Players

Everton Is Him and He Is Everton – Trish Lyons

Everton Is Him and He Is Everton – Trish Lyons

Becky Tallentire [Trish Lyons: Born Patricia Maloney, 2 June 1957, Dublin, Republic of Ireland] Dad was Irish and came over to England on business. He met and fell in love with mum and eventually took her back to Dublin with him. He was a tailor by trade and owned a shop called Louis Copeland on Capel Street in Dublin. Louis was his business partner and the master tailor; he cut the cloth and was the real craftsman in the partnership. It was the most acclaimed tailors in Ireland and probably still is, because it’s still running to this day. Mum…
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The Goodall Brothers and Everton FC

The Goodall Brothers and Everton FC

Richie Gillham with David France The Goodall brothers occupy an intriguing place in football history. Despite having Scottish parents and being raised in Kilmarnock, the brothers were ineligible to play for Scotland because of their birthplaces. John was born in London in 1863 and Archie in Belfast in 1864. As a result, they became the first brothers to represent different national teams - John scoring 12 times in his 14 appearances for England and Archie scoring two goals in his 10 outings for Ireland.  While both Archie and John turned out for Everton in the pre-League era when the club…
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1966 and All That – Everton FC FA Cup Winners and the World Cup at Goodison Park

1966 and All That – Everton FC FA Cup Winners and the World Cup at Goodison Park

Mike Royden [This was part of a day anniversary event entitled Do Look Back! Bob Dylan, the Adelphi, Football glory, Liver Birds and Liverpool on TV in 1966, hosted by Liverpool History Society, (not EFCHS) at the Sefton Suite, Adelphi Hotel, relating to the 1966 visit to Liverpool by Bob Dylan and the FA Cup win by Everton.] Part of the famous photoshoot by Barry Feinstein - Dylan at Dublin Street off the Dock Road. In an event mostly attended by members of the Liverpool History Society for their 25th Anniversary, plus a number of Dylan fans, it seemed a tall…
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From Kirkby Boys to Colwyn Bay; via Catterick’s Everton and a trip to Keflavik!

From Kirkby Boys to Colwyn Bay; via Catterick’s Everton and a trip to Keflavik!

Keith Williams: A Goalkeeper's Tale Jamie Yates Keith Williams was born at home, 21 Max Road in Knotty Ash, on 21 September 1952. Due to his father Oswald’s ill health, the Williams family relocated to Kirkby to live with his aunt Violet during the ‘Big Freeze’ of winter 1962. Everton Football Club were midway through their 1962/63 League Championship winning season at the time, and the extreme weather conditions caused much consternation as fixtures were cancelled up and down the country over the festive period. Keith attended Park Brow Junior School in Kirkby where he started taking his football a…
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A Bump in the Road to Immortality, or the Making of a Football Icon?

A Bump in the Road to Immortality, or the Making of a Football Icon?

Marking the centenary of the motorcycle accident which drove Dixie Dean to even greater heights . Jamie Yates . Star Green ‘Un, 2 January 1926 Sunday, 20 June 1926, a sunny summer’s day like any other. Two young people from Birkenhead with the world at their feet - nineteen-year-old professional footballer Bill Dean, and his friend, twenty-one-year-old draper’s assistant Evelyn Jones, tennis partners who played in Birkenhead Park close by to their respective childhood homes, set off for a jaunt on Dean’s recently purchased New Imperial motorcycle. By around four o’clock that afternoon they found themselves across the border in…
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Alan Kelly – The Son of ‘Mr. Preston North End’ and Goalkeeping Guru to ‘A Modern-Day Everton Legend’ 

Alan Kelly – The Son of ‘Mr. Preston North End’ and Goalkeeping Guru to ‘A Modern-Day Everton Legend’ 

Paul Owens Earlier this summer, it was announced that Preston North End would play their Carabao Cup first-round tie against Huddersfield Town at Goodison Park on Saturday 8 August 2026, due to ongoing pitch renovations – i.e. the installation of a hybrid pitch – at their Deepdale home.  In a previous piece for this website, I wrote about the quite extraordinary goalkeeping links between Everton and the Lilywhites, a piece which starts with a biography of James Trainer – Preston’s two-time title-winning goalkeeper of the nineteenth century – and ends with a reference to George Pickford, the Blues’ highly-rated Preston-born…
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The Glovesmen of ‘Jocko Land’ – Everton’s Scottish Goalkeeping History

The Glovesmen of ‘Jocko Land’ – Everton’s Scottish Goalkeeping History

Paul Owens Over the decades, Scottish goalkeepers have often found themselves the butt of many a cruel joke south of the border. In 1961, after England had humiliated the ‘Auld Enemy’ 9-3 at Wembley, the cheeky response of ‘almost ten past Haffey’ was frequently heard being given to any Scots who had asked to know what the time was. The retort made reference to Frank Haffey, Celtic and Scotland’s misfortunate last line of defence, who found himself winning just his second international cap that day – and only really doing so because of injuries to the more experienced goalkeeping trio…
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Andrea McGrady – Everton in the Blood

Andrea McGrady – Everton in the Blood

Rob Sawyer Lifelong Evertonian Andrea McGrady was Everton Ladies’ first number nine, in the wake of Leasowe Pacific coming under the Toffees’ umbrella. She combined turning out for the successful women’s team with following the men's team at Goodison Park. Here, in conversation with Rob Sawyer, she reflects on what playing for and watching Everton has meant to her.  As a kid I’d be playing football in the back garden with my two brothers. I first went to Goodison Park in the late 1970s in the era of Andy King and Bob Latchford and got my first season ticket in…
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Earning His Wings: Flight Lieutenant (and Outside-Right) George Dalgliesh

Earning His Wings: Flight Lieutenant (and Outside-Right) George Dalgliesh

Jamie Yates Author’s Note: Spelling of the surname Dalgliesh varies across publications and official records, appearing as Dalgliesh or Dalgleish interchangeably. For clarification I have quoted sources verbatim throughout this article. George’s family employ the ‘Dalgliesh’ spelling. Finding the right George Dalgliesh was no easy task and took a couple of false starts. There was a George Dalglish born in Liverpool in 1922. It wasn’t him. Next came George Robert White Dalgleish, born in Edinburgh in 1924, a Civil Engineer and son of a prominent Church of Scotland minister. Close, but no cigar.  And then there he was. We were…
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Lindsay Johnson – My Everton Years

Lindsay Johnson – My Everton Years

As told to Rob Sawyer  Lindsay with Everton in 2004 Lindsay Johnson went from kicking a football on a patch of grass as a child, as she wasn’t allowed to play in a boys team, to becoming Everton Ladies’ record appearance-maker, a two-time cup winner and the proud winner of forty-three Lioness caps. She goes down as one of the smartest pieces of recruitment that Blues boss Mo Marley ever made. In May 2026, alongside her former teammate Becky Easton, she was inducted into Everton Women’s Hall of Fame. I sat down for a coffee with Lindsay and discussed her…
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