There is nothing quite like the blood and thunder of a Merseyside derby.
The age-old battle between red and and blue which splits workplaces, schoolyards and families across the city is deeply woven into the fabric of the city’s psyche and remains unique among inter-city rivalries across the country.
The 239 previous meetings of Liverpool and Everton have inevitably produced a fair few goalless stalemates over the years given the high stakes and fear of losing bragging rights but there have also been plenty of classics and few have been more dramatic or incident-packed than the penultimate clash of the twentieth century which took place at Anfield 23 years ago this weekend. Only a decade and half earlier the two sides had been arguably been the best in Europe but, while both had fallen sharply from grace since then, they still had it within them to conjure up 90plus minutes of football to leave a packed and breathless crowd royally entertained and this one resulted in enough talking points to keep the rest of country talking for weeks.
Both Merseyside giants had begun the campaign under new management of sorts as they sought to salvage a decade which on both sides of Stanley Park had bore pale comparison to its predecessor and, after some brief promise and silverware around the mid-point, was threatening to conclude in similarly unsatisfactory fashion. May 1998 had seen Everton for the second time in four years needing a result and favours from others on the final day of the Premier League season to escape relegation, Gareth Farrelly’s goal which earned a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry City and rivals Bolton Wanderers’ defeat at Chelsea saving the Toffees’ skin. Blues’ legend Howard Kendall’s third spell as manager ended soon afterwards and the arrival of former Rangers manager Walter Smith - a serial trophy winner during his time at Ibrox - raised hopes of a bright new era at Goodison.
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Liverpool meanwhile had begun the campaign in the unusual and unprecedented position of having joint managers. After taking over from Graeme Souness in January 1994, Bootroom stalwart Roy Evans had built an attractive side which won the League Cup the following year and, having added £8.5m British record signing Stan Collymore to an attacking armoury of talent featuring Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman as well as experienced campaigners John Barnes and Ian Rush, briefly threatened Manchester United’s dominance of the fledgling years of the re-branded Premier League before tailing off. A distant third place league finish in 1998 coupled with the rise of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal prompted the Anfield board to react to the increasing continental influence emerging in English football and French coach Gérard Houllier - whose role as technical director was widely credited as a key factor in his country’s World Cup triumph at home that summer - was brought in to work alongside Evans in a joint-role to the surprise of many. The experiment never worked and was cut short well before the season's mid-point with the Liverpool-born former Bill Shankly acolyte Evans bringing his 35 years of service at the club to an emotional end, leaving the Frenchman in sole charge.
It would prove to be a season of re-assessment and relative struggle at Anfield before Houllier was able to begin his revolution in earnest, the Reds’ woes cast into sharper contrast by rivals Manchester United who effectively ended the Reds’ campaign in late January with an injury-time FA Cup fourth round victory (after Houllier's men had led for almost the entire match following Michael Owen's early goal) which helped set them on their way to a league, FA Cup and Champions League treble triumph. The psychological damage of the heartbreaking defeat at Old Trafford had plunged Liverpool - whose improved form before the cup loss had brought them to the fringe of the European placings - into a winless league run which was stretching almost into a second month by the time the chance to give their supporters the solace during a largely-miserable season of at least a victory over Everton (the first derby at Goodison in October had ended in a goalless draw) arrived on the first Saturday in April.
It had been a similar tale of frustration for Walter Smith’s Toffees. The point gained against Liverpool in October had lifted them to 12th in the table but that would be their highest league position of the season with successive defeats against Arsenal and Manchester United ahead of their trip to Anfield leaving them eight points behind their neighbours in 9th and only two places and two points above the relegation zone with eight matches to play. It prompted Smith to move before the late March transfer deadline and bring in former Arsenal striker Kevin Campbell on loan in a bid to find the goals that may lead them to safety as well as Nottingham Forest midfielder Scot Gemmill. Both new boys were handed debuts at Anfield with former Liverpool reserve and defensive stalwart Dave Watson as well as midfielder Nicky Barmby and young local-born forward Michael Branch returning the side as Smith made five changes from the team beaten at Old Trafford.
