In 1878, a "church", St Domingo's, Methodist New Connexion Chapel, in Breckfield Road, North Liverpool, formed a sports' club, to encourage local lads to behave themselves, play the game of football and to stay "good and righteous". These local lads learned to play sport, all year round – including cricket in summer. The club's first game was a 1–0 victory over Everton Church Club. The club was renamed Everton in November 1879, after the local area, as people outside the congregation wished to participate.
It wasn't long before the lads decided to call themselves, Everton and moved to play in the local, Stanley Park. Huge crowds eventually meant that the club needed a proper stadium, so in 1884, club President, John Houlding (below). a local brewer found and bought a plot of land south of the park, called ANFIELD, and he rented it out to the Everton club.
Everton FC was a founding member of the Football League in 1888–89 and won its first League Championship title in the 1890-1 season.
Soon, gate receipts multiplied and Houlding was making enough money, especially from the Sandon pub near the ground which he owned. His home brewed sparkling ales were the sole beverages sold in the ground, so he had money to help the club with transfers, wages and maintenance (of the ground!). With this in mind, Houlding upped the rent from £100 to £250 per annum but Everton only offered him £180 and a stand off ensued. Houlding did not accept this and decided to offer the Anfield ground to Everton FC for £6,000. The Everton club was unhappy because they were changing in the Sandon, drinking from Houlding's bar, so voted to leave Anfield in October 1891, spending money on a nearby plot of land worth £8900 called Mere Green. This was soon to be Goodison Park.
Houlding was not pleased, being left with a ground that nobody wanted to play on, so he formed his own team. He could not call it Everton, so settled for Liverpool in 1892 and with a staff member from Everton, John McKenna, imported several Scottish players, which soon became known as "The team of All the Macs". His team joined the football league in 1893, winning promotion in the first season and set up a first league match between the two Mersey clubs in October 13th 1894, Everton winning 3-0. Liverpool had to wait until September 1897 before they beat their city rivals at Anfield 3-1.
On the 15th March 1947, New Brighton manager Neil McBain had a few team selections problems for the Division 3 (North) match against Hartlepool United on this day in 1947. The former centre-half had to play himself as goalkeeper for his one and only League appearance for the club – at the age of 51 years 4 months! New Brighton, originally 1921 founded, is another Merseyside club, which has been included in this "Blog" previously and plays in the West Cheshire League. Know any others?
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