Dart' issue, it was claimed that there was murder in the Everton Supporter's Club, when someone ran in and threw a ball at the 'dartboard'. There appears to be humour in almost everything.

Many thanks for all your kind, generous and informative comments, very much appreciated!

And yes Michael K, quite right – we did know it was Molineux before we put it in, but we really wanted that Alex Young goal, and just thought we'd see if anyone noticed 😉.

Hope you'll all excuse the Rotterdam clip too. 👍😁.

That's a lovely tale, John, be even harder for you saying goodbye to the Old Lady, but we have to move: too many obstructed views at Goodison.

Looking at the new stadium and the way it has been designed for crowd noise, I think the new stadium will be the best ground in the Premier League for atmosphere.

Certainly the final Goodison game there will be hard, but at the same time I think we will be moving into a new era and looking forward to going the new stadium.

I know the Premier League come down tough on pitch invasions, but once the players have cleared the field, I doubt they will stop Evertonians standing on the turf for one final time on our very last game at Goodison.

Peter Mills despite the warning, the tears flowed!!

My first game was late fifties when Everton played Charlton from the Boys Pen in a Cup Replay in dense fog which we won 4-2 I think it was. I attended all the games at Goodison for the World Cup and watching those clips over the years brought back so many memories. The problem was the song at the end and seeing Bally, Young and Kendall no longer with us that brought the tears!!

No longer in the country, so not attended for some few years but, from a distance, I will be shedding tears again once we finally leave The Old Lady.

Surely the club are going to turn the leaving of Goodison Park into a full weekend of celebration, Brian.

But it wouldn't surprise me if the fixtures dictate that it won't be our last league game of the season.

I wish I could remember most of the games at Goodison Park that I've seen but, at 83, sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast!

I do remember playing on Goodison Park in a game for the school and getting a little brass medal about the size of the old thrupenny bit. We also got changed in the home team dressing room – that was in about 1951-52 season.

I was in the old Boys Pen from about 1954-55 and after that in the Gwladys Street end. We were under cover with the upper stand overhead and, looking towards the goal, to the left side of it.

I had a season ticket before I left for Canada in 1976 but have been back fairly regularly until I was due surgery and, after getting over that, Covid set in.

My last visit was in 2009 but that was for a funeral and I was only there for 2 days but ended up in hospital and, after signing myself out for the funeral, was told I looked worse than the man in the coffin!

I will be back from 16 to 27 April so will catch a couple of games.

Tony, you would think the Premier League would use common sense and make our final game next season a home game… but we are talking Premier League here.

Alarming to see the footage of Pele being clobbered by the Leeds… sorry, Portuguese, players.

Concerned that we could be docked points for this. We are Everton after all…

Who can forget Andy King's winner in 78, sure that copper was a Kopite at the end bungling Andy King and the reporter off the pitch, sounded really pissed off.

Either that or his Mrs was a Red and he know his chance of nooky later disappeared quicker the ball hitting the back of the net.

I remember being in the Park End stand with me dad and brothers for that FA Cup quarter final game in 1971 against Colchester. Pretty certain Colchester were allocated all of the park end stand for that game, so god knows how we ended up there?

Another thing that intrigued me about that game was why we wore our away kit despite being at home. I know Colchester had to change because their home colours are also blue, but no idea why we changed?

Not sure why we wore the amber kit against Colchester, Rob, we wore our away kit for the cup game against UCD as well in the Cup Winners Cup at Goodison, no explanation for either mate, unless it was down to the away team not having a changed kit with them, but still baffling why we then wore the away kits.

If I remember right we had to borrow a shitty away kit from Luton back in the eighties because of a colour clash, horrible kit.

Hi Rob [24],

In those days when colours clashed, both teams were made to change their kit.

Well, that brought a lump to the throat. Magnificent.

May 2025 will be something to remember. A game that ensures our promotion to the Premier League? Bitter sweet.

Hi John #26,

I'm pretty sure that the etiquette of both teams changing their kit applied to Cup games. I seem to remember Everton played in white for the FA Cup quarter-final replay at Goodison against Manchester City in 1966, and City played in maroon.