The Reds had not played for three weeks since a 3-2 defeat at Derby County and Houllier, having experimented with a three-man back line at Pride Park, reverted back to 4-4-2 with fit-again midfielders Steve McManaman and Paul Ince returning in place of Irish defender Phil Babb and young Huyton-born midfielder Steven Gerrard who, having only made his first team debut against Blackburn Rovers the previous November, would have to settle for a place on the bench in his first Merseyside derby.
Anfield was packed on a sunny Easter Saturday afternoon with Liverpool supporters desperate for a victory over the old enemy having not seen one for over five years since Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler’s goals won the final derby played in front of a standing Spion Kop in March 1994, with the Toffees having since gone ten unbeaten against Liverpool following Joe Royle’s ‘Dogs of War’ triumph in his first game as manager the following November and the Blues’ hopes of extending that to eleven were given the perfect boost in the opening minute.
Michael Ball’s long throw into the penalty area was headed out by Steve Staunton only to Olivier Dacourt and the French midfielder’s speculative left foot shot from 25 yards deflected off the Reds’ Irish defender and over goalkeeper David James into the Kop end net to send the travelling Evertonians wild with delight after only 41 seconds. The Reds were stunned at going behind before they’d even been in the Everton half of the field and looked to fight back straight away, Paul Ince immediately having a penalty shout turned down after being felled by Dave Watson, the Liverpool skipper going close seconds later but getting his attempted header from Steve McManaman’s cross-shot all wrong and clearing it to safety rather than directing it goalwards.
The harum-scarum start continued with Scot Gemmill receiving the game’s first booking after only five minutes for a heavy tackle on Robbie Fowler which saw the Liverpool striker - whose season and World Cup hopes had been brought to a premature end in the corresponding fixture fifteen months earlier - receive lengthy treatment from physio Mark Leather. Traditional derby tackles continued to fly in with Ince and Ball both spoken to by referee David Elleray after a bust-up which saw the Liverpool man fortunate not to receive further punishment after pushing his opponent in the face, Nicky Barmby following his team-mate into the book before the quarter-hour mark for hacking down Jamie Redknapp.
The former Bournemouth man had already tested Blues keeper Thomas Myrhe with a free kick and, while Kevin Campbell had caused brief alarm by breaking clear in the right side of the penalty area only to pull his cross behind the blue shirts looking to support him, Liverpool’s positive reaction to going behind so early continued with Redknapp’s free-kick being headed just wide after a towering far-post leap by Rigobert Song and the equaliser duly came on the quarter-hour mark.
Boyhood Evertonian Steve McManaman, playing his final derby match before his Bosman free transfer to Real Madrid which had been announced the previous January, played the ball into the box from the right flank where Paul Ince - who had grabbed the equaliser in the previous season’s 1-1 draw between the sides at Anfield - got to the ball ahead of Marco Materazzi and went down under the Italian’s untidy challenge leaving Elleray little option but to point to the spot. The task of restoring parity was left to another former Blue in Fowler and the Toxteth-born striker stepped up to rifle a low shot into the corner of the net beyond Myrhe’s left hand before embarking on one of the most controversial goal celebrations ever seen which brought him a heavy fine, a place in derby infamy or folklore depending on your point of view and may ultimately have led to his departure.
Having had to endure years of scurrilous rumours around the city and chants during matches from Evertonians suggesting he was a drug user, Fowler proceeded to get down on his hands and knees on the goalline and proceeded to pretend to sniff as if it was a line of cocaine much to the fury of the Blues fans behind the goal whose angry reaction led to police officers arriving on the scene to calm matters. Few of the Liverpudlians in the ground celebrating the fact their team had just drawn level would have seen the Red’s striker’s attempt at a witty retort to his critics but they would hear all about it afterwards with the incident dominating the news agenda for weeks. Fowler revealed in his 2005 autobiography why he did what he did and how the drug accusations had hurt him and his family.
