December 3, 1945
Three weeks to Christmas and you can start making arrangement to open the day with a good football match. Liverpool directors will decided that their Christmas Day match with Barnsley shall be played at Anfield in the morning with, I expect, a kick-off at eleven o’clock. This will enable enthusiasts ample time to get home to lunch.
The race for Yuletide leadership intensifies and another all-victory day for the Merseyside clubs on Saturday left Everton above Liverpool, thanks to superior goal-average. For the second time this season all teams of Reds and Blues won, but this time Everton had no Central League match, so it was a five-win day instead of six.
It was a tribute to Merseyside enthusiasm that 27,848 spectators should roll along at Anfield on a day when the earlier kick-off caused an attendance drop in most centres. A brief summary of the day’s satisfying events were that while Everton were sporting a sensational win at Stoke City and their ‘A’ team defeating Skelmersdale United, Liverpool were trashing Huddersfield Town at Anfield; Derby County Reserves were losing at home 1-0 to Liverpool Reserves, or, as it is becoming known, “William Harvey Webb’s XI,” and Liverpool ‘A’ were beating Wigan Athletic Reserves 4-0.
Tranmere Rovers, Southport and Chester all enjoyed excellent wins to herald in December.
(Evening Express: December 3, 1945)
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