5 Great Everton Night Games

As a book ‘Fever Pitch’ is much maligned, although I would argue it is a very good piece of literature held responsible for the reams of inferior versions it inspired. Nonetheless, one of the most evocative pieces that was carried forward into the film version was the moment that Nick Hornby arrived at the top of the stand stairs and saw the incredible green turf for the first time. For me it was whilst on a family holiday to Scotland that I was treated to a trip to Tynecastle with my dad to watch Hearts entertain Rangers. The programme I still have from the game and my childish scrawl informs me that Hearts won on their way to eventual final day heartache in the league as Celtic stole the title on goal difference, but all I remember from my first professional match was the wall of noise and colour.

In the years following this first taste of live football, I have developed a particular keenness for the night game. I have no idea why, save for the possible explanation that often they seem particularly appear to retain some of the magic I first experienced at Tynecastle – floodlights make the pitch more colourful (especially against the backdrop of a black night sky), and the crowd regularly appear to be noisier and more prepared to try and influence the result, possibly to work out the stresses of a day’s work.

Although Everton’s most famous night match is probably the Cup Winners’ Cup Semi Final second leg against Bayern Munich, I have limited my list to the games attended in person. I have no doubt that many other games from this period would be equally as deserving, but these five immediately spring to mind:

EVERTON 1-0 MANCHESTER UNITED (20.4.05)
With the side wobbling badly in their attempts to stay in the final Champions League place following the departure of Thomas Gravesen in January, the last team that David Moyes’ men needed to be playing was a Manchester United side that had already comfortably progressed through an FA Cup game between the clubs two months previously that had marked Wayne Rooney’s first return to his boyhood club. However, a rare start for an ageing Duncan Ferguson was the catalyst for an Everton display that made up in intensity what it lacked in finesse. In front of a bear pit Goodison atmosphere, a nervy, scrappy game turned on a second half Mikel Arteta free kick. Ferguson, recreating the iconic goal scored in a game against the same opponents a decade earlier, belied his advancing years to beat a dazed and bullied Rio Ferdinand to the ball and bury it past Tim Howard. As Ferguson celebrated, the only thing creaking more than his body were the stands, which shook with an explosion of joy and relief. From there on, cherries were piled on the cake as first Gary Neville, inexplicably and petulantly kicking the ball at the crowd, and then Paul Scholes, for an ugly hack at Kevin Kilbane, were sent off. As evenings go, it could barely have gone better.



EVERTON 2-0 FIORENTINA (12.3.08)
After the frustrating 2-0 reverse in Florence a week earlier, a quick start was needed from a side missing the threat of Tim Cahill and Andy Johnson's bundled effort after a quarter of an hour provided just the boost required by both team and fans. What had not been banked on however was that goalkeeper Sebastian Frey would provide a one-man blockade to goal. Aided by a healthy dose of good fortune and the assistance of post and bar, Frey repelled eveything bar the Mikel Arteta cracker that took the roof off the ground and the game into extra time. Two tired sides could not muster a goal during that period and Yakubu and Jagielka's misses during the shoot out sent the Italians through to somehow get beaten by a deeply average Rangers side in the next round. Despite the eventual outcome it is a game that will live in the memory for the sheer ferocity of the backing given to the side, which was somehow not rewarded on the pitch.



EVERTON 1-0 LIVERPOOL (4.2.09)
As early birthday presents go it was a bit special. An Everton side looking out on its feet after a series of games in quick succession against the Premier League's Monsters of Rock was buoyed by first injury to Steven Gerrard and then the dismissal of Lucas and pushed, prompted by Mikel Arteta and Jack Rodwell, through extra time against a Liverpool side time wasting as if their lives depended on it. With the match slowly petering out to the grim inevitability of a Liverpool penalty shoot-out victory, the lesser-spotted Andy van der Meyde's cross fell to the feet of Dan Gosling who seemed to take an age to work the ball out of his feet before clipping it with the aid of a delicious, slight deflection past Reina and into the Park End net. Bedlam. Whilst on my back, three rows ahead of where I had been thirty seconds earlier, I missed a comedy dust up between van der Meyde and the prematurely-balding Liverpool keeper. It mattered not. Despite their new-found speed at getting the ball back into play, Liverpool could not muster an equaliser and Everton progressed to the future rounds where equally dramatic victories awaited.



EVERTON 3-1 SPURS (9.4.04)
An evening Good Friday fixture in front of a Goodison crowd in such good voice that there was suspicion that cold drinks may have been taken by a significant number of the 38,000-odd present. With Everton's season having been wildly inconsistent and disppointing following the previous season's 7th placed finish, this match represented one of the few highs. With James McFadden enjoying a rare start up front, the Blues came out quickly and put the game to bed by half time. A David Unsworth header, a free kick from the Scottish Roberto Carlos, Gary Naysmith, and Joseph Yobo's short range rebound prod home after a Gravesen shot ensured that Stephen Carr's second half consolation strike was exactly that. In true Everton style that proved to be the last win of the season as the last six games saw just two points gained and a 17th place finish.

BLACKBURN 1-2 EVERTON (10.3.99)
Arriving at the ground as part of the traditionally strong away support at Ewood Park with both Blackburn and ourselves mired in relgation trouble, it was 'disappointing', to use a word we were hearing more often than we should have around that time, when the side announced contained six centre backs with a central midfield pairing of David Unsworth and David Weir. The lottery-like nature of the selection was still being digested when the perenially-relegated Ashley Ward was converting a cross at the back post to put us in even more trouble. This was though, the (correctly) much derided Ibrahima Bakayoko's finest hour. Converting a far post header from a fifteenth minute corner, he then raced onto Don Hutchison's through ball just after the hour to put the Blues 2-1 up. Despite Blackburn throwing the kitchen sink at the Everton goal through the remainder of the game, a defence brilliantly marshalled by the eccentric Marco Materazzi, and backed by Thomas Myhre, just about held firm.

Fingers crossed after yesterday's dire second half showing that Thursday night's game with AEK is similarly memorable.