The 1987/88 season was never going to be easy for Everton. They may have been reigning champions, but the departure of Howard Kendall to Athletic Bilbao was always going to hit the club hard. Like many before and after him, Kendall’s assistant Colin Harvey would discover that replacing a legendary manager was a thankless task.
Awesome would be one way of describing that Liverpool vintage. Winning eleven and drawing four of their first fifteen matches, six times the red machine hit four past helpless opponents. The months ticked by, and the unbeaten run continued, as one-by-one teams failed to compete with Kenny Dalglish’s men.
John Aldridge and the summer acquisitions may have been enjoying themselves, hitting the net regularly, but at the other end of the pitch, Liverpool were proving just as efficient. Seven consecutive clean sheets in December and January indicated that all components of the engine were firing, and before long talk turned to possible records the team could set.
The first achievement would be to get past Leeds United’s record 29-match unbeaten run at the start of the 1973/74 season. A 1-1 draw away at Derby enabled Liverpool to equal this mark, although most within Anfield seemed unconcerned with this.
“The record has only been mentioned by the media,” Dalglish said. “As I have said many times before, there is more to go for than a record.” With a 40-match league season, some were looking further into the future, pondering if Liverpool could go the whole season unbeaten. But first, Liverpool had the opportunity to create history at the home of their rivals.
Debates raged about the comparative merits of Don Revie’s Leeds and Dalglish’s Liverpool. Emlyn Hughes used the platform as an excuse to tear into the playing style of Leeds under Revie; Bob Paisley and Don Revie gave the opinion that the current strength of the First Division was poor in comparison to 1973/74.
Either way, if Liverpool could avoid defeat at Goodison Park then they would be record-breakers, and become the team of the century as the headline declared in the Mirror. Understandably, the hype grew, as the match that would be shown live on ITV edged nearer.
“We are capable of beating Liverpool because we have already done it, and that is something no one else can say,” Harvey declared. Everton’s win at Anfield in the League Cup had been a rare moment of joy in Harvey’s first campaign, although Liverpool had gained revenge by winning an FA Cup fifth round tie at Goodison Park.
The match did at least provide Everton with “an opportunity to add something akin to a silver lining to a forgettable season of immense disappointment,” to use the words of Ian Ross in the Times. Their title may well have been going to Anfield, but a small consolation of denying Liverpool the record would prove a strong motivation for Harvey’s players.
The atmosphere inside Goodison was suffocating on a day of passion on and off the pitch. Steve Curry in the Express described the “blood-curdling contest” and added that the “emotion choked in your throat.” The Times report noted that the game “boiled with enthusiasm and snarled with aggression.”
Everton’s biggest crowd of the season, 44,162, witnessed a match that may not have been high in skill, but was certainly full of commitment. With so much at stake, it was hardly surprising that tensions threatened to boil over.
Steve McMahon would be at the centre of two controversial moments. The combative midfielder, an injury doubt coming into the match, received a yellow card for a foul on Neil Pointon that Harry Harris labelled X-rated in the Mirror. But McMahon would later receive a taste of his own medicine.
Kevin Sheedy’s two-footed lunge on McMahon was worthy of a red card, even judging by the standards of the time, Houghton in particular furious with his international team-mate for the nasty tackle.
In between these two incidents, Wayne Clarke earned himself hero status on the blue half of Merseyside by scoring the only goal of the match. Bruce Grobbelaar failed to deal with a Trevor Steven corner, and as the ball broke to Clarke, the striker swept the ball home to end Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the season.
Clarke had more than one reason to be happy. Older brother Allan had been a member of the Leeds team that Liverpool were trying to surpass. Meeting in the car park prior to the match, the current Barnsley manager asked his younger brother for a car parking ticket and for a winning goal.
“It’s nice to keep the record intact and in the family,” Clarke admitted, after his 15th minute goal separated the teams. Conversely, Grobbelaar was fuming. “You write what you think but I don’t blame myself at all. I was tripped by Alan Harper and impeded as I went for the ball.”
A strangely flat Liverpool, without the injured Aldridge, did go close on a couple of occasions. Craig Johnston had an effort cleared off the line, and Neville Southall thwarted the same man with his legs in the second half. But it simply wasn’t meant to be.
“Obviously we are disappointed to have lost because we deserved more from the game,” Dalglish commented. “The record doesn’t mean anything. We went 29 games unbeaten to equal Leeds and will get recognition for that. But the disappointment comes from losing the game, not from failing to make the record.”
“Everton always seemed one of the very few sides capable of ruining the romantic notion of an unbeaten season for Kenny Dalglish,” Curry wrote in his match report. As Evertonians and Leeds fans celebrated, so to did a number of bookmakers; prior to the match, William Hill had informed the press that they would lose over £1 million if Liverpool went through the season unbeaten.
A win in any Merseyside derby is welcome, and for Everton there was satisfaction of being the first team to inflict a league defeat on Liverpool. Yet ultimately, although the battle had been won on Sunday March 20, the war had long been heading towards an inevitable conclusion.
Football supporters live for the little moments like this, though. Even if their own team is struggling, the chance to get one over on a rival is delicious. Everton’s 2018/19 has been a bit of a let-down, yet derailing Liverpool’s title bid would provide some comfort to their fans.
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