Everton - Post West Brom

Saturday 27^th November is for me the bleakest day Everton have experienced under the 8 years, 8 months of David Moyes’ management.

Moyes has been absolutely fantastic for Everton.  The team, squad, and Club as a whole is vastly improved when compared to what he inherited upon arrival.

Evertonian expectations are now to be challenging for European football every season and at the very least making the latter stages of each competition we enter, all while playing entertaining and fluid football.

That those expectations are so far removed from merely hoping to avoid relegation under Walter Smith is clearly a result of the players we now have at Everton and the relative success of Moyes’ reign to date.

Hopes hadn’t been so high ahead of a season for at least 15 years before this one got underway.  It is for that reason that the limp showing we have experienced so far, culminating in the West Brom horror show has been so crushing.

I wrote after our initial 5 league games and defeat to Brentford, that I was personally never going to allow myself to be suckered into believing Everton could become a powerful force again.

The following 5 games produced 3 win and 2 draws, with only 1 goal conceded.  That this sequence included the dismantling of Liverpool only served to increase a slowly emerging feel-good factor.  In truth, that run never had any sense of permanency about it.

After those first five games I conceded that I’d allowed myself to be blinded to the deficiencies in our squad, and they were very much still present five matches later.

At that early stage of the season I still believed that David Moyes was the right man to manage Everton.  The events of yesterday lead me to think, for the first time, that that is no longer the case.

Waking to see quotes attributed to the manager suggesting that he would welcome David Beckham for a new year loan spell set alarm bells ringing.

That Moyes sees Beckham as a viable option for his squad goes against everything he has tried to change at the club.  We are no longer a retirement home for a famous name seeking a final bout of publicity, or a top up of their obscene bank balance.

This is the manager that inherited Gascoigne and Ginola and had no interest in working with them.  Experienced players have worked on occasion.  Stubbs and Weir were vital for Moyes when we finished 4^th, but he’s always known when to move them on.

The misguided idea that Beckham could be what this current Everton side need serves only to confirm in my mind that Moyes has no clear idea what he wants to do with this squad of players.

An endearing feature of Moyes’ management has been an ability to learn from mistakes very quickly.  This season the same mistakes are being made time and again.

Team selections have no consistency, players are being played out of position, and the tactics employed are failing to bring the best from those players we have capable of winning games.

Focusing on recent games there is much to be confused about.

Why has John Heitinga been continually employed in the centre of midfield?  He is clearly uncomfortable in the position, is lazy, and plays with an alarming lack of responsibility.  His woeful showing against Arsenal should have seen him dropped, yet he’s started both the following games.

Having Heitinga alongside him must be hindering Mikel Arteta.  The Spaniard is clearly out of form and it is to be hoped he returns after his suspension more like the player we were delighted signed a contract to stay for the next 5 years. 

That will be more likely if he doesn’t have a headless chicken inadequately performing the holding role intended to free Arteta to play higher up the pitch, where he can hurt opponents.

Rodwell should have replaced Heitinga against West Brom.  He’s not a natural ‘holding’ player at the moment.  He is, however, a footballer of far greater ability than Heitinga.  Moyes is forever telling us that Rodwell should be in England squads.  If you think he’s that good then pick him, and not on the right of midfield in a half-hearted attempt to squeeze him into the side.

Saha coming into the side to replace Yakubu when the Nigerian finally looked as if he was rediscovering his form of two years ago was incredible.  How he then kept his place after an awful display against Bolton only compounded the error.

The inconsistent treatment of Seamus Coleman is increasingly confusing.  The Irishman has clearly been our most effective player wide on the right this season, yet Moyes is alarmingly reluctant to offer any public praise of the player.  He was inexplicably left out against Bolton, before completely changing the tone of the game when he came on.  Replacing Coleman with Anichebe on Saturday defied belief.

Speaking of right sided players, takes us to Tony Hibbert.  I loved watching Hibbert when he first broke into the side.  Hard as nails, combative, and extremely good at his prime job, defending, he was a perfect fit for the difficult to beat side Moyes was building.  Now, robbed of any pace and confidence by illness and injury during the past few years he has no place in any Everton team.

I’m never the most confident ahead of a match, but my sense of foreboding when I see Hibbert’s name on the teamsheet reaches new heights.  His recent receipt of a contract until 2014 was staggering.

Moyes isn’t being helped by the poor form of some players he has come to rely on.  Tim Howard is treading a very fine line, between good ‘keeper prone to the occasional rick, and liability.  Since Howard has been with us we have never had anyone capable of putting any real pressure on his place in the team.

Jagielka is horribly out of form.  I’ve never been totally convinced of him in the way others have, but there’s no doubting that when he’s fit and performing to his best he’s vital to Everton.

Everton at the back look vulnerable to the extreme.  An individual running at them, or any ball played into the box is a cause of panic and a near miss, or increasingly often, a goal.

Beckford is the only forward we have capable of turning opponents defenders towards their own goal.  The last minute chance at Sunderland, however horrible a miss, was the first time we got behind them with any pace all night.

Despite this, he is clearly not ready to be a regular forward in a Premier League side with designs on competing at the top.  It is the manager’s fault that we’ve gone into this season with an abundance of creative players who can play some beautiful football, and not one striker that can be relied upon to score goals, let alone appear with any regularity.

The £10m signing making a Russian shaped dent in our bench is becoming a bigger elephant in the room every week.  Moyes’ signings are subject to intense scrutiny, such is the scarcity of money at the club, but that is an aspect of the job he, along with the vast majority of managers in the league has to accept.

Biyaletdinov is fast becoming the player I, and I’m guessing many others, look at and think, ‘what could we have bought with that £10m?’, not to mention of course that around the same time £6m went on Heitinga.

Moyes’ attitude towards Steven Pienaar is baffling.  The South African is currently our best player, and certainly one of the outstanding individuals at the club.  To openly concede he’s likely to leave, while making what appears little effort to keep him makes no sense whatsoever. 

Pienaar is one of the few players that can be relied upon to keep the ball, and his link up play with Baines on the left offers the only consistent incisiveness the side has.

What was especially perturbing after the West Brom debacle was Moyes’ willingness to concentrate on the refereeing the preceded Arteta’s sending off.

There was clearly a foul on Baines, and on Arteta which he then reacted to.  To lament that this cost Everton the chance of getting back and winning the match is to ignore what’s going on in front of the manager’s eyes.

He refers to how we were seeking to overturn a two goal lead at the time, and that we clearly weren’t being ‘carved open’ as both goals were from set-pieces.

Well, that’s alright then.  It’s OK to concede goals in that manner, and being 2-0 down to West Brom within half an hour isn’t a worry.

For years we have witnessed Everton having to grind out every victory they earned.  There have been signs during the past few seasons that this may be changing.  Lesser teams were coming to Goodison and being brushed aside in a manner verging on contempt.

Many Evertonians-me included-thought that pattern would continue this season.  West Brom are a good side, but they are exactly the sort of opposition that we hoped to see soundly beaten on their visit to the old lady this season.  That they walked away with such a comfortable victory was the greatest example yet of the contrast between our hopes-and in many cases, expectations- for the season and what has actually unfolded.

Moyes looks tired and he is exuding a defensive persona, unwilling to accept responsibility for Everton’s dire form.  Most strikingly, he doesn’t appear to have a clear idea of how to turn that form around.

David Moyes has done a fantastic job at Everton.  As I’ve stated, he is largely responsible for raising the expectation levels that aren’t being met.  Most importantly he has given Everton back our respect, something that was eroding-save for a brief, exciting period under Joe Royle-since we last won the League title in 1987.

As well as the dud signings I’ve mentioned there have been some excellent purchases.  In the current side alone; Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar, Fellaini, and Baines are excellent footballers.

Moyes’ time at Everton, I think, has simply come to an end. 

Who could replace him?  No one stands out.

Bill Kenwright will have an extremely difficult job selecting the right man.  The size of that task shouldn’t deter him from making the decision that needs to be made.  He got his appointment spot on in March 2002, and should be confident of doing so again.

I can’t imagine Hiddink or Guardiola will be rushing to take a job with a team currently sitting 16^th in the league, and paying wages somewhat below those to which they may be accustomed.

The usual old names would, I’m sure, be trumpeted.  Martin O’Neil, Dave Jones, Martin Jol.  No thanks. 

Whoever any new manager may be he would inherit a squad that has a very good side within it, and includes some exceptional players.

It is a squad that needs fresh ideas, and a man that has no pre-conceived ideas about any of them.  A fresh, knowledgeable pair of eyes is required to start getting the best out of what we have, and to bring in the players this team is crying out for.

Sure, we would benefit from cover right across the defence, and in the middle of the field.   A wide right player would appear imperative, but given a proper opportunity I believe that Coleman could develop into an excellent performer in that position.

For me, the absolute priority is to bring in a ‘keeper who is a viable alternative to Howard, and most definitely another striker, possibly two.  If a new manager was given the opportunity to purchase these players he would be presented a strong hand with which to start.

