GABRIEL CAN BE ANOTHER DAVE MACKAY
Friday, December 1, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
Says Roy Vernon
You can please some of the people all the time but you can’t please all the people all the time, but I think you can take it that at Goodison Park and Anfield there is general satisfaction over the F.A. Cup draw, which has given both clubs home ties.  This is a happy augury, we hope, but let us remember this is only our first hurdle.  The fact that it is King’s Lynn who are our opponents will not affect our preparation or approach to the game.  It is always worthwhile remembering that there are giant-killers in every F.A Cup competition.  The bigger the club the harder they fall, is the way the minnows generally look at it, but we had no intention of taking part in any giant killing act.  Bradford City ousted us at the first time of asking a couple of season ago, and while they are at least a League team, elimination by any side is just as final.  We will respect King’s Lynn and because of that I think our normal game should be enough to see us through.  So far I have played in only one F.A Cup game for Everton and out we went at the first time of asking-to Sheffield United. 
A SURPRISE
I took the trouble to find out now many of our present team have played beyond the third round for Everton and I admit it was a bit of a surprise to learn there are only four.  They are Albert Dunlop, Alex Parker (he was then playing at right half and not in his present right back position.  Brian Harris and Bobby Collins.  I think we are quite happy to be drawn against king’s Lynn.  The bigger clubs can wait.  We all wish Liverpool the best of luck in their clash with Chelsea (this will not be any ease one, believe me) if only because we are hoping they cross our path a little later on.  Not just yet.  We don’t want to spoil their fun too soon!  The sixth round or the semi-final might be just the ticket.  What about a Wembley meeting?  No! Imagine the broken hearts there would be at Anfield after going so far and falling at the last fence!  Seriously, I would like to see both clubs staying in the competition just as long as possible.  It all adds up to increased interest and keener rivalry.  That is what football is short of today.  Not so long ago victory or defeat because almost a personal thing to club supporters.  In few places outside probably Liverpool and Glasgow, the fire does not burn anything like so fiercely now.  We at Goodison Park were delighted to learn that Jimmy Gabriel had been selected to play in Scotland’s under-23 team against Wales at Wrexham next Wednesday.  What a week it is going to be for him, with a wedding on Monday and a junior international on Wednesday. 
AMONG BEST
In both we wish him the very best of good luck.  In my opinion Jimmy Gabriel is already among the best right halves in the game.  He is a player transformed compared with when he first came to Goodison and if the continues to advance as he has done this season, I would not be at all surprised to find him becoming Scotland’s Dave Mackay or Tommy Docherty.  There is no doubt in any mind that Jimmy is going to the top.  He has already appeared in a full international but I believe when he gets into Scotland’s team next time he will stay there.  I need hardly tell you how disappointed we were to return from West Ham without a point.  We had looked at it this way.  Manchester United, by the law of averages, were due for a win and if they could beat Burnley and we won at West Ham there we were on top of the table.  That will have to wait a little while longer now, but we will get there, just you see.  Naturally, we are hoping Manchester United’s sequence of failures stretches a little bit longer, for they are at Goodison Park tomorrow!  I don’t think I can remember a quieter party than Everton were coming away from the West Ham ground, and it says much for the manager’s appreciation of the situation that he shattered the icy atmosphere with a quip about our being miserable blighters just because we had lost a match.  We felt better when we knew he was taking it like that. 
MORE PRACTICE
This week the forwards have been resolved not to let the defence down and to start getting more goals.  With this end in view we have been stepping up targets practice with a rolling ball and I think Albert Dunlop and Andy Rankin will testify that there is plenty of power in the feet of the Everton forwards.  Andy Rankins’ promise continues to increase and there is no more sporting spectacle in the club than the way Albert Dunlop is nursing him and guiding him with tips here and there picked up in the hard school of experience.  He is a grand club scout is Albert, always willing to lend a helping hand.  Because the club mascot, who has been trotting out with us in recent games wears the No 10 jersey and comes on to the field at my side, some people have written to ask it the lad is my son.  No.  He is no relation.  Why he close the No. 10 shirt I don’t know. 

