The Mayor of Greater Manchester has been an Everton fan since the ’70s – he tells FFT all about cup exploits, pitch invasions that influenced Fever Pitch and the striker who jumped over a Mini...
Richard Purden
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
What was the first match that you ever saw live?
It would have been around 1973 and I would have been only two or three years old. I have a very dim memory of going up the steps to the match and seeing the green. A game I do remember was against Bristol City at Goodison Park in 1976: it was my brother’s eighth birthday and we won 2-0. The other one to stick in my mind from that era is against Sunderland, with big Duncan McKenzie running the show. He was a flamboyant character – like a matador. I can recall him jumping over a Mini.
Who was your childhood hero? Did you ever meet them?
Bob Latchford [below right] was my first idol because in 1978 he scored 30 goals in a season, though I loved him before that. The Daily Express once set a challenge: £10,000 for 30 goals in the old First Division, and he scored a late penalty against Chelsea to win the prize at Goodison. He was a proper swashbuckling English centre-forward. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years ago and telling him that. He’s such a lovely bloke.
What’s your favourite goal that you have witnessed live?
I remember Graeme Sharp scoring a volley from the edge of the box against Tottenham in 1982. Another very famous goal of his was a similar effort in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in ’84. I encroached upon the playing surface at Highbury that year, when Adrian Heath struck a late FA Cup semi-final winner [against Southampton]... but the goal a lot of Evertonians my age will point to is Trevor Steven’s against Bayern Munich, in terms of the significance, as it sent us through to the 1985 Cup Winners’ Cup Final.
Did you make it to the final in Rotterdam?
We didn’t miss a game that season: home and away, we turned up for all the matches including Wembley trips – every one. But I was 15 at the time and there was no way my mum was letting me attend on a school night. We also wouldn’t have had the money, so sadly we didn’t make it over to Rotterdam. We were in the family club at Goodison and got invited to have pictures taken with the FA Cup the season before, as well as the Charity Shield. Then, the following year, we were invited back there again to have a picture taken with the Canon League Division One Championship trophy and Cup Winners’ Cup. I remember m