This is no knee-jerk reaction.  I’m a big fan of David Moyes and I’m sure he’ll go on and be successful elsewhere.  Quite simply, however, his work at Everton is finished.  It is time for him, and Everton, to move on. 

This is a crucial time for Everton.  Changing manager after nearly 9 years is a huge decision, and one, if I’m honest, I’m glad I don’t have to make.  It is the right thing to do.  Over to you Bill.

Paul McNamara

West Brom Match Report

Everton 1 West Brom 4

Well, pick the fucking bones out of that.

We seem to have a run like this every year, where the manager doesn't know his best side and consequently the team's form is laboured at best - the odd win here and there but generally struggling -until Moyes hits on a formation (usually after a couple of injuries and suspensions) which gets us together. One of the worst parts of these runs is that you always get the impression that a real twat of a result is on the way. On Saturday it arrived with bells on.

Everton were dire. Really, really fucking awful. You can point to a few moments of bad luck or judgment from our players or the referee, but there is no excuse for a performance like that. They got exactly what they deserved and, with Chelsea to come next week, need to get themselves in gear quickly, or risk being into the dogfight at the bottom of the table.

David Moyes made another baffling team selection, bringing in the desperately unfit Victor Anichebe for one of the players who has been in-form, Seamus Coleman. In addition, Yakubu came in for Louis Saha, dropped after his human statue impression at the Stadium of Light, and Tony Hibbert replaced the injured Phil Neville.

It was one of those games where the ex-Man Utd man's importance becomes horribly clear. It's no coincidence that our form dips when he's out of the side - the defence looks shakier, the team looks completely disorganised and there seems to be no-one willing to take up the mantle of actually trying to lead by example. Neville has his critics - he's not the most technically gifted by a long shot - but he is vital to the team. We need him back, let's hope the injury isn't serious.

As seems to always be the case this season, Everton started brightly - Mikel Arteta looked a bit more 'at it' than recently, Pienaar and Baines were bright as ever, and Anichebe forced a good save from Scott Carson in the opposition goal. In fact, when you look at the first 20 minutes or so it was played almost exclusively in West Brom's half - but then, as always seems the case this season, the self-destruct button was pressed and Everton gave away another stupid goal.

An Everton attack broke down and, while Anichebe appealed for a free kick instead of getting up and getting the fuck on with things, West Brom hacked a high ball down the left. Phil Jagielka - who is another who has been way off form recently - let it drift over his head and gave away a pretty needless corner. From the resulting kick, no-one picked up arch-hank Paul Scharner, and he who always scores against us planted a free header into the net. The focus of criticism has been on the strikers recently - defensively, this goal was as bad as it gets.

Everton looked shaken and the visitors began to assert themselves on the game, running things in midfield where Everton's trio - Cahill, who looked like he had a cob on, Arteta, who is never fully fit in a million years and whose confidence looks shot, and Heitinga, who is simply not arsed in the slightest - were anonymous. Arteta forced another good save from Carson from a free kick, but within minutes Everton were two down. There seemed to be no real danger as West Brom built slowly midway into the Everton half, but then Cahill went flying in to one of those stupid fouls you can see coming a mile off. Chris Brunt stepped up and lashed a great free-kick into the top corner. There were some murmurings about Tim Howard's positioning - the kick was a hell of a long way out - but, bottom line, it was a needless and pointless foul by Cahill, which was punished. As a senior player, he should know better.

That said, it's hard to have a go at the player who is our only goal threat at the moment. The second goal did seem to kick Everton into gear, and from a Baines corner Cahill sent a trademark header into the corner of the net - game on. The momentum was definitely with Moyes' men, and another Baines corner somehow sneaked past the post with Distin and Heitinga both in close attendance. Half-time came with the game very much in the balance.

The second half began with Everton still in the ascendancy and Moyes replaced Heitinga (who stunk the place out and got a less-than-warm reception from the supporters) and Yakubu with Saha and Beckford. Nothing wrong with bringing attacking players on at all - indeed it nearly worked - but by this time Anichebe was knackered and Coleman may have been a better option. As it was, a minute of utter madness flipped the game on its head shortly afterwards.

First, Pienaar and Arteta combined and the little South African spotted a great run by Beckford, playing a cute through ball into the area. One-on-one, this was the sort of chance that we were promised that the ex-Leeds man would put away in his sleep - as it was he put it too close to Carson, who got a hand to it which allowed a defender to hack the ball off the line. As the ball dropped, Baines went up for a header only to be clattered by Gonzalo Jara. It looked a nasty one - definitely a foul, probably a yellow or even worse - but the hapless Lee Mason gave nothing. Jara then went flying in on Arteta - again it looked a foul - but nothing was given. In the ensuing scramble, Arteta 'did a Fellaini' and stupidly aimed a stamp at the Chilean full back. He made little contact, but a couple of West Brom flew at the referee to get involved - something we should have done after the challenge on Baines - and the inevitable red card followed.

Arteta's form is a real problem. He looks scared of making a mistake and rumours keep going round that he's playing on injections. Certainly, he hasn't been the same since missing the game at Spurs with a hamstring problem - is it sorted? Is he narked about something off the pitch? We probably won't find out, and maybe three games out will do him good. Whatever, and however much contact he made with Jara, it was a stupid thing to do with the game in the balance and Everton on top of possession. Another senior player who should know better.

Even with a man down, the chances still came - Beckford in particular had two more at 2-1, which should have brought us level, and both were horribly spurned. He's looked better in his approach play recently, and is getting into goalscoring positions, but those chances need to be taken. Both at Sunderland and on Saturday, missing easy chances have contributed to us losing points. Not good enough.

The game stretched from there and Everton's threat petered out. West Brom replaced Jerome Thomas - who'd given Hibbert a torrid time already - with Somen Tchoyi, who absolutely ripped him to shreds. The big Cameroon winger cut in to score an excellent third, and then contributed in the move which saw Youssuf Mulumbu, possibly West Brom's man of the match, turn in a fourth off Sylvain Distin. In the dying seconds, Mulumbu was harshly sent off for two bookings, but by then those that remained were simply waiting to let the team know what they thought of the 'performance'.

Utter shite. The attitude of some of the players absolutely stinks - Heitinga chief among them - whilst others, like Arteta and Jagielka, are horribly out of form. You have to question, however, some of the manager's decisions also. We've not been at our most fluent at all this season but he did have a team which was picking up points, even if we should have won some more games, like the one away at Blackpool. Why change it then? Why fuck about for the Bolton game? Why drop Coleman (twice) when he's playing well, and Yakubu, who was contributing significantly, the first chance he got, for the dis-interested Saha? Even more worryingly, why have we stopped closing teams down and getting stuck in? There seems to be this perception that we're trying to be like Arsenal - let's stick to being Everton first and foremost, as we're being outfought at every turn at the moment.

We go to Chelsea on Saturday with some really big decisions to make. Hopefully Neville will be back, and Fellaini will go into midfield to add some steel. Surely Jack Rodwell will join him in there, and Coleman will return on the right. If Everton are organised and strong, they can get something from the game - Chelsea showed on Sunday that they're not to be feared at the moment, particularly in midfield. Let's get into them and show a bit of heart - it's always been the bedrock of Moyes' teams - we need it back.

calcioEFC

Sunderland Match Report

Did he really just miss that?.......''I like Everton, they're definitely one of the better teams in the league, they've been in the premier league since day dot and that’s what we've aimed for and I think we’re getting there'' - Steve Bruce. Errr yeah, sorry about the errrrm.... ''Giant Cauliflower head'' jibe and that pal. It’s almost December and Everton are in 14th position and Sunderland are in 7th. Nice to get sugar coated pleasantries from managers after games and that, but another games rumbled by and it's a case of what might have been, damn you and your tattooed neck Jermaine, damn you.

On a positive note, it was nice to get some sort of performance from the side even if the result didn’t reflect our marginal dominance. Did i just type that? Don’t worry, i know what i mean. This purposeful contest between two well matched teams sparked into life after just 6 minutes, when Leighton Baines swept in a veritable peach of a cross right onto the most lauded Antipodean bronzed fod in the game. GOALSCORE! Almost before any of us could start reaching for our Cahill 1-0 betting slips to check we'd written it down right, Bouid-Budd....Beudw.....err Zenden, did a decent (fattish)Lionel Messi impression and left Pienaar flat on his arse and Baines(on corners now too!) a little bit confused before cutting back for Welbeck to stab home at the near post.

