Everton open their pre-season schedule this weekend just as they ended their Premier League campaign just 56 days earlier with a game against Arsenal but while their latest overseas meeting against one of their domestic rivals promises to be a high-profile money-spinner, that hasn’t always been the case. Having attracted a capacity crowd of 71,203 for Chelsea’s 2-1 friendly win over Milan in 2009 in which current Blues boss Frank Lampard and first-team coach Ashley Cole both played for the Londoners, organisers at the M&T Bank Stadium, home of NFL side Baltimore Ravens, are hopeful of another bumper attendance this time around as English football’s two longest-established clubs take to the field in an eagerly-anticipated exhibition.
Everton claim to be the first English club to go on an overseas tour, some 117 years ago when they visited the then Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1905 for a seven match schedule that included fixtures against compatriots Tottenham Hotspur –who still played in the Western League at the time, although they’d already won their first FA Cup in 1901 – recording victories of 2-0 and 1-0 in Vienna and Prague respectively. Whether it was another brace of encounters against Spurs in Buenos Aires during the pair’s pioneering trip to South America in 1909; a 3-2 success over Newcastle United in Barcelona in 1924; defeating Manchester United 3-1 during the Mitsubishi World Soccer tournament in Kobe, Japan in 1989; or their last foreign encounter against Arsenal, a 3-1 loss in the 2015 Premier League Asia Trophy final in Singapore, none of the Blues globetrotting jaunts perhaps match their 1993 excursion to Mauritius in terms of sheer exoticness.
READ MORE: 11 new contracts signed so far as Everton look to stars of the future
READ MORE: Anthony Gordon handed new Everton squad number following transfer rumours
At the end of Everton’s first ever Premier League season in 1992/93, Howard Kendall’s side set out on the 12,500 return trip to the paradise island close to Madagascar in the Southern Indian Ocean to face a couple of diverse opponents. While Everton versus Aston Villa is the most-played fixture in English top flight football, the Blues would also face the Mauritius national team for the first time.
Legendary Everton captain Brian Labone was unimpressed and told the ECHO on May 12: “In my day, we only earned a holiday like that when we won the title.” The former centre-half, who was dubbed ‘The Last of the Corinthians’ during his own playing days, was bemoaning a season of struggle in which the Blues had rallied to finish 13 th but were only four points clear of the relegation zone and were as low as 19 th in the 22-club division as late as March 3.
‘Labby’ wanted Everton to sign a big centre-forward and it seems his former team-mate Kendall actually concurred given that he would quit before the calendar year was out after the board failed to back his bid to sign Manchester United’s Dion Dublin. Indeed, the Goodison Park power vacuum being caused by Sir John Moores’ infirmity – the Littlewoods tycoon whose football philanthropy prompted the Blues to once be dubbed ‘The Mersey Millionaires’ would pass away aged 97 in September – would lead to former Walker Cup captain David Marsh being the chairman who refused to give the green light on the Dublin deal, bringing an end to Kendall’s second spell in charge.
As he prepared to jet out, Kendall was tight-lipped on uncertainty about who would be running Everton when he returned and told the ECHO: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m concentrating simply on the tour.
“We were delighted to receive the invitation and are looking forward to it. There won’t be three points at stake but the large crowds should lift the players.”
The Blues were without a trio of players for the trip with star goalkeeper Neville Southall resting a back strain that had forced him to go off 62 minutes into a 5-2 win at Manchester City on the last day of the season; midfielder John Ebbrell who was due to be the best man at his brother’s wedding and Mo Johnston, who was on a family holiday. Everton and Aston Villa, who had finished runners-up to inaugural Premier League champions Manchester United, put on an impressive show for the islanders with the local newspaper describing their game as “Breath-taking!” but unfortunately for Kendall, Old Swan-born Ron Atkinson – just had he had done in the 1985 FA Cup final to deny the Blues a domestic double – got the better of his side.
Andy Hinchcliffe had cancelled out Tony Daley’s early opener but further strikes either side of the break from future Everton player Earl Barrett and Dave Farrell, gave the Midlanders a 3-1 win in front of a 21,000 crowd at the new Mauritian national stadium. Kendall said: “It was a great experience. The crowd was very appreciative and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
“They really enjoy their football on the island and the fans appreciated the quality shown by both teams. Their goalkeeper made several outstanding saves and but for that we might have forced a draw.”
Everton then completed their odyssey with a 3-0 victory over the Mauritius national team watched by 10,000 in the old national stadium but not for the first time, Peter Beagrie was the fall guy while on tour. Two years’ earlier, the tricky winger required 50 stitches after smashing a motorcycle through a hotel window while drunk on the Blues’ pre-season trip to Spain.
While there were no such dramas this time around, Beagrie spurned his chance to put on a show for the right reasons when his manager put him on penalty duty in the hope he could impress spectators with his spectacular somersault goal celebrations. Goals from Peter Beardsley, Tony Cottee and Dave Watson enabled Everton to stroll to success but the margin of victory could have been more.
Kendall told the ECHO: “We were awarded a penalty kick so we gave Peter the honour of taking it. It was either going to be a flip or a flop, but unfortunately he missed it, so it was a flop!” While the Blues boss himself had returned after a stint abroad with Athletic Bilbao, his opposite number in the home dugout was veteran German coach Rudi Gutendorf who took charge of no fewer than 20 different national teams as far flung as Nepal and New Caledonia.
Kendall added: “It was an impressive display. The pitch wasn’t good, but the lads gave it a good go against a team which is building up towards the Oceanic Games.”
READ NEXT:
-
Everton midfielder handed new contract after 16 months of injury hell
-
New Jordan Pickford contract revives memories of bold Everton move to stop transfer
-
Ten behind the scenes photos from Everton training match at Finch Farm
-
Michael Keane makes James Tarkowski Everton transfer admission
-
Everton free to spend in transfer market as Premier League dialogue continues
