Jermaine Beckford’s solitary full season at Everton is perhaps best-remembered for his final goal against Chelsea but it’s netting against Liverpool in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield that the striker regards as the personal highlight he still thinks about on a daily basis over a decade on. Beckford, now 38, was snapped up by David Moyes on a Bosman-style free transfer in 2010 when his contract at then League One Leeds United expired.
A prolific scorer for the Yorkshire side in the third tier (netting 72 goals over the previous three seasons), he would ultimately score 10 times in 40 outings for Everton and while he enjoyed his length of the pitch solo strike against the west London club who let him go as a youngster, it was putting his side ahead across Stanley Park that the Ealing-born retired player most cherishes. Raul Meireles put Liverpool ahead on 29 minutes but after Sylvain Distin equalised just after the second half began, Beckford put the Blues 2-1 up on 52 minutes in a game that would finish 2-2 after Dirk Kuyt earned a share of the spoils with a 68 th minute penalty.
Beckford told Everton’s matchday programme the moment was the highlight of his time at the club and said: “It’s at the top! I loved it and I want to re-live it every single day.
“Walking out of the tunnel at Anfield and seeing the stadium opening up was a goosebump moment. I looked at my royal blue jersey and I thought, ‘We’re going to war here’, and it was an incredible feeling. The atmosphere was so hostile and you could cut it with a knife.”
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On the goal itself, Beckford added: “As soon as the ball fell to me, I knew that I had to get my body in the way and get the ball away as quickly as I could. I’m just glad it was at that end of the pitch (in front of the Everton supporters in the Anfield Road Stand) because I got to experience what the fans felt and feel the energy coming from them.
“It’s an out-of-body experience and as soon as the ball goes past the goalkeeper’s finger-tips and you hear the eruption from the fans there’s an almighty surge of energy that takes over your whole body. Before you’ve had a chance to think about a celebration, you’ve got three players straight on top of you screaming and shouting.”
Beckford also described his decision to quit Everton early the following season, joining Championship Leicester City for £2.5million as one of the toughest choices of his career. Asked why he made the move, Beckford said: “Purely out of frustration.
“We went on a pre-season trip to the States and it was absolutely amazing but after a conversation with the management team, I knew my minutes would be restricted. Now I’d gone from playing 50-plus games for three seasons (at Leeds) to playing somewhere in the mid-20s and been told that my time would be restricted again.
“As somebody who loves football, I needed to play. I couldn’t be the type who is happy to sit on the bench and collect my money.
“I wanted to be involved in every single matchday and give the best of myself. It was probably one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make just because of the connection I had made to the city and to my teammates, but I wanted to play football.”
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