Ah well, loads of time to put it right, c'mon Blues. Cahill had another header cleared off the line by the annoying, pre-pubescent, canine faced Henderson before the referee finally blew up for half time and probably a welcome respite from a growing Sunderland threat. Unsurprisingly, the most stark contrast in the game was the two teams forwards lines. Every ball passed back towards Distin, Jagielka or Howard was feverishly chased down by either Darren Bent or Danny Welbeck, which seemed to fire up their team mates for the cleared second ball, the home support to put our players under a bit of pressure and generally to lead from the front. Whereas with Everton, Saha continued contributing almost frig all, the odd defensive header apart, it's hard to actually pinpoint exactly what he's bringing to the side at the moment. He genuinely offers no attacking threat at all, none, nothing, nowt.

The second half got underway, with Everton shading possession in the opening exchanges  and generally flattering to deceive. Predictably these days though, Cattermole released an offside Kieran Richardson down the right to possibly whip in an even better cross than Baines for Cahill in the first half. Welbeck, who looks like that Giraffe in Madagascar who Ross off friends does the voice for, jumped highest and weighted his header nicely to lob the advancing Howard and Everton defenders. Ah well, loads of time to put it right, c'mon Blues. And they did. The changes were made, Saha off for Yakubu and Heitinga off for Beckford. With it immediately putting Sunderland on the back foot, Everton passed it neatly, like they can, in threatening areas, like they can, just awaiting someone to WEBB IT purposefully towards goal, and he did, the swarthy little frigger. Arteta who was quiet and wasteful throughout, hit his shot which caught a wicked deflection and evaded the perma apologetic Craig Gordon to level things.

With not long left and both teams not wanting to lose a tightly fought affair, things became a little more cautious with defences sat deeper and inviting a bit of pressure onto themselves. Sunderland's final effort came from Welbeck looking for his hatrick, he seemed to snatch at the ball when he should have squared to a completely unmarked Bent who could have tapped it home if he liked, leaving the large away support mopping their brows and thinking a point now is just fine by them..............until, with barely seconds left in added on time, Jagielka punted the ball forward to Beckford, who cleverly held off his man, timed his run to perfection and bared in one on one with a petrified looking, already committed Scotsman, inexplicably though, rather than just poking it over him, he conspired to welly a rising drive up and over the bar, for what would have been a vital 3 points for him and his team, not to mention a place amongst the hearts of some of his hard to please detractors. Who in this instance will tell you he missed that cos he's shite, and that’s it. Rather than it possibly being something to do with him not getting hardly any time on the pitch, with a strike partner natch.

Two up front against West Brom please Dave, three points wouldn’t go amiss either.


Juice Terry

Sunderland Preview

Off we go to The Stadium of Light then, lying in 16th position, a point off the bottom three and a win away from the top half of the table. As has consistently been said, it's been a weird old season thus far, with back to back wins from any frigger putting them into contention for something, be it staying up, Europe, Champions League, the title....delete as applicable.

Sunderland will probably be quite happy with their season, where, apart from being comprehensively snotted by their closest rivals at St James park, have strung a few decent games together and sit in 7th after handing out their own snotting last week, to the League Champions no less. Bah!

Old Chod Head himself, Steve 'Cauliflower' Bruce, has a bit of knack of picking up decent players from relative obscurity and seemingly turning them into a running, tackling, goal scoring adverts for other ''bigger'' clubs, which was all very well at Wigan, but now he's at a side who's supporters(and owners may it be noted) probably wouldn't stand for any of that, well, not like it very much anyway. Either way, his managerial style seems to be quite suited to the team he's at these days.

You cant argue with some of the players he's picking at the moment who are doing the business for him. Eyebrows a plenty were raised when Asamoah Gyan arrived for a club record fee, with simplistic bordering on racialist whispers of him being ''an athelete'' not ''a Goalscorer'' has him sat on 3 times as many goals as Everton entire forward line. Ah well, the real stickler in their side is always Darren Bent, who could return tonight from injury by the way.

You look at him and his record at every team he's played for and think ''Shitting Hell Everton, we could have had that twat for frig all...'', I'm referring to the time were incidentally, another vegetable headed fellow called Joe, apparently offered him to the blues for a bag of used Bellefield balls. Suffice to say, he's the type of centre forward Everton are crying out for, with Yakubu and Saha being two of the most enigmatic, lazy, talented footballing conundrums that have ever wore the Royal Blue.

In terms of our injuries, we've got one or two ourselves and Fellaini is serving the second of his 3 match ban. But when you look at it, especially with the record we have against them in the last few years, 10 wins in 12, you still think a sneaky little away win isn't out of the question even with the way we are playing. It wont be easy though, the likes of Cattermole, Onuha, Henderson and Wellbeck will make us work for it, but come on Everton, let's do these.

It would be nice to see Moyes not trying to be too cute with his team selection as well tonight, knowing and putting his strongest team out(stop laughing at the back!) and possibly being a bit more proactive with his substitutions should it be needed.

A win tonight then what on paper looks like a home banker(yikes!) against West Brom on the weekend would be just the welcome we need for Landon Donovan's mid season arrival from The Galaxy....YER WHA? Like I said, let's do these.

Up th Toffees!

Juice Terry

Match Report - Arsenal

Well, it’s Monday, I’m off work and very hungover so I thought to myself how hard can it be, I will write a brief match report.

Everton had a chance to get up the league and head into what looked like 2 winnable games (whatever they are) against West Brom and Sunderland in a good position.

Everton started ok, with the highlight of the opening 15 minutes or so a Seamus Coleman foray down the right flank which saw him fly past Fabregas at full pelt and pick out the one person you would have wanted it to fall to - Tim Cahill - unmarked in the box. Tim unusually headed over when unmarked in the area, but it was great direct play from Coleman, and i hoped it was a sign of things to come.

Sadly after that, it just didn’t happen. Arsenal turned the screw, and John Heitinga charged around a lot and gave away a few free kicks for petulant fouls, Mikel Arteta continued his poor form by seemingly not wanting the ball, and when he did have it, doing his best Lucas Leiva impression of moving it on sideways, and Louis Saha, who somehow kept his place in the side, not really offering anything up top.

Arsenal took the lead in the 36th minute, Samir Nasri cut inside Pienaar, and got a shot off from the edge of the box which was saved by Howard, the rebound somehow ended up being worked to Bacary Sagna inside the box, Mikel Arteta just watched and threw in a token jog back and stick your leg out gesture as the right back slapped it past Howard at his near post. Good finish, but surely Arteta should have been breaking himself to stop the effort, and Howard will be disappointed at his part in it, beaten at the near post is never a win for a keeper.

We all hoped for an Everton response, but in all truth it never occurred. Howard Webb made a few bad decisions which incensed the home crowd, but that glosses over the fact we were never really looking good enough.

Rodwell replaced Heitinga at the start of the second half, with the Dutchman looking a cert for a red card, but it never made a difference. Arsenal at times strolled through the middle, and it wasn’t really a shock when after a neat passage of play and a few 1-2 passes ,the ball fell to Fabregas on the edge of the box who finished easily.

Moyes responded by bringing on Jermain Beckford and Yakubu for Phil Neville and Arteta. But all this really did was negate our most effective attacking force in Coleman as he moved to right back, and left all 3 of the strikers making the same runs and generally looking a bit blunt. Anyway, we still rallied a bit and Tim Cahill, who as always kept on going, got a late goal which kept up the hope of a grand stand man utd-esqe finish. But it never really looked like happening, Fabianski saved well, but comfortably, from a Beckford and Saha effort, and that was it.

At the end I was left with more questions than answers once more. What is going on with Arteta? He used to be taking the ball from the centre backs, always going forward, trying to create, but in recent weeks our talisman looks a shadow of the player we know he is. I’m sure it’s only a dip in form, everyone has them, but we really need him to start firing. Saha starting is another one. The Yak was starting to look like more of the player he used to be, bringing others into the game, barging defenders out the way aots, and generally beginning to look ace again in spells. Yet he now finds himself ousted for Saha, who looks like he doesn’t care, doesn’t link play anywhere near aswell as the robust Nigerian, and for my money shouldn’t be starting games.

Several of our big guns are not firing, and frankly we need them to. As in this tight league, it’s going to be important to go into Christmas in a decent position. If we harbour any hopes of top 7 and a return to the glamour of the Europa League, we need to start winning games. Not drawing, not losing, but winning.

Bluelordloverocket

The Great War 1914-15

Brave British soldier. Not afraid to die.

Everton Football Club

A Great War chronicle

Introduction

On the morning of Tuesday, 25 August 1914, eight days prior to the start of what would be Everton’s second title‑winning season, Private William Thorpe, a thirty‑six‑year‑old Liverpudlian serving with the King’s Own Lancaster Regiment, experienced his Great War baptism of fire in a fierce clash with German units just north of Haucourt, France. At the end of that day his regiment had lost fourteen officers and 431 other ranks killed, wounded or missing out of a total strength of twenty-six officers and 974 men. One of the missing was William Thorpe, fit and well, but now hopelessly stranded behind enemy lines in unfamiliar territory east of the River Somme. In due course, he would, with six other fugitive British soldiers, find sanctuary, hidden in the bosom of French families in the village of Villeret, Picardy. However, their presence there would eventually be betrayed to the Germans, and at dawn on 16 May 1916 Private William Thorpe and two of his comrades were captured hiding in a barn. On 20 May 1916 they were tried as spies in nearby Le Câtelet, the administration headquarters of the local German occupation forces, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Six days later, on 26 May 1916, the superior German military authorities at Saint-Quentin confirmed the sentences, and the three British soldiers were duly executed at 03.00 p.m. the next day, 27 May 1916. In his farewell letter to his wife and three small children Private William Thorpe, completely overwhelmed by emotion and grief, managed to pen just three agonized phrases: ‘Darling wife and children. Brave British soldier. Not afraid to die.’ Over and over and over again.