Ian @18, like you, I got the tears also when the song came with Bally, Young and Kendall, mind you Bally always brings a tear to my eyes, loved him.

Cheers, John and Peter, for clearing the changed strip up, any ideas why we played in the away strip against University College Dublin?

At least I think we did, could be the old grey cells playing tricks on me.

Fabulous thread

Brian Wilkinson @11..What a post

It wasn't my first game, but it was one of them. Unfortnately I don't remember anything that went on on the pitch. The only thing I remember was not being able to take my eyes off the crowd. I'd never seen so many people that angry or that animated – even my mild-mannered uncle.

Not only have you filled in a lot of the blanks, you have captured the mood of the crowd brilliantly.

The Old Lady has staged such incredible matches and given us memories we will take to our graves.

Always enjoyed the guffawing when the attendance was announced at something like 38k. Capacity was around 54k and you could hardly move it was so chocca.

In retrospect, it illustrated the small-time mentality of the club

This is a wonderful thread. It's a pleasure and treat to walk down Memory Lane with some of our older mates on here whose sharp recollections show just how much our club means to them.

What an amazing 22 minutes Mike (Royden) and Lewis (your son, I imagine Mike). Thank you. Dusty is the perfect choice for those last few minutes.

Rod Belfitt Brian (11) - brilliant account, by the way? Our Rod Belfitt? The one and only Rod Belfitt? I never knew that he played for Leeds.

Brian #30,

I don't think the rules were hard and fast about the change of kit, just a convention. I remember being at Filbert Street for the FA Cup quarter-final in 1968, we played in amber with blue shorts but, for the life of me, I can't recall what colour Leicester wore!

To cloud matters further, Sheffield Wednesday changed their kit for the 1966 final, we didn't – I think the clubs tossed a coin. In 1968, both Everton and West Brom changed.

As for the UCD match at Goodison, I think we changed as a courtesy to our visitors.

Paul (33),

Rod Belfitt went from Leeds to Ipswich, then to Everton and on to Sunderland in the space of two to three years and later claimed he made a few thousand pound just by buying and selling houses each time he moved.

Rod wasn't very good on the field but seemed he was quite smart off it!!

Barry @32,

I was at the game against Burnley, we had played them a few days before over the Xmas period up at Burnley and we were crushed there.

I don't know what the gate was but, in the return game at Goodison Park, the gate was way over 70,000.

Wow! Not a dry eye in the house - beautiful.

Yet another reminder of why I love this club so much.

So many memories, good and bad of course but all them very special.

My dad used to tell me about the World Cup games at Goodison and particularly the Portugal vs N Korea match. He had a World Cup season ticket (Ive still got the ticket stub as my most prized asset!) and went to all 5 games. I remember him saying that the crowd that day started off supporting Portugal then switched to N Korea and ended up backing Portugal! Nowt as fickle as folk eh?

I used to really like the semi circles behind the goals too, they really made Goodison stand out. Goodison is and always has been a fantastic stadium, I am not looking forward to the final game although I can't wait to step foot in Bramley Moore either.

There are so many stand out moments; 8-0 vs Southampton in the sleet, Bob Latchfotds 30th goal, Andy Kings winner, Bayern Munich, the 1980s league title wins, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace - I could go on all night and still think of more.

Above all though is the support and unrivalled sense of humour. In reference to a slightly rotund Kenny Sansom puffing and wheezing a bloke behind me calls out “hey Kenny you can come and roll our lawn when you've finished out there mate!”

Can't get enough of the place and will be gutted when she's gone but so proud and honoured to have been there.

Hi Bill [36],

I don't think that Barry [32] was referring to any particular game, and I think that the Burnley games you recall were played on Boxing Day and 27 December 1960; Everton won 3-1 at Turf Moor and lost 3-0 at Goodison before 74,867.

The reason I recollect the results is because I took my then girlfriend, now my wife, to both games.

This is going to be hard. So many memories. Too many to recount. My first was an unassuming pre-season against Home Farm. I was mesmerised.

Seeing the latest nighttime shot of the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is stunning. She looks beautiful.