EVERTON TEAM UNCHANGED
Liverpool Echo - Friday 01 December 1961
MANCHESTER UNITED AT GOODISON
By Leslie Edwards
Everton and Liverpool both announce unchanged  teams for to-morrow.  Everton are at home to Manchester United: Liverpool goes to Southampton.  United make three changes two of them surprises. Out go Stiles, Bradley and Quixall to Play in the reserves against Everton at Old Trafford. While Irish international  Nicholson was the expected  substitute for Stiles at right  half, the selection of Philip  Chisnall instead of Bradley at  outside right was unexpected  Chisnall, who joined United  straight from the local Stretford school, was an England  schoolboy centre forward but since signing professional  two years ago has operated at outside right and wing half in  the junior teams. Lawton takes over from Quixall.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Manchester United; Gaskell; Brennan, Dunn; Nicholson, Foulkes, Setters, Chrisnall, Giles, Herd, Lawton, Charlton.

UNCHANGED EVERTON
Saturday, December 2, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Despite the disappointments at West ham last Saturday, manager Harry Catterick announces an unchanged Everton side, and with Collins and Parker fitter and presumably better after another week’s training we may find Everton back to standard, in which case United’s depressing run will go into double figures.  Herd, who generally made merry for Arsenal against Everton, is in the United line-up and they also include nineteen-years-old Philip Chisnall an England schoolboy international centre-forward at outside right.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Manchester United; Gaskell; Brennan, Dunn; Nicholson, Foulkes, Setters; Chisnall, Giles, Herd, Lawton, Charlton. 

OUT-OF-FORM UNITED SSTILL A DRAW
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 02 December 1961
BUSBY SHUFFLES HIS TEAM AT EVERTON
By Leslie Edwards
Although they are doing badly, Manchester United, because they are semi- Derby rivals and because their post-war history is full of honour, will attract a big crowd to Goodison Park this afternoon.  The public and especially the Liverpool public, have a warm regard for Matt Busby, an artist as a Liverpool half-back and a great and modest manager whose carefully-built football edifice crashed as a direct result of the Munich Parker disaster.  How United have even remained in Division I after losing so many players is something of a miracle. But the team (and never more so than this season) has never been quite the same.  Mr. Busby was confident at the start of this season that his men would do well. Well, they haven't and he's not the Charlton only manager to suffer disappointment.  But everyone Setters appreciates that United are Dunne sure to come back. It is Just a question of being patient.
BOGEY SIDE
There are many who feel that if Everton are going to be surprised at home again Manchester United are the team to do it.  But in recent times Everton have been a bogey side to the their opponents of today.  The bogey usually works in reverse when Cup ties come along.  There is no unhappier venue than Maine Road or Old Trafford when Everton reach the last four in the Cup.  We haven’t forgotten the Albion win at old Trafford in Dean’s days or the defeats at Maine Road-by Bolton Wanderers and Liverpool-in more recent times.  Everton are at full strength –a rare thing this season- and so United will face the triple threat posed by Alex Young, Roy Vernon, Bobby Collins.  Young is best I think, when leading the line not as a penetrating scorer, but as a schemer whose artistry can “tee up” a chance for others in such a way that it is easier for a man to score than to fail to get a goal.  Victory would put Everton back in the championship picture.  Their only mistake for weeks was their rather luckless defeat at West Ham.  I anticipate they will not only win today, but put on another show, as they did against Tottemham, to cause their fans to give them an ovation.
YOUNG DEBUTANT
United have made more changes in an effort to break a sequence of nine matches without a win.  They bring in 19-years-old Phil Chisnall, a local boy, for his first game on the right wing, restore Northern Ireland international, Jimmy Nicholson, to right-half in place of Nobby Stiles and drop Albert Quixall from inside left. Quixall’s place is taken by Nobby Lawton, another youngster whose previous outings with the first team have been at half-back.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Manchester United; Gaskell; Brennan, Dunn; Nicholson, Foulkes, Setters; Chisnall, Giles, Herd, Lawton, Charlton. 