In his book A Foreign Field, Ben Macintyre depicts the execution of Private William Thorpe and his two comrades, Private Thomas Donohoe, an Irishman from County Cavan, and Private David Martin, an Ulsterman from Belfast, both serving in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, as follows: “Before they were bound to the posts, the three men shook hands. David Martin was lashed to the middle post, with Thorpe at his left shoulder and Donohoe to his right. None wore blindfolds. […] Then the firing squad of twelve men stepped forward. […] When the executioners opened fire, the two other men were killed instantly, but [William Thorpe] was only wounded. So, in silence, without any supplication, he lifted up three fingers of one hand, spread apart, to signify that he had three young children. The commander of the firing squad walked up to him and finished him off with a revolver bullet in the ear.”

It is to the memory of Private William Thorpe and his two comrades, all three of whom are buried in Le Câtelet cemetery, that this Great War chronicle of Everton’s 1914/15 Championship campaign is dedicated.

On the football front, a 1:0 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, 25 April 1914 had brought the curtain down on Everton’s disappointing 1913/14 campaign, which saw the Toffees finish fifteenth, four places lower than the previous season, which had been even more disappointing still given Everton’s promising second‑place finish in season 1911/12. Veteran right‑back Billy Stevenson and long‑serving right-half and full Irish international Val Harris had moved on to pastures new by the start of the 1914/15 campaign, but otherwise it was very much a case of as you were, with only Scottish international centre‑half James Galt arriving from Rangers to bolster the Goodison Park playing staff, which, nevertheless, still featured four 1911/12 stalwarts, Tommy Fleetwood, England international Frank Jefferis, John Maconnachie, a Scot hailing from Aberdeen, and Harry Makepeace, an England international at both football and cricket, and two 1911/12 fringe players, Alan Grenyer and Louis Weller. Following the rank mediocrity of the club’s two previous campaigns and given the lack of activity on the part of the Everton custodians in the summer transfer market, not in their wildest dreams could Blues fans have imagined what this, the final season prior to the suspension of league football for the duration of the Great War, would hold in store. Ably assisted by co‑strikers Joe Clennell, Frank Jefferis and Liverpool‑born Billy Kirsopp, in only his second season at the club Scottish centre‑forward Bobby Parker would set the pace in blazing the Everton Championship trail, equalling the First Division goal‑scoring record set by Everton centre‑forward Bertie Freeman in season 1908/9 by netting no less than thirty‑six times in thirty‑five league outings, two fewer than his free‑scoring Everton predecessor, including one four‑goal strike, five hat‑tricks and five braces, this at a time when it was necessary for three players to be positioned between the striker and the goal when the ball was played forward. A remarkable feat indeed.

Sources

Publications Geoffrey Bennett, Naval Battles of the First World War, 1974
Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton, The Christmas Truce, 2001
Alan Clark, The Donkeys, 1994
Liddell Hart, History of the First World War, 1972
Lyn Macdonald, 1914, 1987
Ben Macintyre, A Foreign Field, 2001
Steve Pearce, Shoot. The ultimate stats and facts guide to English league football, 1997
Janusz Piekalkiewicz, Der Erste Weltkrieg, 1995
Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot At Dawn, 1989
Ken Rogers, Goodison Glory, 1998
John K. Rowlands, Everton Football Club 1878-1946, 2001
Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night, 2001

Databases Tony Brown and Andy Ellis, Everton F.C. 1887-1999. A Year-by-Year History, 1999
Jeff Hurley, Everton AFC Database (1887-1996), 1996

Principal Web sitesCommonwealth War Graves Commission (http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx)
Everton Football Club (http://www.evertonfc.com/news/?page_id=6)
FirstWorldWar (http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm)
The Long, Long Trail (http://www.1914-1918.net/index.htm)
Toffeeweb (http://www.toffeeweb.com/)
Victoria Cross Reference (http://www.chapter-one.com/vc/default.asp)

Everton Football Club 1914/15

From left to right, back row: Tommy Fleetwood, Alan Grenyer, Bobby Thompson, James Galt, Tommy Fern, John Maconnachie, Harry Makepeace.
From left to right, front row: Sam Chedgzoy, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker, Joe Clennell, James Roberts.