The Fifth Grace.

But the more I think about it, walking away from Goodison on that final day is going to be heartbreaking.

Hi, John Snr (38).

I suspect jogging personal memories is going to happen a lot on this thread but I was also at the 1960s Burnley game which we lost 3-0 and I can still recall to this day the youngsters being handed over people's heads to end up sitting on the perimeter of the pitch. I was one of them!

In recent years, my family have come to know extremely well Burnley's left back Alec Elder but the only player I can remember on that day was Burnley's McIlroy.

Ah such memories are going to keep me awake tonight, I just know it!

Just been sent a YouTube clip from another memorable game at Goodison. The European Cup game v Borussia Monchengladbach. As we all know, it was the first ever game decided on penalties, with Everton winning 4-3 on pens.

I was in the Upper Gwladys for this game, and I will always remember the date: 4 November 1970, simply because me dad said it was either the game, or fireworks the next night, we couldn't have both. The game won hands down!

Obviously, I don't remember much about either the game or the penalties, and when Andy Rankin saved their last one, and I don't know why, but I thought he'd saved to keep us in the game.

The other thing when watching the clip was that players could stand anywhere during the shootout, and I think it was Johnny Morrissey who was standing almost on the edge of the penalty area as their final one was taken. Great stuff!!

Dave @31, I copied and pasted that article about the Leeds game. No chance I can write a post like some of our other brilliant contributors, so I cannot take the plaudits for that post, but it fitted in with people mentioning objects being thrown from the crowd.

I think in the write-up about Jack's black book, they missed out the part where Morrissey stood over a floored Jack Charlton and apparently said "Put that in your black book!"

Rob 41,

Remember it well. I was with my dad and brother in the area of the Upper Gwladys where it joins with the Bullens Road Stand. Overlooking the corner flag. I was 9 years old. Great night.
We sat in almost identical seats for the Panathaniokos game. Not such a great night.

I have never sat in that section of Goodison since.

Dave 35,

All these years later it's hard to believe that “The Catt” thought swapping David Johnson for Rod Belford was a good deal. Then - in typical Everton style - we bought him back at the end of his career when he was finished, as we did with Wayne.

50 years have passed and it still ranks up there with “Did we really sign Bernie Wright?” … and other things you really couldn't make up.

John McFarlane Snr # 38.

I envy you being able to take your then girlfriend that became your wife. The closest I could get mine to Goodison Park was on the bus passing, to get off at Littlewoods on the East Lancs, we lived in Scarisbrick Road.

Brian (Wilkinson), do you happen to know the date of that Leeds match so that I can track it down to watch? Mick Lyons is my first memory of us v Leeds.

That was an incredibly evocative description, Brian. I feel like I am there when I read it, mate.

Paul,

It was 1964. I just did a little digging and found an article from The Guardian (2014) called The Battle of Goodison at 50. Such was the game's notoriety, they were marking it 50 years on.

There is a picture of Moggsy stopping the pitch invader getting to Bremner and Hunter. Two notorious hard men. You would be a fool to confront either of them but, as Brian points out, you'd have needed to be a bleeding idiot to take on Johnny Morrisey.

Brian @42,

Your honesty does you great credit. I think in your shoes I may have been tempted to let people think it was all my own work.

That Alan Ball goal, with the ball boys celebrating in unison, gets me every time!

Who's the greatest of them all??

As I have said previously too many memories.

I remember the first time I was taken to the Top Balcony and thinking I was going to fall onto the pitch!

Goals. Too many. I've mentioned my favourite, which is probably not remembered. But Heath's volley on the end of an intelligent lobbed pass by Sheedy.

Wayne Clarke scoring to beat them and stop them becoming the original invincibles.

Obviously the Bayern Munich night will live in everyone's memory forever.

But for very different reasons, that night against Palace was surreal.

From the abyss, through heart flutters, breathless moments to sheer emotional relief. I can't explain the emotion I felt.

And that night, she was her magical self. The Palace supporters around me were commenting and even joining in!