COLLINS SPARKS OFF AN EVERTON GOAL RUSH
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 02 December 1961
VERNON (2), YOUNG AND FELL FOLLOW EXAMPLE
EVERTON 5, MANCHESTER UNITED 1
By Michael Charters
Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Manchester United; Gaskell; Brennan, Dunne; Nicholson, Foulkes, Setters, Chisnall, Giles, Herd, Lowton, Charlton.  Referee;- Mr. J.R. Loynton (Sheffield) There was a gate in the region of 40,000 for the visit of always attractive Manchester United, and the lights were on from the start.  United had 19-years-old Chisnall at outside making his League debut.  Labone, making his 100th League appearance for Everton, stepped in early with a timely tackle on Charlton in the penalty area.  Then the Everton centre half set up a right wing attack in which Parker joined to take a pass from Bingham and try a left foot shot which went wide. Everton took the lead after nine minutes with a great goal by Collins—his first In the League this season.  It started with Labour and  Bingham linking up on the  right, with Gabriel forging  through to the edge of the  penalty area and hitting a  hard cross which struck Young's feet and stopped for the centre forward to push  the ball back to the  unmarked Collins, who  cracked it Into the corner of net from 18 yards.  Everton went two goals in front after 11 minutes with a real opportunist effort by Vernon—a beautifully taken goal.  Labone made a long clearanceup the middle, whichFoulkes mis-headed behindhim and the ball broke clear for Vernon and Nicholson to chase, Vernon withstood Nicholson’s close’schallenge and cleverly  lobbed the ball over Gaskell head into the roof of the net.  Everton were finishing their moves with tremendous power and after 15 minutes were three goals in front. Again Parker moved up to play a vital part in the attack which brought the goal.  He pulled the ball back to Collins, who shot against Gasket’s body, the ball running free for Parker to try another shot, which hit Gaskell again. This time the ball rebounded to the left, where Fell brought it very cleverly under control and scored from a narrow angle. This three goals in six  minutes burst would have been  enough to rattle any side, but  I give full marks to United forfighting back hard and they nearly succeeded in getting a goal themselves when Giles put a shot only inches wide.  United were playing well, but Everton were inspired near goal. Their three inside forwards were playing brilliantly, their passing to each other being meticulous in its accuracy. 
VINTAGE CHARLTON 
Charlton produced a couple flashes of the vintage player  we know he is, from one of  which Herd made a very good  header from Chisnall's centre,  but Dunlop saved comfortably  and then Herd missed a  wonderful chance after Lawton  had beaten Gabriel in the  penalty area and put the ball  on a plate for the centre  forward.  Gaskell was a lucky man to have a double chance of saving from Vernon and, Collins after a pass by Gabriel had split the United defence wide open the move ended when Dunne put, the ball behind for a corner.  From Bingham's kick the  ball came out to Parker, who was playing more like an  Inside forward than a full  back, and when Parker  dragged the ball back, only the post prevented Vernon  from scoring Everton's fourth'  goal.  After 32 minutes,Everton made it 4-nil with a superb individual goal by Vernon,one of the best he has ever scored.  It followed directlyfrom a goal kick, with Dunlop pushing the ball out to Thomson, who made a wonderful 35 yards pass to Vernon. The Welshman, with a clever body swerve, collected the ball and took it away from Nicholson in the one movement and then broke clear down the middle running some 30 yards before hitting it past Gaskell from about 15 yards range.  Everton’s finishing was quite fantastic and seven minutes before half-time Young made it five in their favour.  United’s defence was beginning to wilt under the strain, and who could blame them, so that Vernon was able to carry the ball through the middle in the same way as he had for the fourth goal, but this time he shot against the goalkeeper and the ball ran free to Young, who slammed it back instantly into the net over the body of the still grounded Gaskell.  United now looked demoralised, and Gaskell was drawn and stranded at the edge the penalty area as Vernon moved the ball away from him, but when Vernon pulled the ball back, Fell was unable to control it. Everton  went off at half time  to a tremendous roar of  appreciation after one of the most incredible 45 minutes of football seem at Goodison in years. Half-time; Everton 5, Manchester United nil.  A minute after half-time Dunlop was extended for the first time when he made a fine save from Chisnall, who was one of the few United successes.  United's defence looked as  shaky as ever when Thomson  came up for a free kick from  Fell, his pass to Young opening  a way for the centre  forward's shot to crack hard  against Foulkes and bounce  away for the far side of the  goal to safety. 