Wednesday, 2 September 1914 A crowd of 9000 witness visitors Everton start the season in fine style, winning 3:1 at Tottenham Hotspur. Scottish international James Galt, the new club captain signed from Rangers in May 1914, makes his Everton debut at centre‑half. The Everton line-up in this opening fixture of the season features Tommy Fern, Bobby Thompson, John Maconnachie, Tommy Fleetwood, James Galt, Alan Grenyer, Sam Chedgzoy, Frank Jefferis, Bobby Parker, Joe Clennell and George Harrison, the majority of whom would remain the backbone of the side throughout what would ultimately remain a relatively injury‑free campaign. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell (3).	Five days previously at just after 12:30 on the afternoon of Friday, 28 August 1914, the German light cruiser, SMS Cöln, flagship of Rear‑Admiral Maass, is sunk by two salvoes from HMS Lion, flagship of Admiral Sir David Beatty, during the Battle of Heligoland Bight. Rear‑Admiral Maass, his Flag Captain and all but one of his crew perish. The centrepiece of the memorial to the officers and men of SMS Cöln at the Eigelstein Gate, just a few minutes’ walk from Cologne main train station, is the shattered remnants of one of the ship’s lifeboats.
Saturday, 5 September 1914 An unchanged Everton complete a brace of victories on opposition territory, winning 1:0 at Newcastle United in front of 12,000 frustrated home fans. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	The Retreat from Mons comes to a halt south of the River Marne. It is the eve of the great French counterattack, the First Battle of the Marne, in which the British will play a minor, albeit important, role.
Monday, 7 September 1914 Unchanged for the third match in a row, Everton have a hat-trick of away victories in their sights, but falter, going down 1:0 at Burnley. Attendance: 20,000.	The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) advance eight miles towards the River Marne, re‑crossing it the next day. The ensuing British assault on a vulnerable section of the German front is instrumental in forcing the enemy to abandon the battlefield in confusion on 10 September. This reverse thwarts the German dream of achieving rapid victory over France in the West before concentrating their forces against Russia in the East, and ultimately dooms them to total defeat.
Saturday, 12 September 1914 Everton’s first home match of the season in front of 14,000 spectators falls flat, with party‑poopers Middlesbrough emerging victorious by the odd goal in five. Tommy Nuttall makes his first appearance of the season, deputizing for Frank Jefferis, and Billy Palmer replaces George Harrison on the left wing. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker (2).	The Battle of the Aisne, 12-28 September 1914, commences, with the British and French pursuing the retreating Germans over the River Aisne and beyond. The engagement ends in stalemate and the so‑called Race to the Sea begins.
Saturday, 19 September 1914 A 1:0 reverse at Sheffield United in front of 20,000 home supporters completes a dismal hat‑trick of defeats for the unchanged Blues.	Posthumous Victoria Cross [i] Captain Harry Ranken, aged 31, Royal Army Medical Corps. Citation On 19 and 20 September 1914 at Haute‑Avesnes, France, Captain Ranken was severely wounded in the leg whilst attending to his duties on the battlefield under shrapnel and rifle fire. He arrested the bleeding from this and bound it up, then continued to dress the wounds of his men, sacrificing his own chance of survival to their needs. When he finally permitted himself to be carried to the rear his case had become almost desperate and he died within a short period.
Saturday, 26 September 1914 An Everton crowd of 20,000 witness a 0:0 draw at home to the previous season’s First Division runners‑up, Aston Villa, as the Blues secure their first point in four matches. At left half, Alan Grenyer makes way for long‑serving stalwart Harry Makepeace in the starting eleven, with Frank Jefferis returning to the side in place of Tommy Nuttall.	Shot at dawn [ii] Private George Ward, aged 20, 1st Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment, is executed for cowardice. Four days earlier on the morning of 22 September 1914, U9, a German U‑boat under Lieutenant‑Commander Otto von Weddigen, the first feted submarine commander in the history of naval warfare, sinks the British cruisers HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue off the Belgian coast. Of the 2000 officers and men aboard these three ships 1400 men perish.
Saturday, 3 October 1914 It’s as you were on the Everton line-up front as the rampant Toffees thrash the living daylights out of Liverpool, triumphing 5:0 at Anfield. A crowd of 32,000 witness this, the heaviest defeat the Blues have ever had the pleasure of inflicting on the Anfielders on their own second‑hand patch. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2).	It is the eve of the ultimately futile Anglo‑Belgian defence of Antwerp, an action which costs the British Royal Naval Division 2600 killed, wounded and missing, of whom 1479 were interned in neutral Holland and 936 captured by the Germans.
Saturday, 10 October 1914 The Blues remain unchanged for the third match in succession and the good times, they are well and truly a‑rolling as Everton put four past First Division newcomers Bradford Park Avenue at Goodison before a home crowd of 20,000, conceding one in return. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Sam Chedgzoy, James Galt.	The last of the Antwerp forts surrenders to the Germans. The bulk of the BEF and the Belgian Army succeed in retreating on Ypres, universally known as “Wipers” in the parlance of the linguistically challenged Tommies. The immortal Ypres Salient is born. Against all the odds, it is, at a terrible cost in lives, held by the British Army to the bitter end. It is primarily here in the fields of Belgian Flanders and on the Somme pastures in Northern France that the flower of Australian, Canadian, English, German, Irish, New Zealand, Scottish, South African, Ulster and Welsh manhood would perish in the four years of merciless Anglo‑German battles of attrition which would ensue.
Saturday, 17 October 1914 With long-time bit-part Everton player Bobby Simpson deputizing for Bobby Thompson at right‑back, the Toffees snatch a point in a 1:1 draw at high‑flying Oldham Athletic in front of 13,400 spectators. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	Next day, the German East Asiatic commerce‑raiding squadron comprising five warships under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee sails from the Chilean port of Valparaiso, the town in which CD Everton of Chile were founded on 24 June 1909, intent on engaging and destroying Admiral Craddock’s West Indies squadron.
Saturday, 24 October 1914 Lowly Manchester United slump to a 4:2 reverse against an unchanged Everton side at Goodison in front of a crowd of 15,000. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Harry Makepeace and Billy Parker.	The Belgians retreat on Diksmuide. Next day they open the Yser Canal locks, flooding the surrounding countryside for miles around and forcing the Germans to concentrate all their offensive efforts on Ypres to the south. Three days later in the Neuve Chapelle sector to the south, the Germans fire 3000 shrapnel shells containing a nose and eye irritant as well as bullets. This is the first battlefield experiment with chemicals in the history of warfare.
Saturday, 31 October 1914 There are no changes in the Everton line‑up as the travelling Blues are held to a 0:0 draw by Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park in front of 10,000 spectators.	Crisis point during First Ypres: the Germans take Gheluvelt and break the British line. The Worcesters save the day by plugging the line and fighting the enemy to a standstill. Corporal Adolf Hitler, 1st Company, 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, 6th Bavarian Division, VI German Army, wins the Iron Cross 2nd Class for rescuing a badly wounded officer while under heavy fire at Wytschaete, near Ypres. Victoria Cross Sepoy Khudadad Kahn, aged 26, 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis, Indian Army, Hollebeke, near Ypres. The first native-born Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Citation On 31 October 1914 at Hollebeke, Belgium, Sepoy Khudadad Khan was in the machine‑gun section of his battalion and was working one of the two guns. The British officer in charge of the detachment was wounded and the other gun was put out of action by a shell. Sepoy Khudadad Khan, although himself wounded, continued working his gun after all the other five men of the detachment had been killed. He was left by the enemy for dead, but later managed to crawl away and rejoin his unit.
Saturday, 7 November 1914 A home crowd of 25,000 are left badly in need of liquid succour as an unchanged Everton side suffer a 3:1 home reverse at the hands of reigning League Champions Blackburn. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker.	Three days earlier, in the East African theatre of operations, Colonel Paul von Lettow‑Vorbeck’s heavily outnumbered German forces rout the British under General Aitken during the Battle of Tanga, German East Africa. British and German casualties total 847 and 148 respectively. Posthumous Victoria Cross Captain John Franks Vallentin, aged 32, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, Zillebeke, near Ypres. Citation On 7 November 1914 at Zillebeke, Belgium, when leading an attack against the Germans under very heavy fire, Captain Vallentin was struck down and on rising to continue the attack, was immediately killed. The capture of the enemy's trenches which immediately followed was in a great measure due to the confidence which the men had in their captain, arising from his many previous acts of great bravery and ability.
Saturday, 14 November 1914 With Bobby Thompson ousting Bobby Simpson from the side at right‑back and George Harrison returning to the left wing, Everton feature in yet another 0:0 draw, this time in front of a crowd of 10,000 at the new kids on the First Division block, Notts County, the 1913/14 Second Division Champions.	Three days earlier, under orders to drive back and crush the enemy, Prussian Guards lead the last determined German assault on the Anglo-French positions in the Ypres Salient. The assault is stymied and the crisis at First Ypres finally subsides. It has essentially been a soldier's battle, memorably epitomized in the words of General J. E. Edmonds, the official British Great War historian: "The line that stood between the British Empire and ruin was composed of tired, haggard and unshaven men, unwashed, plastered with mud, many in little more than rags." This feriocious clash of arms costs the BEF a total of 58,000 casualties, the French 50,000 and the Germans 130,000. The German failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough results in stalemate and trench warfare from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier.
Saturday, 21 November 1914 Unchanged Everton return to winning ways with a vengeance, thrashing Sunderland 7:1 at Goodison, a turkey‑shoot witnessed by a crowd of 15,000. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2), George Harrison and Frank Jefferis.	In the Meopotamian theatre, modern-day Iraq, then part and parcel of the Ottoman Empire, which had declared war on Britain, France and Russia on 5 November, in a campaign on which the British had embarked to protect their oil interests in the region, British forces, at a cost of 500 casualties to the 1000 suffered by the Turks, seize Basra, now Al‑Basrah, and its oilfield, a capture of immense strategic importance given that it was this oilfield which supplied most of the Royal Nay’s oil.
Saturday, 28 November 1914 Bobby Parker runs riot as Sheffield Wednesday are the next set of lambs for the Everton slaughter, slumping to a 4:1 home defeat at the hands of an unchanged Blues side. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker (4).	Victoria Cross Commander Henry Peel Ritchie, aged 38, Royal Navy. Citation Commander Ritchie of HMS Goliath was in command of the searching and demolition operations a Dar‑es‑Salaam, Tanzania. He had fitted out a steam pinnace for the execution of this task and, accompanied by two other small craft, entered the harbour. At first there was no reaction from the enemy, but suddenly they were met by a storm of shells and bullets from all directions. The commander was hit eight times in twenty minutes, but in spite of his wounds he carried on until at last he fainted from loss of blood.
