Dan Haygarth couldn’t remember Everton’s last win at Anfield.
For his own health, he had practically accepted that it was destined never to happen again.
On Saturday night, it happened.
Here, he tries to make sense of it.
When Gylfi Sigurdsson slotted his penalty at the Anfield Road end on Saturday night, I wasn’t quite sure how to process it all.
The ecstasy, the unbridled joy of seeing Everton take a comfortable lead at Anfield was a new feeling.
It was one of almost overwhelming exhilaration and pride, but this elation was not unchecked. Nerves did not just remain, they dominated.
For neutrals looking on, there was nothing for Everton to worry about. For those of us on the inside, we knew it wasn’t over yet.
If anything, the evening was going too well. We’d not just managed 83 minutes at Anfield without a disaster, we’d been the better side. We deserved the now-extended lead. Everton had been committed, disciplined and our key players had produced moments of quality when it mattered.
Every rational instinct urged you to relax. At 2-0 against a deflated Liverpool side, this surely was job done. Unfortunately, the recent history of this fixture does not allow for such sensible thinking.
We had come to learn that whenever you think that Everton have run out of ways to lose a derby, a new comical implosion rears its head.
As a result, the idea of watching a modern-day Everton side see out a comfortable Anfield win is so ludicrous that it is almost intangible – particularly for those of us with no living recollection of such an occurrence.
I was two and a half years-old when Kevin Campbell scrambled past Sander Westervelt to hand Everton their last win at Anfield, back in 1999.
Needless to say, I don’t remember that game.
I was 13 when Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta scored to give Everton their last derby win at any location. Fortunately, I remember that one like it was yesterday.
Unfortunately, it was not yesterday.
Over a decade has passed since that perfect Goodison afternoon.
Since then, I’ve trudged into school after several 4-0 derby losses, sat speechless on a coach home from Wembley after Sylvain Distin handed Liverpool a place in the 2012 FA Cup final, cursed Jordan Pickford’s histrionics in 2018, and watched in horror as a glorified Liverpool youth team knocked Everton out of the FA Cup little over a year later.
That list is far from comprehensive.
Each year, the derby menu was a starter of fear, followed by despair and capped off with humiliation – served in whichever way you could fathom. The Anfield derby, in particular, had become the impossible task.
After last season’s FA Cup loss, which saw a Liverpool team of reserves and youth players beat a full strength Everton side, managed by Carlo Ancelotti, I resigned myself to never seeing Everton beat Liverpool, especially at Anfield.
It hadn’t happened at home since 2010, at Anfield in over 20 years. If we could not beat that weakened Liverpool team, would we ever beat them? Was this just an unbreakable curse? Was there actually any point in hoping for a win? The defeats might be much easier to deal with if you expect nothing, anyway.
Yet, as much as we kid ourselves, you cannot quite banish that hope. Despite not witnessing a derby win in 23 attempts, you would not tune into this emotional cocktail each year if it were not for hope.
However, hope comes with an abundance of nerves, especially when everything is going to plan. Here we were, with minutes to play at Anfield. Everton were 2-0 up against Liverpool, the defending champions. A wounded, out of form Liverpool, but Liverpool nonetheless. Everton were on the verge.
Part of me accepted that it was done. Finally.
The rest of me remembered not to be so naïve.
Minutes ticked by slowly. It was still going to plan.
A ‘potential’ hiccup arrived in the 87th minute.
At 2-0 up with three regulation minutes to play, nobody in their right mind should fear the introduction of Divock Origi. Especially when Liverpool’s number 27 has scored one goal all season. Maybe I’m just conditioned to be nervous, to expect the worse. Frankly, I’m not sure that you could blame me.
If a goal goes in at that stage, we would crumble. One Liverpool goal would surely be followed by another. Added time would be tortuous. Origi has previous in this fixture, as well.
A goal did not come. Three regulation and then seven arduous additional minutes passed. Everton saw the game out to claim a famous, battling victory, decades in the making.
Finally, the nerves slipped away. For now, ten years of derby disasters and 22 years of Anfield agony were banished, replaced by joy. Nerves became relief – Everton had done it.
At last. At long last.
For the first time in a decade, we had the bragging rights. The city was ours, but processing such a blissful feeling didn’t come naturally.
Regardless, an outpouring of ecstasy will have occurred in Blue households across the city. A derby victory is like no other and we had basically forgotten how they felt.
If there was one positive to take from waiting 22 years for an Anfield win and 11 to win a derby anywhere was that waiting so long makes it that bit more satisfying, like a finely-aged Scotch.
The victory could not have come at a better time – in the middle of an arduous lockdown, during a season which has seen Everton promise so much and threaten to throw it away.