OFT THE BOIL 
The game understandably had gone somewhat off the boil but the crowd were still anxious to see Everton produce some more of their first half power shooting.  There looked a clear case for a penalty for Everton Dunne brought down Bingham, but the referee waved play on and now United were having more of the game.  On the hour Herd got one back for United, from what looked to me very much an offside position, Charlton had dragged a corner kick back to Dunne, whose long shot went through a crowd of players to Herd standing only three or four yards from the line and his quick shot struck the upright and went into the far side of the net.  Everton looked very lackadaisical in this spell which saw United constantly on the attack, and Everton’s forwards unable to get going at all, much to the crowd’s displeasure.  Everton were playing into the teeth of driving rain but that was no excuse for they had let United take control.  First Everton shot for some ten minutes was a cute 30 yard lob from Collins which almost deceived Gaskell, the ball hitting the side netting with the goalkeeper missing.  Chisnall was having a particularly good game against Thomson, but Labone was playing magnificently in the middle and stopped several United threats before they could become too dangerous.
INACCURATE
Everton’s finish was now as inaccurate as it had been devastating in the first half and the crowd were calling for some action.  Fifteen minutes from the end the crowd began to stream away disappointed at Everton’s second half fail from form although with a 5-goal lead, some could hardly blame them for taking things easily.  Everton’s second half performance had slumped incredibly from the excellence that had gone before.  United who had been pulverised in the first half, were now having 90 per cent of the game and were unlucky on a couple of occasions not to break through for goals.  Dunlop made a fine save from a well-hit shot by Nicholson, turning the ball on to the post and collecting the rebound.  It was all United now but Everton’s lead was unassailable.  Final; Everton 5, Manchester United 1.  Official attendance 48,199. 

MAN UTD A EVERTON A
Saturday, December 2, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
Everton “A” kept the ball moving well despite heavy going.  They frequently had Cutler in the United goal in action.  Russell and Humphries went close, and McKenzie had a shot kicked off the goal line.  Half-time; Manchester United “A” nil, Everton “A” nil. 

IT'S TIME EVERTON HAD FINAL DATE
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 02 December 1961
By Alex Parker
Right at the start of the season I said if I had a choice between  winning the League championship and the F.A. Cup, I would plump for the  Cup every time. Well, it's almost Cup time again, the draw having been made last Monday and giving us a home game against Southern League club King’s Lynn.  It would be foolish to regard this match as good as won, which is what many supporters I have spoken to seem to think.  Let us say that, with all due respect to our visitors, we could on paper, have had a harder draw.  Maybe our luck in being drawn at home is an indication that much of the good fortune we have missed in the League this season with injuries, is going to be with us in our bid to reach Wembley.  Anyway, it's about time Everton did get to the final. We have been letting Lancashire down.  There are nine “big” clubs in the county—Blackpool, Preston. Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton -and only one of them has failed to reach Wembley since the war!I won’t mention any names, but I think it is about time the omission was rectified.
LESLIE’S SAVE
It was good to get back into the game last week after my injury lay-off, even though we were beaten.  Still, there’s no cause for alarm, I don't think anybody need worry that we have lost our touch.  The team played quite well and, but for a miraculous save by West Ham ‘keeper Lawrie Leslie just after the interval from Roy Vernon, I'm certain we would have won.  I realise that is why Leslie is there. I only mention the point to illustrate how near we came to avoiding defeat.  As further proof hereis an extract from Mr. A.  Lettie’s, of 63 Milson Road Hammersmith, London W. 14. He writes; - “Thank you and your team colleagues for a delightful and clever display at West Ham. How a team can play such attractive football and still lose I don't know, but on this glittering show defeat will be a rare thing."  Before the game, Bobby Collins, also returning after injury, and I received a telegram saying: Sorry we can't make it. Best of luck to you and Bobby.  Signed Five Everton Lads “I don't know who the five Everton Lads are, but on behalf of Bobby and myself, I would like to say thank you very much. Only sorry we didn't win. 