Saturday, 5 December 1914 Fielding the same line‑up for the fourth encounter in succession, Everton secure a third successive victory, defeating West Bromwich Albion 2:1 at Goodison in front of a crowd of 22,000. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, Bobby Parker.	On the Mesopotamian front, Anglo‑Indian forces amass 2100 troops for a cross‑river assault next day on Turkish positions in Qurna, a town at the junction of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris and the legendary site of the Garden of Eden. Three days later, four German cruisers, including Admiral Spee’s flagship, SMS Scharnhorst, are sunk by Vice‑Admiral Sturdee’s British squadron during the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Only the German light cruiser SMS Dresden escapes destruction. 2200 German sailors are lost.
Saturday, 12 December 1914 Hat‑trick hero Bobby Parker stars as Everton extend their unbeaten run to five matches. This time it is Manchester City who are on the receiving end of another emphatic home display by the Blues, going down 4:1 before 20,000 Goodison fans. Deputizing for Tommy Fleetwood, Scottish right‑half Billy Brown debuts for Everton after having recently joined the club from Partick Thistle, and Billy Wareing makes his first appearance of the season, replacing Harry Makepeace at left-half. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell.	British GHQ issues the order for the British Third Division to assist the French in their assault on Wytschaete (“White Sheet” to the Tommies) and beyond on 14 December. There are no artillery preparations and the assault degenerates into a complete fiasco. The two attacking battalions of the British Third Division, 1st Gordon Highlanders and 2nd Royal Scots, suffer a total of 358 casualties for no material gain whatsoever.
Saturday, 19 December 1914 With both Harry Makepeace and Tommy Fleetwood returning to the first‑team fold the travelling Toffees are back to full strength. Nevertheless, the Everton juggernaut shudders to a halt as the Blues suffer a surprising 2:0 defeat in front of a crowd of 18,000 at down‑among‑the‑dead‑men Chelsea.	The second day of the Battle of Givenchy, a British-held village in Pas-de-Calais, witnesses units of the Indian Corps assault and capture two lines of German trenches. However, their success is short‑lived and they are ousted by swift and determined enemy counterattacks. The action lasts from 18-22 December and costs 4000 British and Indian casualties. Not a single square yard of ground is gained. Posthumous Victoria Cross Lieutenant William Arthur McCrae Bruce, aged 24, 59th Scinde Rifles, Indian Army. Citation On 19 December 1914 near Givenchy, France, during a night attack, Lieutenant Bruce was in command of a small party which captured one of the enemy trenches. In spite of being wounded in the neck he walked up and down the trench encouraging his men to hold out against several counterattacks until he was killed. The fire from rifles and bombs was very heavy all day and it was due to his example and encouragement that the men were able to hold out until dusk when the trench was finally captured by the enemy. Posthumous Victoria Cross Private James Mackenzie, aged 25, 2nd Battalion, The Scots Guards. Citation On 19 December 1914 at Rouges Bancs, France, Private Mackenzie rescued a severely wounded man from the front of the German trenches under a very heavy fire and after a stretcher party had been compelled to abandon the attempt. Private Mackenzie was killed later on that day while trying to carry out a similar act. Victoria Cross Lieutenant Phillip Neame, aged 26, 15th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Later Sir Phillip, he was a member of Great Britain’s 1924 Olympic Running Deer Team at Paris and is the only VC recipient who has won an Olympic Gold Medal. Citation On 19 December 1914 at Neuve Chapelle, France, Lieutenant Neame, in the face of very heavy fire, engaged the Germans in a single‑handed bombing attack, killing and wounding a number of them. He was able to check the enemy advance for three-quarters of an hour and to rescue all the wounded whom it was possible to move. Shot at dawn Private Archibald Browne, aged 26, 2nd Battalion, The Essex Regiment, is executed for desertion.
Christmas Day, 1914 Fielding an unchanged side, Everton miss the opportunity to play Santa Claus for 20,000 supporters, dropping a point in a 1:1 home draw with Bradford City. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	The 1914 Christmas Truce Merry Christmas/Fröhliche Weihnachten Widespread fraternization between British and German front‑line soldiers is the order of the day, with several impromptu football matches being staged between the opposing forces in no‑man’s land. One contemporary eye‑witness report states that “a battalion of the 10th Brigade on our left arranged a football match against a German team, one of their number having contacted in the opposing unit a fellow member of his local football club in Liverpool.” Rifleman Andrew (centre) and Rifleman Grigg (right), London Rifle Brigade, photographed in no‑man’s land with Saxons from the German 104th and 106th Regiments, Christmas Day 1914.
Boxing Day, 1914 In the traditional next-day return fixture, the Toffees arrive bearing cold turkey for their hosts, Bradford City, and a home crowd numbering 30,000, with the same Everton eleven stealing both points in a narrow 1:0 victory. Everton scorer: Sam Chedgzoy.	Along most of the Anglo-German front, Yuletide fraternization continues virtually unabated.
New Year’s Day 1915 The Blues forfeit yet another home point, this time in a disappointing 1:1 draw against struggling Tottenham Hotspur. 17,000 Blues fans depart Goodison in need of a New Year’s Day hair of the dog. Replacing Frank Jefferis in attack alongside Bobby Parker, twenty‑two‑year‑old local lad Billy Kirsopp makes a scoring debut for the Toffees after having joined the club from the ranks of junior football in April 1914. Everton scorer: debut boy Billy Kirsopp.	HMS Formidable, a pre-dreadnought warship, is torpedoed in the English Channel with the loss of 547 officers and men. Vice‑Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly is subsequently convicted of negligence in having led his squadron down Channel on a steady course at no more than ten knots, and ordered to strike his flag.
Saturday, 2 January 1915 The Blues make amends for the previous day’s failure, thrashing Newcastle United 3:0 at Goodison in front of 20,000 happy Everton campers. Billy Brown once again deputizes for Tommy Fleetwood, while in his first Everton appearance of the season and his last for the club, fringe player John Houston, a full Irish international, enters the fray for Sam Chedgzoy. Everton scorers: George Harrison, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker.	Lord Kitchener, the British Minister of War, receives an appeal from Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia for a diversion which would relieve the Turkish pressure on the Russians in the Caucasus. Unable to supply troops, Kitchener proposes a naval demonstration against the Dardanelles Straits. This is the origin of the abortive Gallipoli campaign which will cost the Allies 35,700 dead and 107,600 wounded.
Saturday, 9 January 1915 It’s FA Cup first round time and, with Tommy Fleetwood and Sam Chedgzoy returning to the side, the Blues make no mistake, dismissing second division Barnsley 3:0 at Goodison. Everton scorers: James Galt (2), Bobby Parker.	In a memorandum penned two days previously Admiral Hugo von Pohl presses the case for unrestricted submarine warfare.
Saturday, 16 January 1915 A home crowd of 7500 gather to witness Everton, despite fielding an unchanged full‑strength side, come badly unstuck at mid‑table Middlesbrough, slumping to a shock 5:1 defeat, their heaviest reverse of the campaign. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker.	Three days later, with the permission of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Germans launch the first of many Zeppelin raids against the British mainland. Two civilians are killed and sixteen injured.
Saturday, 23 January 1915 Shorn of the talents of free-scoring Bobby Parker and his able side-kick Billy Kirsopp in attack, Everton scrape a 0:0 home draw versus Sheffield United, a disappointing result witnessed by 18,000 spectators. Parker is replaced by Billy Wright, a recent acquisition from St. Mirren making his first appearance in the royal blue jersey. Tommy Nuttall and Billy Palmer step into the breach for Billy Kirsopp and George Harrison respectively, while Bobby Simpson replaces John Maconnachie at left‑back.	In the North Sea, Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battle‑cruiser squadron sets sail to repeat the 16 December bombardment of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool, during the course of which 122 civilians had been killed and 443 injured. However, early next morning his forces are intercepted at Dogger Bank by Admiral Sir David Beatty’s squadron, which halts and sinks the hybrid battle‑cruiser SMS Blücher and severely damages Admiral Hipper’s flagship, SMS Seydlitz. 984 German sailors are lost.
Saturday, 30 January 1915 Everton halt their slump in form, demolishing second division Bristol City 4:0 at Goodison in the FA Cup second round. Bobby Parker and Billy Kirsopp mark goal‑scoring returns to the attacking Everton fold, while utility man Billy Wareing deputizes for club captain James Galt at centre-half. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker, Billy Wareing.	Private A. Pitts, age unknown, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, is court‑martialled for desertion after having fled the line under fire near Zillebeke in the Ypres Salient on 24 October 1914. He is convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad.
Saturday, 6 February 1915 Despite the fact that the return to the team of club captain James Galt and first‑choice left‑back John Maconnachie means that Everton are at full strength for the return clash with their neighbours from across Stanley Park, it’s Derby Day misery for the Toffees as the Anfielders triumph 3:1 at Goodison in front of 30,000 spectators. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell.	Shot at dawn Private Joseph Byers, aged 16, and Private Andrew Evans, age unknown, 1st Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers, are executed for desertion. Private Byers, who had claimed to be nineteen upon his enlistment in November 1914, is the first Kitchener volunteer to be executed.
Wednesday, 10 February 1915 In his one and only appearance for the Toffeemen the only Welshman to grace Everton’s colours during this Championship‑winning season, James Roberts, signed from Crewe Alexandra in 1914, deputizes for Billy Palmer on the left wing as Aston Villa feel the backlash from Everton’s Derby Day blues, suffering a resounding 5:1 home defeat in front of a crowd numbering just 4,500. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), James Galt, Billy Kirsopp.	Three days later, Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander‑in‑Chief of the BEF, approves General Douglas Haig’s plan for an all‑British “battering-ram” attack against the enemy positions at Neuve Chapelle involving 40,000 men, a numerical superiority over the sparse German defenders in the line of thirty‑five to one, and the strongest concentration of artillery guns per yard ever assembled in the history of warfare.
Saturday, 20 February 1915 A crowd of 33,000 assemble at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground to witness Everton defeat QPR 2:1 in an FA Cup third round tie. George Harrison returns to the left-wing slot for the Blues. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, own goal.	Four days previously, in defiance of International Law, Germany declares that the waters surrounding the British Isles constitute a war zone in which "every merchant vessel will be destroyed without it being possible to avoid damage to the crews and passengers", it being "impossible to avoid attacks being made on neutral ships in mistake for those of the enemy." Unrestricted submarine warfare begins, though, in this first instance, it will be short‑lived.
Saturday, 27 February 1915 There are no changes in the Everton line‑up as the Toffeemen complete a league double over the ailing Red Devils, triumphing 2:1 at Old Trafford in front of 10,000 spectators. Everton scorers: George Harrison, Bobby Parker.	Two days earlier, an Anglo-French naval attack in the Dardanelles Straits from close range fails to silence the twenty‑four mobile Turkish batteries protecting the minefield defence of the Straits from the heights above.