“Since I was seventeen, I have been tormented by a nasty, vindictive whispering campaign that has been repeated over and over and over again: that I am a smackhead, that I’m on the Charlie, that I do drugs. Even now, I find it absolutely insane that anyone can possibly believe it. And yet plenty of people seem to. It’s f*****g crazy. If people only knew how much I hate drugs and what they do to wreck lives. If people only knew the reason why I hate drugs so much, maybe they’d be a little slower to throw this mud at me. I have lost two family members through the devastating impact drugs can have so to me they are nothing but evil.
“To be branded a drug addict for the whole of my career, can you imagine how difficult that is? To have your mum and dad being told all these things by people who swear they’re true. One time, all over the back of me mum’s house was painted with the word smackhead. Daubed in white paint, in letters about ten foot high. She was really, really upset and not just because it took ages to get it all off. It’s frustrating because she knows it’s not true but there is nothing she can do to stop it or convince people. My dad is so angry about it, it churns him up inside and he is convinced all the rumours stem from Evertonians who hate me because I have always scored against them and, after supporting the Blues for all those years and following them all around the country and bringing me up as an Everton fan, he wants nothing to do with them and is ashamed to be connected with them in any way.
“I was sick of all the abuse myself, it really did me head in and I’d had enough so the week before that match me and my mate Calvey came up with a cunning stunt to have a go back at the Everton fans for all the stick they had given me over the years. We decided that if I scored at the Everton end I would take the p*** in proper style by getting down on my knees and sniffing the line in front of them. My idea was simple. As a message, it was: ‘Take that, you *****’. Not subtle I know but I wasn’t auditioning for the Cambridge Footlights. I’d show them who was a smackhead, by scoring a goal against them and - if you’ll forgive the crap pun - rubbing their noses in it.
“Okay it wasn’t the smartest move and I realise I shouldn’t have been so obvious in taunting the Everton fans, even if I still they think deserved it but I still couldn’t believe some of the stick I got over the next few weeks with some posh **** from one of the broadsheets even trying to claim I was condoning drug taking. This fella was trying to make out he was so smart and yet he couldn’t even see the bleeding obvious, that I was sending out exactly the opposite message. I didn’t take drugs, I wasn’t a smackhead and I was sick of being called it. The message I was sending, which was completely clear in my mind, was that if I was supposed to be a smackhead, how the **** could I score goals against Everton and rub their faces in the dirt? How could I be a top sportsman and so everything I have done if I was taking all that ****? It was a way of telling them that if they carried on with all that abuse then I was going to stuff it up them even more. It was an attempt to get them to think about what they were doing and even make them stop. And it was supposed to be funny. Hmmm. It didn’t exactly work but even now I can’t see how what I was trying to do could ever be taken as a sign that I was on drugs.”
Given a natural lift by their talismanic striker drawing them level, Liverpool proceeded to grab hold of the match by the scruff of the neck and took the lead only five minutes later with Fowler inevitably at the fore again. Steve McManaman was still seeking a first derby goal in his 16th appearance for Liverpool against Everton and came desperately close with a well-struck right-foot volley from the edge of the penalty area which was tipped over at full stretch by Thomas Myrhe. From the resulting in-swinging Patrik Berger corner, McManaman flicked on at the near post and Fowler was there at the far to nod home and put the Reds in front despite Scot Gemmill’s attempts on the line to keep it out, the forward’s celebrations on this occasion being confined to merely running away in delight and being mobbed by his jubilant team-mates.
Invigorated by their fightback in the game’s first quarter, the Reds continued to pour forward and could have put the game beyond their local rivals before half time, with Michael Owen’s first chance arriving on the half hour mark but the 19-year-old - whose second full season would see him match the 23-goal tally of his first which had ended with his taking France 98 by storm - was denied by a brave Myrhe challenge at his feet after being played in by Berger and the visitors sent warning that a third Liverpool goal may well be needed when Materazzi crashed a low, swerving free kick against the post with Barmby also going close shortly before the break.
Given the break-neck pace of the first 45 minutes, it was no surprise to see both sides begin the second period in a more cautious vein with Owen having the first chance of the half around the hour mark when heading Vegard Heggem’s cross wide of the far post. Liverpool gradually began to turn the screw with Berger only being denied by a superb Myrhe stop after a counter-attack which started in the Reds’ own 18-yard box and Everton’s frustration began to boil over with Barmby being involved in a flare-up with Ince and then Kevin Campbell lunging in on Heggem which saw the Norwegian full-back - whose emergence after his summer move from Rosenborg had been one of the few bright sparks of Liverpool’s season - carried off on a stretcher and ruled out of the rest of the campaign, with the former Arsenal man fortunate to receive only a yellow card.