MORE HONOURS 
Neither of us felt any after-effects from our injuries, although I must admit that after missing three games I felt just a little sluggish. However, Iam hoping to have got over that in to-day's match with Manchester United.  More honours for Everton  players this week. Brian Labone had another good game in another win by the England Under-23 team in Holland on Wednesday. Alex Young went to Brussels with the Scotland team for the World Cup play-off against Czechoslovakia.  I saw the film of the highlights of this match and would like to congratulate lan St. John on his two goals and the way he played. Unlike some players Ian can certainly maintain his club form in an International shirt.  COACH TRIP 
Then, of course, Colin Green, our young full back, has been chosen to play against Scotland in the Under - 29 International against Scotland at Wrexham.  This is a great honour for Colin considering he has had so little first team experience Jimmy Gabriel has also had a nice wedding present in being chosen to play for Scotland in the same match.  All the players received an invitation from Mr. Arthur Scott, of the Everton Supporters’ Federation, inviting them to the club headquarters for TV’s panel game “Take Your Pick.” Unfortunately we won’t be able to make it as Everton had already arranged a coach trip to Wrexham for the Under-23 match and it is on the same night.  It is very disappointing but as the coach trip had already been planned when we received Mr. Scott’s invitation, there is nothing that can be done about it.  Tommy Jones returned from hospital in Barnsley and came down to the club last Tuesday.  His leg is in plaster, but he told me he hopes to have it taken off the plaster, not his leg) in about six weeks.  Still, he is his usual cheery self, and knowing Tommy as I do, it won’t keep him out of the game any longer than it has to. 

MAN UNITED RES V EVERTON RES
Saturday, December 2, 1961 Liverpool Echo
Manchester United;- Briggs; Smith, Wardley; Stiles, Haydock, Donaldson; Latham, Quixall, Ackerley, McMillan, Bradley.  Everton Res; Dunne; Parnell, Green; Gannon, Sharples, Meagan, Lill, Wignall, Webber, Temple, Veall.  Referee; Mr. E. Eastwood (Barnsley).  Everton were soon on the attack and Lill threatened danger when he rounded Wardly, but Briggs dealt with the final shot.  At the other end, Dunne saved from Ackerley.  Dunne was again in action to save from McMillan, who had beaten Sharples.  Following a corner the Manchester goal almost fell when Webber brought Briggs to a fingertip save.  Lill was proving a real danger and Haydock gave away a corner.  Following a chase for the ball with McMillan, Gannon put it back to the goalkeeper but the ball slipped out of his hands and McMillan put United one up.  Again Dunne nearly gave away a goal when challenged by McMillan.  He failed to parry a shot.  With Briggs beaten Smith kicked a Veall effort off the line.  A shot by Meagan was parried by Briggs, but Lill, following up, scored the equaliser.  After a Bradley shot had been kicked away by Green, United went ahead with a Quixall penalty after Sharples had brought down McMillan.  Half-time; Manchester United Res 2, Everton Res 1.

A 45-MINUTE TORNADO BLOWS ITSELF OUR
Monday, December 4, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
MIGHTY EVERTON ATTACK HITS FIVE –AND DECLARES
EVERTON 5, MANCHESTER UNITED 1
By Horace Yates
I doubt if there is a team in the land which could have lived with Everton in those scorching forty-five minutes of first half splendour, in which Manchester United conceded five goals and hardly knew why it was not more, and experienced the sort of indignities that the old United heaped so mercilessly on many other unfortunates, in the days of their glorious past.  Only the memory remained glorious for them on Saturday, for while Everton revelled in an attack which can hardly ever have been more potent, United reeled before a storm, from which there was no shelter.  As goal after goal ripped into the net United’s plight became more and more desperate.  They were incapable of applying any remedy for the simple reason that already their defence was at full stretch and entirely inadequate.  All Everton required was to have a foot in front of an opponent and that was the way it stayed.  United had no [pace in reserve to pull out for the emergency a falling which reduced them to the role of desperate bystanders. 
