It is the weekend of the Merseyside derby, Everton travelling across the city to take on rivals Liverpool on their own turf on Saturday.
With it, and every Liverpudlian derby at Anfield, comes a rather unwanted record for the Toffees and one that the Red half of the city revel in.
It is that Everton have failed to win at Liverpool since Monday, September 27, 1999.
That’s right, it’s nearly 18 years since the Blues left Anfield with bragging rights.
That match will live long in the memory of both fans, it being a feisty affair between two sides that clearly didn’t get on and that full embraced the storied inter-city feud.
AN EARLY DECIDER
On the night, Everton flew out of the traps, striking inside just the fifth minute to send the travelling fans into raptures.
The goal came about thanks to a flick round the corner from Francis Jeffers that caught the Liverpool back-line napping.
Kevin Campbell wasn’t, latching on to his strike-partner’s ball to fire through and underneath Sander Westerveld who would have been disappointed to have conceded.
It turned out to be the winner but probably wasn’t the biggest talking point from the game.
Kevin Campbell fires Everton in front.
FIST FIGHT
In a true hark back to the more rough and ready days of the English Premier League, this game was intense and the players certainly didn’t always play fair.
That was certainly the case when Westerveld and Jeffers both saw red in the second-half.
Jeffers had broken through on goal before Westerveld ran out to clear, the coming together between striker and goalkeeper then sparking both into throwing digs.
Westerveld threw the first punch before Jeffers swung back and the two scuffled.
Predictably – even then – both saw red and their teams were reduced to ten-men.
Westerveld (l) and Jeffers came to blows.
GERRARD MAKES IT TWO
In stoppage-time a then 19-year-old Steven Gerrard became the second Liverpool player to be given his marching orders for an awful waist-high tackle on Campbell.
It was not the derby day introduction Gerrard had wanted and looking back on it now, it was a horror tackle.
Liverpool were lucky to not be nine-men down earlier, Michael Owen getting away with an awful challenge of his own before Gerrard made sure of a second red moments before the final whistle went and Everton tasted a victory that they surely wouldn’t have thought would take more than 17 years [and counting!] to avenge.