Heggem's replacement - still six weeks shy of his 19th birthday - was substitute Steven Gerrard, the Huyton-born midfielder giving early notice of the remarkable versatility he would show throughout his stellar career, by slotting in at right-back and immediately crunching into tackles on Danny Cadamarteri, also on as a sub in place of the ineffective Michael Branch and looking to repeat his heroics of the previous season’s Goodison derby when he had scored the clinching goal in Everton’s 2-0 victory. Another substitute David Weir, who replaced Materazzi at half time, had Everton’s best chance to equalise when he was unable to keep his shot down at the far post after a Gemmill corner had been flicked on by Craig Short but, with Rigobert Song showing his Cameroon World Cup form and dominating aerially as the Blues pumped balls into the box, Liverpool remained in control and seemed to have put the match to bed with eight minutes remaining.
Fowler was denied a hat-trick when his shot from an acute angle was deflected behind by Myrhe for a corner but from the resulting flag kick Dacourt’s clearing header only found Patrik Berger on the edge of the penalty area who directed a low left-footed volley into the bottom corner of the net. He raced away in delight with an ecstatic Steven Gerrard hanging round his neck but the celebrations had to be cut swiftly shut as the defensive frailties which would be Houllier’s first focus as the looked to rebuild the club the following summer put the match back in the balance and set up a grandstand finish.
Within seconds of the restart, David James came flying off his line almost to the edge of the penalty area in a failed attempt to punch clear a long throw and when David Unsworth pumped the ball back into the box, Craig Short’s flick on was touched by Campbell to substitute Francis Jeffers who span and fired a first time shot into the top corner to give the Blues hope. Having coped with the visitors’ attacking threat relatively comfortably for much of the afternoon, suddenly there was panic stations every time the ball was launched into the box and when Steve Staunton failed to deal with another Unsworth ball into the heart of the Liverpool defence, Cadamarteri poked the ball beyond the onrushing James only for Steven Gerrard to appear from nowhere to hack the ball clear as it was about to roll over the line.
Remarkably the young Scouser would repeat the feat in the final minute when Gemmill played a long ball forward in search of Campbell who suddenly found himself with an open goal after David James again came recklessly charging out of goal, this time ten yards outside his penalty area, the mercurial Liverpool keeper - in the final weeks of his seven-year, 277-game Anfield career - managing to miss the ball altogether but clatter into covering defender Rigobert Song. The goal gaped but, with hearts in mouths all round the ground, the vigilant Gerrard belied his inexperience by immediately crunching into a desperate sliding tackle on the Everton striker before he could get his shot away only to see the ball run loose to Cadamateri on the right edge of the box who fired the ball towards the empty net only to hold his head in anguished disbelief as Gerrard, having jumped up and raced back to cover the line, diverted the ball to safety again before punching the air with both fists as if he’d just scored the winning goal.
The final whistle sounded soon afterwards to signal joyous celebrations and relief all round the ground aside from the away corner of the Anfield Road end as the Reds basked in their first victory over Blues in five long and at times painful years. As the dust settled however and the post-match formalities began, attention turned back to Fowler’s controversial actions after his first goal and manager Gérard Houllier initially leapt to his defence insisting naively his forward’s gesture was nothing to do with drugs but merely a joke celebration used by French club Metz and introduced to the Liverpool players by Rigobert Song who had played for them the season before.
"It was really nothing," said Houllier. "Rigobert said they did this at Metz and the players were doing it in training. Robbie was just pretending to eat the grass. I spoke to Robbie about it and also to the referee, and he said he would not be putting it in his report. You can say it was inadvisable in the circumstances but when your heart is going at 180 these things happen. It was certainly not a response to the Everton fans."