Saturday, 6 March 1915 An unchanged Everton side make it four straight wins out of four in the FA Cup, with a crowd of 26,000 witnessing Bradford City’s 2:0 defeat at Valley Parade. Everton scorers: Sam Chedgzoy, Joe Clennell.	Shot at dawn Private James Briggs, age unknown, 2nd Battalion, The Border Regiment, and Private Ernest Kirk, aged 24, 1st Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment, are executed for desertion.
Saturday, 13 March 1915 Billy Wareing replaces James Galt at centre‑half for the Toffeemen as a crowd of 20,000 see Everton suffer a 2:1 reverse at Blackburn Rovers, their first defeat since the Goodison Derby debacle. Everton scorer: Billy Kirsopp.	The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, which began on 10 March, comes to an end. The four British attacking divisions involved in this, the first planned British offensive of the war, suffer a total of 11,652 casualties for precious little material gain. Next day, HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent open fire on the German light cruiser SMS Dresden anchored at Mas a Fuera, one of the Juan Fernandez islands off the Chilean coast. She is subsequently scuttled by Captain Lüdecke, who escapes to neutral territory with his crew.
Wednesday, 17 March 1915 With Billy Wareing still deputizing for club captain James Galt and Alan Grenyer, Billy Palmer and Billy Wright, the latter in his second and final appearance for the club, replacing Harry Makepeace, Sam Chedgzoy and Joe Clennell respectively, a crowd of just 8000 witness an under‑strength Everton forfeit two vital home points, faring second best in a seven‑goal thriller at home to title rivals Oldham. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Billy Kirsopp.	Next day, the British and French launch their final naval effort to clear the minefields, force the Dardanelles Straits and pave the way for an assault on Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The outcome is a debacle involving the loss of HMS Inflexible, HMS Irresistible and HMS Ocean on the British side and the French service ships Bouvet and Gaulois.
Saturday, 20 March 1915 Goalkeeper Tommy Fern, left‑back John Maconnachie and right‑half Tommy Fleetwood are replaced by stopgap men, Scotsman Frank Mitchell, Louis Weller and Billy Brown, another representative from Everton’s Scottish contingent, but Harry Makepeace and Joe Clennell make a welcome return to the side as the Toffees duly trounce Notts County 4:0 at Goodison in front of a crowd of 10,000, securing a much‑needed brace of league points in the process. Everton scorers: Billy Kirsopp (2), Joe Clennell, Bobby Parker.	Some German prisoners are taken in the southern sector of the Ypres Salient. Ominously, under interrogation they reveal extensive details of the enemy’s intention to launch a chlorine gas attack a month hence. The onset of chemical warfare is nigh. The German positions from which the gas is eventually released at 05.00 p.m. on 22 April 1915, the opening scene of the Second Battle of Ypres, are now marked by a commemorative roadside cross. Lasting until the end of May 1915, Second Ypres costs the British 59,000 casualties.
Monday, 22 March 1915 Bolton are next to come under the Goodison cosh, suffering an emphatic 5:3 reverse in front of a poor attendance numbering just 5000. Tommy Fleetwood returns to the side and Bobby Simpson, Alan Grenyer and Liverpool‑born Everton debut boy Horace Howarth replace Louis Weller, Harry Makepeace and Billy Kirsopp respectively. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2).	The previous night the Germans launch their first Zeppelin raid on Paris, killing one and injuring eight civilians.
Saturday, 27 March 1915 A crowd of 22,000 spectators watch the high‑flying Blues squander their chances of a league and cup double. James Galt, Harry Makepeace, Sam Chedgzoy and Billy Kirsopp all return to the Everton side but, reduced to ten men with the injury‑induced departure of Harry Makepeace in his final appearance for the club after just ten minutes, the Toffees suffer a 2:0 reverse at the hands of relegation‑threatened Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.	Two days previously, in response to the telegraphed threat to the Gallipoli Peninsula posed by the disembarkation of large numbers of British and Anzac troops in Egypt, Enver Pascha, Head of the Ottoman Empire, tasks the head of the German Military Mission in Turkey, Colonel Liman von Sanders, with the formation of a separate army for the defence of the Dardanelles.
Friday, 2 April 1915 Alan Grenyer replaces Harry Makepeace and Tommy Fern makes a welcome return between the sticks, but Everton’s woes continue, this time in a 2:0 home defeat versus Burnley.	More German prisoners taken in the Ypres Salient at the beginning end of March and the beginning of April confirm the planned launch of a chlorine gas attack in that sector, providing full details of the gas cylinders which had been placed in the German front‑line trenches and the gas discharge method. These reiterated warnings of the imminent onset of large‑scale chemical warfare fall on deaf ears.
Saturday, 3 April 1915 Billy Palmer for Sam Chedgzoy is the only change in the Everton line‑up as the Blues suffer their second home defeat in two days, going down 1:0 to Sheffield Wednesday and slumping to fifth in the table. With four straight away games looming, the Championship is now looking a distant prospect indeed for the Toffeemen.	Three days previously, a British auxiliary cruiser sailing under a Swedish flag attacks and sinks U29 commanded by the celebrated Lieutenant‑Commander Otto von Weddigen of U9 fame. All hands are lost.
Tuesday, 6 April 1915 The Toffees soothe their wounded pride at Sunderland, registering a resounding 3:0 away victory in front of 10,000 home fans, with Louis Weller and Billy Wareing deputizing for Bobby Simpson and James Galt in the Everton line-up. One down, three to go. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Billy Kirsopp.	On the colonial front, having succeeded in evading the British blockade, a German supply ship is heading for Tanga, German East Africa. It arrives four days later bearing large quantities of desperately needed arms, ammunition, equipment, provisions and, in the shape of the ship's crew, reinforcements for the beleaguered German garrison under the command of former Colonel and now General Paul von Lettow‑Vorbeck. Hopelessly outnumbered or no, on not one single occasion do his forces finish second best in an engagement with the British in four years of bitterly contested guerrilla warfare, remaining unvanquished until the very end. In recognition of his truly remarkable generalship and exploits in this far‑flung theatre of Great War operations, General von Lettow‑Vorbeck is feted as a national hero when he eventually returns to his native soil. General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
Saturday, 10 April 1915 Two down, two to go: in his final appearance for the club, Bobby Simpson replaces Bobby Thompson at right‑back and Billy Brown comes into the side for Tommy Fleetwood, who makes a rare appearance in attack deputizing for the absent goal‑getter Bobby Parker, as Everton register another league double, defeating West Bromwich Albion 2:1 at the Hawthorns in front of 8748 Baggies followers. It is also Billy Palmer’s final outing in a royal blue jersey. Everton scorers: Tommy Fleetwood, George Harrison.	The British 171st Tunnelling Company completes the tunnels underneath the German stronghold Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient. Explosive charges are packed into the twin chambers of tunnels M1 and M2 and the single chambers of tunnels  M3 and M3A, all of which terminate just in front of the German front line.
Wednesday, 14 April 1915 It’s musical chairs in the Everton line‑up as Bobby Thompson replaces Bobby Simpson, Tommy Fleetwood returns to his usual slot at right‑half, James Galt re-enters the side at centre‑half, Billy Wareing deputizes for Alan Grenyer, who plays at inside‑left in lieu of Joe Clennell, Sam Chedgzoy replaces Billy Palmer and Tommy Nuttall features at centre‑forward for the still‑absent Bobby Parker. Under these trying circumstances, Everton do well to defeat Bradford Park Avenue 2:1 on their own Park Avenue patch in front of 6000 spectators, registering yet another league double in the process. Three down, one to go. Everton are back. Everton scorers: Alan Grenyer, Billy Kirsopp.	On the Mesopotamian front, the British rout the Turks in the final clashes of the Battle of Shaiba. Five thousand men on each side are involved. The British suffer 1200 casualties, the Turks 2400.
Saturday, 17 April 1915 Everton again field a reshuffled side, with Alan Grenyer returning to right‑half, Tommy Nuttall, in his final appearance in Everton’s colours, moving to inside‑right for Sam Chedgzoy and both Bobby Parker and Joe Clennell making welcome returns to the attack, as, to the disappointment of the majority of the 30,000 spectators present, Manchester City are the next outfit to suffer their second league defeat of the season at the hands of the in-form Toffeemen, losing 1:0 at Hyde Road. This fourth away victory in succession means that Lazarus-like Everton are back on the Championship trail with a vengeance. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell.	At 7:05 p.m. three officers of the 1st Tunnelling Company detonate the mines in front of the German trenches on Hill 60. The position is subsequently stormed and taken by British infantry units. A German counterattack that same evening regains the hill, but it is retaken by the British in a fresh attack the next morning.
Saturday, 24 April 1915 Oldham, having lost their final match of the season at home to Liverpool two days previously, are level with Everton on forty‑four points, meaning that a draw in their last match of the season at home to Chelsea will see the Blues pip their Lancashire rivals at the title post. There is only one change in the Everton line‑up, Sam Chedgzoy for Tommy Nuttall, as the Toffees duly do just enough to secure the League Championship, squandering a 2:0 lead to draw 2:2 in front of 30,000 Goodison supporters, a result which also dooms Chelsea to relegation along with bottom‑placed Tottenham, sweet FA Cup semi‑final revenge indeed for the Toffees. However, it would be Chelsea who would have the last laugh due to the fact that upon the resumption of league football in 1919 the First Division was enlarged from twenty to twenty‑two clubs, and Chelsea, though not Tottenham, would be spared the drop. Indeed, Everton’s opening post‑bellum First Division fixture was at home to Chelsea on 30 August 1919, an encounter from which the Londoners emerged victorious by three goals to two. Having featured in all but six of Everton’s league games in his one and only campaign at Goodison, club captain James Galt makes his final appearance for the Toffees in this Championship‑clinching match. Everton scorers: Tommy Fleetwood, Bobby Parker.	Victoria Cross Lieutenant Edward Donald Bellew, aged 32, 7th Battalion, British Columbia Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Citation On 24 April 1915 near Kerselaere, Belgium, the advance of the enemy was temporarily stayed by Lieutenant Bellew, the battalion machine-gun officer, who had two guns in action on high ground when the enemy's attack broke in full force. Reinforcements which were sent forward having been destroyed, and with the enemy less than 100 yards away and no further assistance in sight, Lieutenant Bellew and a sergeant decided to fight it out. The sergeant was killed and Lieutenant Bellew wounded, nevertheless, he maintained his fire until his ammunition failed, when he seized a rifle, smashed his machine-gun and, fighting to the last, was taken prisoner. Posthumous Victoria Cross Company Sergeant‑Major Frederick William Hall, aged 30, 8th Manitoba Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Citation On 24 April 1915, near Ypres, Belgium when a wounded man, who was lying some fifteen yards from the trench, called for help, Company Sergeant-Major Hall endeavoured to reach him in the face of very heavy enfilade fire by the enemy. He then made a second most gallant attempt, and was in the act of lifting up the wounded man to bring him in when he fell mortally wounded in the head. Shot at dawn Early next morning, while the Everton players and supporters are still nursing their Championship hangovers, Driver John Bell, age unknown, 57th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, is executed for desertion. That same morning, following the failure of the Anglo-French naval efforts to force the Dardanelles Straits, large British, Anzac and French infantry forces land at Cape Helles, Ari Burnu (Anzac Cove) and Kum Kale respectively, signalling the onset of the ill‑fated Gallipoli campaign.