That Leeds game was a madhouse but I remember a reserve team game that became crazier, Everton v Bolton Wanderers. In the first half, Everton had two players sent off: Kenny Birch and Harry Potts. Bolton had our future player, Dennis Stevens, sent off in a rough game that wasn't controlled properly by a useless referee, probably the granddad of one of today's crap mob.

At half-time, a fella was telling anyone who would listen that he had seen the referee in the Winslow, the pub facing the ground.

Early in the second half, this ref made another poor decision and this fella was shouting “Told yis he's bleedin' useless!” and gets over the wall heading towards him, followed by dozens of other fans, including yours truly. The match came to a halt as we remonstrated with the ref.

The Bolton goalkeeper, Ken Greaves, who was also the wicket-keeper for Lancashire, tried to stop the protests when a woman in her fifties attacked him with an umbrella; a lot of us stopped what we were doing and started cheering the woman on, telling her to give him one for us.

It eventually all ended and the match finished with the score 2-1, we won the battle but lost the match.

A few years later, I was relating this event to Dave Prentice in one of our phone calls and told him, “You might think I dreamt this up but it really happened.” The next time I rang him, he told me that he had looked for the incident and sure enough he had found the story in The Echo or The Liverpool Express and it did happen.

I used to think about the lady (?) with the umbrella and felt sorry for her husband, if she had one!!

Dave@47, thanks and if you want honesty, I rarely missed a game home and away from 79 onwards, seen the glory years, but one thing I can be totally honest about will make you think bloody hell unlucky bugger.

Unemployment was rife, I normally managed to get cash for the game, but the one night it was just a no-no, after trying various sources, I had to give way and sacrifice a game, too proud or too ashamed to let the person who gave transport free home and away in his works car that I was skint and could not afford it, so came up with dicky tummy to save further embarrassment.

As time goes on, you understand there is no great shame in it and you value money more now.

Anyway, the game I had to miss was Bayern Munich at Goodison, watching my mate close my gate and get back in his car, seemed to be slow motion driving off in the distance is one memory I will never forget.

Even now, that attendance at Goodison was closer to 250,000 if every Evertonian I spoke to claimed to be at that match that night. Well, I can honestly hold my hands up and say with regret, I was not there on one of our greatest nights at Goodison.

If you think that's bad, I could not afford the Rotterdam final, but I was sorted for a ticket for the cup final instead. Justice coming my way, seeing Everton complete the treble… we all know how that ended.

Desperate luck, Brian.

I do recognise your pain. I had to move south for work in 1986. I did manage to raise funds and get to those two games, but I had missed more than my fair share due to unemployment and lack of funds. I found footy on the radio very frustrating.

My personal greatest Goodison moment wasn't even during the glory days. Nor did it involve one of the all time greats.
We were all over Liverpool in that cup game, but it looked for all the world as if the jammy bastards were going to take us to penalties. We all dreaded how that would end.

I can still close my eyes and be transformed back to the moment when Dan Gosling tested the integrity of the Old Lady's foundations to the limits. The place exploded.

I too couldn't attend the Bayern match, but we took the trip to Rotterdam.

That cup final, I watched in a tent.

There have been too many experiences, but I think if pressed, the 5 - 0 demolition of Manchester United sticks in the memory.

Hi Dave [50],

In the early 1950s, I witnessed a similar incident in a reserve game at Goodison, when a fan ran on to the pitch to confront Jim Gooch, the Preston North End keeper.

It wasn't a youngster who invaded the pitch, but Gooch was able to hold the invader at arm's length. I can't recall how the incident ended, but I presume that the trespasser was escorted from the field of play.

Dave (52),

When Gosling scored that goal, Benitez was writing down his penalty takers for the shootout.

I was at the game but anyone watching it on TV missed it because the TV company showing the game lost transmission when the goal was scored and I think Gosling's parents were unlucky in missing their son's moment of glory.

Kenwright lost us about £3M in transfer fees when Gosling joined Newcastle as a free agent, he cocked Gosling's new deal up trying to save money.

Dave, they went off for an advert break so I heard.I think Granada TV thought the other lot had won it! HaHaHa, What a night, more or less the last kick of the match.