The manager’s defence did not cut any mustard however as images of Fowler’s actions quickly made headlines with the FA announcing they would investigating and the following day the Liverpool manager had been forced to change tack, saying “On Saturday I did not have the benefit of television pictures. But, after seeing the video recording of the incident, I realised I was mistaken. I am glad he has apologised.”
Fowler was already under investigation after an incident in the previous month’s defeat at Chelsea when he made a homophobic gesture in response to being elbowed by Graeme Le Saux and he issued a statement on the Sunday, explaining the background but apologising unequivocally for his actions.
"Despite my actions being taken in the heat of the moment immediately following the penalty, I realise that they have caused great offence and I deeply regret that," he said. "I have been greatly distressed and hurt over the last few years by the constant allegations levelled against me regarding drug use, which have not only affected me but have been very upsetting to my family as well. But as an international player and a public figure, I have responsibilities and a duty to rise above such scurrilous accusations and I accept that my behaviour yesterday was totally wrong. I would never do anything intentionally to undermine the work being done to combat the suffering and social problems that drug abuse brings to users and their families or to drug awareness campaigns. I would like to say sorry to the Liverpool and Everton fans who attended the derby game and have also apologised to my manager, Gerard Houllier, and team-mates for my behaviour."
By the end of the week, the FA hit Fowler with a record £32,000 fine and costs along with a six-game ban - four of them for his actions against Everton and two over the incident with Le Saux, who himself was handed a one-game ban and fined £5,000 plus costs. It brought the Liverpool striker’s season to a premature end and cost him a late shot at the Golden Boot with his tally of 14 Premier League goals falling short of the relatively paltry total of 18 which saw the award shared between his team-mate Michael Owen, Manchester United’s Dwight Yorke and Leeds’ Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at the end of the campaign.
But the long-term consequences for Fowler may have been far more significant than a top-scorers prize as he revealed years later in his autobiography that he felt Houllier’s anger over how the Frenchman’s initial defence of the touchline gesture had made him look foolish was a watershed moment in their relationship and may have played a part in the Liverpool striker’s departure to Leeds United for £11m two and a half years later.
“In the changing room afterwards quite a few of the lads were laughing, saying it was hilarious and only Robbie Fowler could dream up a stunt like that. I’d scored twice and we’d beaten the enemy 3-2 so Houllier was pretty happy because it was something positive in a difficult season, although he did ask me just before he went to do the press conference how the hell he was going to explain that one to the waiting media. I could tell him exactly how not to do it - make up the f****** fantasy he eventually came up with! I spoke to one or two of the press lads later and they told me they had to stuff their fists in their mouths to stop themselves laughing out loud. People had tears in their eyes because it was so funny. Nobody could ask another question because they had to run outside and break down in gales of laughter.
“Of course the papers mullered him. They really went to town on how ridiculous his explanation had been and what a fool he’d made of himself. I’ve got to say, if my actions were stupid, then his handling of it wasn’t exactly inspired. He made a bad situation worse and there was general hysteria around the country for the next two weeks while the debate raged about my behaviour. Houllier was really hurt by the criticism and he blamed me. It must have been fully two years later when he told a mate of mine how I was finished that day, when he had been ridiculed for defending me. Houllier had rung this guy, a journalist, to give him a volley of criticism about Emile Heskey. He knew the reporter had contact with me and was a supporter of mine and he laid into him, saying he was just slagging off Emile to get me in the team. Then he referred back to the ‘eating the grass’ incident and he let rip, ‘I tried to defend your mate, I tried to f****** defend the idiot and what did you do? You ridiculed me. I was made to look ridiculous because of Fowler and I defended him. I tell you, I will never make that mistake again. You f****** ridiculed me, you tried to destroy my reputation because I was loyal to your mate. Don’t think I will ever forget that’.
“It was that sort of stuff, basically pointing to the fact that he was made to look stupid because of me. And I don’t think he ever forgave me for that. It was my fault, of course, but I hardly asked him to come up with something as f****** stupid as he did. I always got the impression Houllier had a big ego and it was bruised badly by that incident. From that day I was damaged goods as far as he was concerned and I suspect he was working out how to get rid of me from that moment onwards.”