1914/15 facts and figures

The First Division had been increased from eighteen to twenty clubs for the start of the 1905/6 campaign. In the ten seasons in which it existed in that form, Everton’s 1914/15 Championship haul of forty-five points was the lowest ever recorded, four fewer than the next lowest of forty‑nine achieved by Blackburn Rovers in season 1911/12 and nine fewer than the record haul of fifty-four points achieved by Sunderland in season 1912/13. During the course of the 1914/15 league season in which, according to Tony Brown and Andy Ellis in their database Everton F.C. 1887-1999. A Year-by-Year History, Everton’s average home gate totalled 16,263, the Blues, fielding a total of twenty‑four players, all but seven of them English (and of these seven four, Billy Brown, John Houston, Frank Mitchell and James Palmer, were but bit‑part players mustering a grand total of eight league appearances between them), notched doubles over Bradford Park Avenue, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, registering nine home wins and eleven away wins, six home defeats, five away defeats and a total of eight draws, five at home and three away, in the process, and twice suffered defeats at the hands of Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Middlesbrough. All in all, the Toffeemen netted forty‑seven goals at Goodison and thirty‑two on opposition territory, conceding twenty‑nine at home and eighteen on their travels in return. In the FA Cup, notching and conceding a total of eleven and three goals respectively, the Blues recorded two home and two away successes before succumbing 2:0 to Chelsea in the semi‑final at Villa Park.

1914/15 Everton appearances (with goals in brackets)

                                    League           FA Cup

Billy Brown                   4

Sam Chedgzoy           30(2)                5(1)

Joe Clennell                 36(14)              5(3)

Tommy Fern                36                     4

Tommy Fleetwood      35(2)                 5

James Galt                   32(2)                4(2)

Alan Grenyer                14(1)

George Harrison         26(4)                 4

John Houston              1

Horace Howarth          1

Frank Jefferis              18(4)

Billy Kirsopp                16(9)                5(1)

John Maconnachie     28                     3

Harry Makepeace       23(1)                5

Frank Mitchell              2                       1

Tommy Nuttall              5

Billy Palmer                 17(1)

Bobby Parker              35(36)              5(2)

James Roberts           1

Bobby Simpson          9                      2

Bobby Thompson       33                    5

Billy Wareing               8                      1(1)

Louis Weller                6

Billy Wright                  2.

Of the players who took the field in Everton’s colours during the club’s 1914/15 Championship season, Billy Brown, Sam Chedgzoy, Joe Clennell, Tommy Fern, Tommy Fleetwood, Alan Grenyer, George Harrison, Horace Howarth, Frank Jefferis, Billy Kirsopp, John Maconnachie, Frank Mitchell, Bobby Parker, James Roberts, Bobby Thompson, Billy Wareing and Louis Weller were all still on the club’s books when league football recommenced at the end of August 1919, though James Roberts failed to make the first‑team grade and was transferred to Tranmere Rovers in 1920.
With regard to the others, in his book Everton Football Club 1878-1946 John Rowlands states that Championship‑winning captain James Galt returned from the Great War suffering from severe shell shock and never kicked a ball in anger again, though my Everton records indicate that he was in fact transferred to Third Lanark in October 1920.
Belfast‑born John Houston, the only player hailing from the Emerald Isle to feature in an Everton eleven during the 1914/15 title‑winning campaign, was transferred to Linfield in 1915. In view of  the fact that I have no record of his movements subsequent to this transfer, or his date of death, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he was a Great War casualty. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists forty‑four J. Houstons who fell in the First World War from 1915 onwards, only two of whom served with Irish units. If he was indeed killed in the Great War, it is likely that he was one or other of these two fallen Irish soldiers: 6173 Rifleman John Houston, age unknown, 8th Battalion, The Royal Irish Rifles, killed in action on 2 July 1916, the second day of the 1916 Somme offensive, and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, pier and face 15A and 15B, or 30471 Private J. Houston, age unknown, 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who died of wounds on 22 November 1918 and is buried in Tourcoing (Pont‑Neuville) Communal Cemetery, District of Lille, France.
Following his injury‑induced departure from the field of play very early in the FA Cup semi‑final versus Chelsea at Villa Park on 27 March 1915, Harry Makepeace retired from football altogether and died in December 1957, aged seventy‑one.
Tommy Nuttall was transferred to St. Mirren in 1919.
Billy Palmer was transferred to Bristol Rovers in July 1919.
Redcar‑born Bobby Simpson made his last Everton appearance at West Bromwich Albion on 10 April 1915. I have no record of his subsequent movements or his date of death, meaning that he, too, might have been killed in the Great War. However, given the fact that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists 105 R. Simpsons killed in action during the First World War from 1915 onwards, it is not possible to verify this speculation without further information.
Billy Wright was transferred to Tranmere Rovers in 1915. As in the case of John Houston and Bobby Simpson, I have no record of his subsequent movements or his date of death, meaning that he, too, might have fallen on the field of battle, but in view of the circumstance that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists 407 W. Wrights killed in action during the Great War from 1915 onwards, as with his two 1914/15 team‑mates, this is only speculation which defies verification without additional information.

Postscript

I know of just one confirmed ex-Everton Great War casualty, namely Lance‑Corporal Leigh Richmond Roose MM, 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 19th (Western) Division, who was killed on the Somme on 7 October 1916. While my Everton records do indicate that another former Everton player was killed in action in 1915, namely, left‑back David Murray, born in Glasgow in 1882, who made two appearances for the Blues in a 1:0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 7 November 1903 and a 1:0 home defeat to Sunderland seven days later before crossing Stanley Park in May 1904, I have been unable to verify this assertion. David Murray joined Everton from Rangers some time in 1903, and while a former Rangers player by the name of Private David B. Murray, 8th Battalion, The Seaforth Highlanders, is recorded as having been killed in action on 6 October 1915 (see http://www.geocities.com/gherriott/Rangers.html), the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site records the age of this fallen soldier, who lies in Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, as twenty‑one, meaning that he cannot be the same David Murray who played two games for Everton in November 1903.

Anthony Williams

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[i] During the 1914/15 Football League season, i.e. from Wednesday, 2 September 1914 to Saturday, 24 April 1915, a total of forty-seven Victoria Crosses were awarded, of which fourteen posthumously.

[ii] A total of twenty-nine British soldiers were executed during the 1914/15 Football League season, twenty‑five for desertion, two for murder, one for cowardice and one for quitting his post in the face of the enemy.