Recent defeats to Newcastle and Fulham were utterly deflating and a reminder of the dangers of Evertonian optimism. Yet, the derby win reminded us exactly why that hope shouldn’t waver, even though Everton have a funny way of putting you through it.
Saturday was proof that we can do it – it was reason to kill the inferiority complex. Decades of baggage have been dropped, can now be the start of something truly exciting?
For now, after that, why not? For once, Everton performed in the game which matters most and put the race for fourth back on the table. If that doesn’t send you into a childlike state of jubilation and get your mind racing with possibilities, then this might not be for you.
On a footballing level, the team were, and I don’t say this lightly, phenomenal.
It may not have been an all-time great attacking performance, but Everton provided a display of spirit, composure and nous seen so rarely in these parts. It was the sort of performance which wins derbies.
Jordan Pickford pulled out his finest display in years, behind a defence marshalled magnificently by the imperious Michael Keane, featuring Ben Godfrey’s unerring intensity and thunderous tackling, as well as Mason Holgate’s committed and disciplined handling of Sadio Mané.
Tom Davies’ renaissance in the middle of the park continued. The Evertonian was superb in front of the back line, and key to Everton’s tactics – able to turn defence into attack with one pass. Additionally, any derby XI needs a Scouser for us to live through vicariously on a night such as this.
James and Richarlison’s sublime individual quality had swung the game in Everton’s favour before Gylfi Sigurdsson had the temperament to deliver the hammer blow. Heroic, from every one of them, encapsulated in the reactions at the final whistle and rewarded by Duncan Ferguson’s Viking embraces.
A special mention must go to the captain, Seamus Coleman. The Irishman played in Everton’s 2010 victory over Liverpool, but he has been involved in most of the disappointments since.
Carrying more baggage from this fixture than the rest of his team, the captain stepped up. He maybe should have scored a first half diving header, but it wasn’t to matter. Defensively, Coleman nulled the threat of Liverpool’s left-hand side. Most importantly though, he led Everton to this victory – remaining calm when others may not have. Frankly, he deserved this victory as much as anyone.
The importance of this game to Coleman, alongside his intrinsic understanding of Everton Football Club, was encapsulated in a post-match interview with Sky: “It’s an amazing feeling. Coming here all the years and letting ourselves down, but more importantly, letting the Blue side of the city down, it’s been hard.
“We can put a face on it and try and brush it off, but I’ve been in the city for ten years, it’s difficult to take and you feel sorry for the fans. I’m fed up of coming up with the same clichés after losing.
“I thank the manager for the way that he set us up. The players put in an unbelievable shift. That was against the champions, so we’re delighted.
The performance was brought together, as Coleman states, by the man in charge.
Carlo Ancelotti managed the game perfectly – he was tactically faultless.
Everton required only 29% of the ball to beat Liverpool – as ever with Ancelotti, success comes from a strong defence. This was yet another pragmatic away victory, built on the manager’s tactical nous, intelligent formations and belief in his players.
His back four / back five hybrid was the key, but the 62nd minute introduction of Dominic Calvert-Lewin was a masterstroke. Taking advantage of a makeshift Liverpool defence, Everton’s number nine was unplayable. Bullying defenders from long balls, he worked with Richarlison to give Everton an attacking outlet after the defence and midfield were able to soak up Liverpool’s rather impotent pressure.
Calvert-Lewin’s introduction, though, was exactly the type of bold move which, once upon a time, would have felt very un-Everton. Bringing on another forward while leading at Anfield allowed Ancelotti’s side to go in for the kill, displaying a level of ambition and belief not present among any of the manager’s recent predecessors.
I guess that’s what Carlo does.
The Italian has already brought more to Everton than he would ever acknowledge. For those of us too young to remember the glory days, he is a pertinent reminder of the size of Everton Football Club and its ambition. The sight of James Rodríguez in royal blue is testament to that.
Though frustrating results and disastrous losses remain (this is a work in progress), he has transformed the feeling of the club.
After inheriting a timid side which often collapsed at the first sign of resistance, he has built a team which has beaten Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester, Wolves and now Liverpool all in one campaign. This season, big games are to be relished, not feared.
At Anfield, he has achieved in two attempts what David Moyes, Roberto Martínez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allarydce and Marco Silva failed to do across two decades.
He’s masterminded the club’s most euphoric night in some time, a night which lifted the spirits of the Blues to levels not felt for years.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton beat Liverpool at Anfield and remain in the running for European qualification.
That is a statement which remains as exciting as it is inherently ludicrous.
On Saturday night, Everton Football Club turned a corner. We proved that we can beat Liverpool, that we can win at Anfield.
It can happen, I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
At long last.
Feature image: Twitter – @everton
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