MERSEYSIDE DERBY

Everton FC were founded in 1878 and from 1884 played their home matches at Anfield, which was owned by club chairman John Houlding. Several board members of Everton were members of the Liberal party,  who were associated with the National Temperance Foundation, whilst Houlding was a Conservative Party member and a brewer whose business interests were diametrically opposed to the temperance movement. Politics and disputes over money meant that Houlding was increasingly at odds with other members of the Everton board. Friction arose between the retention of an autocratic ownership structure versus the creation of a more democratic one which closely mapped the sociopolitical divide. The result was that the Everton directors vacated Anfield in 1892 and purchased a new ground at Goodison Park, on the other side of Stanley Park. Houlding responded by creating a new club, Liverpool FC to use Anfield.

The professional football clubs of the 1890s attracted much interest among the public, both on and off the field. The 1867 Reform Act had given what would become football-attending masses the opportunity to vote in the local and national elections. Everton and Liverpool attendances would reach around 10–15,000 in a local authority ward with a population of 23,000. Local politicians saw involvement in the two football clubs as an opportunity to gain media exposure to the local electorate. Irish roots and religion are also sometimes considered as theories for the split on the grounds that Houlding was a prominent Orange Order member, while Everton's new chairman George Mahon was a rival Liberal Home Rule-advocating MP. 

Orangemen are strongly Unionist, whereas someone favouring home rule for Ireland was in favour of some degree of separation of the whole island of Ireland from the UK. The city of Liverpool has more Irish blood than any other city in the UK, with the possible exception of Glasgow, and division between Protestant and Catholic groups in Ireland closely matched the division between Unionism and Republicanism in Liverpool. However, at the time of the split, James Clement Baxter was the only Catholic among the Everton committee members whereas the rest were Protestants.

There are a number of reasons for the "friendly derby" name. Firstly, both of the clubs' home grounds are situated in the north of the city and are very close to each other (just under a mile) with only Stanley Park separating them. From 1902 to 1932, the two clubs even shared the same match day programme. Today there are no evident geographical, political, social, or religious divides as there are in other derbies, although a sectarian divide did exist within the city for many years. It is unclear how, if at all, this influenced the support bases of the two clubs and research conducted in 2013 indicated that it was more likely to have been a political allegiance that influenced support. During the 1950s and 1960s, Everton became known as the Catholic club mainly as a result of successful Irish players.This in turn caused Liverpool to be thought of as Protestant club, especially as they did not sign an Irish Catholic player until Ronnie Whelan in 1979. However, this divide was never seen as a basis for supporting a certain side, as is the case with teams such as Celtic and Rangers. In truth, both teams have strong support from all denominations. Most importantly, the actual clubs themselves did not act to strengthen sectarian divides, and both stem from Methodist origins.

A 0-0 draw today ended the 284th Merseyside Derby, held at Goodison Park. 

The first match between the two was held at Goodison Park ended with the Toffees winning 3-0. 44,000 watched and since then all matches have been played either in Premier League since 1992 or in the First Division. They have never played each other in any other division except during the war (The Lancashire Section League 27/11/1915-20/12/1919) and the West  Region War League between 2/12/1939 and the 29/12/1945.

There have been FA Cup 24 games, Football League Cup 4, FA Community Shield 3, Football League Super Cup 2.

There have been various Cup Ties the most recent the FA Cup Third Round on January 5th 2018 won by Liverpool 2-1. 
Ian Rush is the top "derby" scorer  25 goals    Neville Southall top appearances 41 in goal.
In 1984 the Football League Cup Final was played with mixed seating at Wembley and was known as the Friendly Final. Given supporters of both teams mainly live within sight of each other  (the grounds are certainly very close), it is known as the Friendly Derby.

Competition	Played	Liverpool wins	Draws	Everton wins	Liverpool goals	Everton goals
Football League First Division	146	54	44	48	203	181
Premier League	59	25	24	10	83	53
FA Cup	25	12	6	7	40	28
Football League/EFL Cup	4	2	1	1	2	1
FA Charity/Community Shield	3	1	1	1	2	2
Football League Super Cup	2	2	0	0	7	2
Total	239	96	76	67	337	267

This derby is responsible for many records across all derby matches, largely due to it being contested on so many occasions:

• The longest unbeaten derby run in all competitions is held by Liverpool, with Everton failing to find victory in 23 consecutive games between 2011 and 2020. This streak is also the longest such run that Liverpool have had against any opponent in club history.
• The longest unbeaten derby run in home matches is held by Liverpool, with Everton failing to win in the league (plus two cup games) for 22 games between 2000 and 2020.
• The longest unbeaten derby run in away matches is held by Everton, with a 16-match run at Anfield between 1899 and 1920, which included ten victories.
• The longest unbroken winning run at home belongs to Liverpool, with five wins between the 1932–33 and 1936–37 seasons.
• The longest unbroken winning run away from home belongs to Everton, who won seven consecutive games at Anfield between the 1908–09 and 1914–15 seasons.
• Recent games have been marred by sendings off, and the fixture has seen 23 red cards in the Premier League, the highest tally for any fixture (though the 20th of these was subsequently rescinded by the FA). Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and former Everton captain Phil Neville both saw red twice in derby games.

The following are records just for the Merseyside derby itself:

• The record home victory in a league match is 6–0, recorded by Liverpool at Anfield in the 1935–36 season.
• The record away victory in a league match is 5–0, recorded by both Everton at Anfield in the 1914–15 season, and by Liverpool at Goodison Park in the 1982–83 season.
• The highest-scoring match had 11 goals, when Liverpool won 7–4 at Anfield in the 1932–33 season.
• Neville Southall of Everton holds the record for most derby appearances, with 41 across all competitions.
• Ian Rush of Liverpool holds the mark for the most derby goals with 25, overtaking Dixie Dean of Everton's long-standing record when he scored a brace in Liverpool's 3–2 win over Everton in the second all-Merseyside FA Cup Final in 1989.
• Willian C Cuff of Everton holds the record for the most wins as a manager, with 16 wins over Liverpool from 1901 to 1918.
• Tom Wilson of Liverpool holds the record for the most losses as a manager, with 21 defeats to Everton from 1896 to 1915.
• Record attendance: 78,599 at Goodison Park, 18 September 1948 (First Division)
  
• Lowest attendance: 18,000 at Anfield, 19 January 1901 (First Division) (* does not include matches played behind closd doors due to the Covid)
• Played for all three: David Hickson, John Heydon and Frank Mitchell are the only three players to have played for Liverpool, Everton and Tranmere Rovers the three main Merseyside clubs still in existence. New Brighton FC was a football league members from 1923 to 1951; Bill Lacey and Neil MacBain played for all three of Everton, Liverpool and New Brighton. John Whitehead played for Liverpool, Everton and also for Bootle in their one year as a league team (1892–93), before they were replaced in Division 2 by local rivals Liverpool FC.