March 31, 1916
The Rugger devotee has a specially fine attraction at Waterloo to-morrow, when two keen and evenly balanced sides will meet for the Lord Mayor’s Roll of Honour Fund, and the Soccer followers cannot hope for a better outlook than that offered by the Everton and Liverpool meeting at Goodison Park.
It is the fourth engagement of the clubs this season, and Liverpool have three victories to their credit. Time was when Everton won at Anfield and Liverpool returned the compliment by winning at Goodison Park, but these are not “times” – these are bad days – and Liverpool have broken all vows of consistency by straightaway winning the rubber. Another meeting of the clubs is due in the season proper, and then there follows the meeting for the Lord Mayor’s Fund.
South and Tranmere are also expected to play in the same cause, and the players by these matches will not only be responsible for a huge sum being devoted to the admirable cause, but they will be able, for the first time this season, to struggle for a memento. Medals are to be presented to the teams.
Everton: Tommy Fern, Bob Thompson, Bobby Simpson, William Brown, Tom Fleetwood, Billy Wareing, Sam Chedgzoy, Billy Kirsopp, James Williamson, Joe Clennell, George Harrison.
Liverpool: Ted Taylor, Ephraim Longworth, James Middlehurst, John Bamber, Arthur Goddard, Donald Mackinlay, Ernest Pinkney, Wilfred Watson, Fred Pagnam, Arthur Metcalf, Tommy Cunliffe.
These men will fashion a brilliant match, unless I am much mistaken. There is strength of body, agility of foot, and speed combined in the various departments. In goal there is not a pin’s point between the pair. Each is a capable handler of shots. The backs are of the same style: Thompson and Longworth adopt similar methods, and Simpson and Middlehurst are much alike.
At half back we find on either side two experienced members and two of the younger generation, and there again one fails to find a difference of strength worthy of any special note, albeit I fancy the Everton line just a little more than Liverpool’s intermediate line. In attack Everton’s right is brilliant, and Liverpool’s is practical and not showy.
At centre Liverpool has the advantage, and on the left Everton’s wing pais has it because of its deadliness. Although Metcalf and Cunliffe do some wonderful work in the open, they do not finish with the sting of the Clennell-Harrison wing. So readers, you’ll agree, if you are not a partisan, that the teams are in very truth evenly matches in every department, and a great game should be certain.
It is hardly necessary, but I will nevertheless point again to the fact that our local Derbys are a model to all other clubs, and I would remind players of this glorious record and ask them to keep the record clean. Be earnest by all means, but eschew – as in former games – all shady tricks and signs of temper.
(Source: Liverpool Echo: March 31, 1916)
"Play Up, Liverpool" 