FIVE NOT ENOUGH
Five goals by half time were not enough.  They had merely whetted the appetite of the crowd for more and because they were not forthcoming there was some disappointment.  Unreasonable?  I don’t think so.  If the theory could have been accepted that Everton simply called it a day and coasted to an inevitable victory no one could have complained but was this really the case?  After having marvelled at such an exhibition of deadliness and power, compared with an attack of almost powder puff intensity of the previous week, there were the too familiar decorative dabs about the later approaches that brought an almost complete forward fade-out.  Perhaps it is churlish to be critical of such obvious accomplishment and yet I would be surprised if manager Catterick were to be entirely satisfied with that second stage attack.  While the Everton advance was as sweet as any song, Roy Vernon made the most tremendous impact on the proceedings.  Where is there a more explosive attacker when in a mood such as this?  He was almost like a mountain in constant eruption.  His ability towered over the heights on which others stood, and this speed and accuracy of finish were gifts at which to marvel.  Vernon was the man who more than any other made United appear so utterly helpless.  What a bundle of resolution and fight are bound up in his space frame! 
REAL PERSONALITY
Crowd reaction tells the story of Vernon’s appeal.  There is a murmur of expectancy almost every time he makes contact with the ball and oftener than not these days the appetite is satisfied, i have never known a more thrilling progressive or accomplished Vernon than this.  Here was no mere finisher.  For him it was a case of prising open the slightest crack until it became a gulf.  Undoubtedly, Vernon is one of the football personalities of his day.  I must confess that I like Young best when he is attacking.  To find him back in front of his own goal lending a willing hand, may be a first class testimonial to his industry, but it is at the opposite end that I prefer to see him using his undoubted talents.  If a centre forward goes out of the attack, it is hardly surprising if that attack becomes a formation in name only.  Young is most damaging when kept in full employment by Collins and Vernon, and with Collins showing signs of regaining confidence and form, the havoc these three can wreak makes the imagination boggle at the prospect.  Labone’s commanding mastery was plain for all to see, even if Herd did score once and had only inadequate finishing qualities to blame for failing on two other occasions.  The centre-half hounded United’s attack mercilessly and the advance of Gabriel is one of the most impressive developments of the season. 
GABRIEL’S ADVANCE
From the start he has shown possession of defensive qualities but not only have these been heightened, but his attacking will has progressed most markedly.  An advance of this sort must bring Gabriel right to the forefront of wing halves, and Harris, whose qualities are so often underestimated, completes a line which makes Everton happy indeed in an all-important department.  If Thomson was struggling more than once against the debutant outside-right Chisnall, this was probably more a measure of Chisnall’s high promise than a Thomson fall from grace.  A week and a game have made a tremendous difference to Parker.  This was much more like the Parker who has been consistency itself for so long, and behind, Dunlop was ever ready for the occasional challenge.  Those who have seen Charlton in full majesty could hardly realise that behind Saturday’s shadow there has been such mighty substance.  It will be a happier United when Charlton is himself again, not that one repolished star can restore all the glitter.  Everton were ahead in nine minutes when Young turned the ball back to Collins to hit home a great shot; in 12 minutes Vernon, holding off Nicholson’s challenge, had made it two.  It was three in 15 minutes with fell shooting and in 17 minutes later came Vernon’s goal of the match, with a run from half-way.  When Gaskell knocked out a Vernon shot in 38 minutes, Young hammered it back.  On the hour Herd by-passed Dunlop and seven minutes from the end, Everton’s only non-scoring forward Bingham beat Gaskill, only to find an offside decision against him.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Manchester United; Gaskill; Brennan, Dunne; Nicholson, Foulkes, Setters; Chrisnall, Giles, Herd, Lawton, Charlton.  Referee; Mr. J.R. Laynton (Solihull) Attendances 48,199

LILL WAS THE STAR MAN
Monday, December 4, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
MANCHESTER UNITED RES 3, EVERTON RES 2
It needed a wonder goal to prevent Everton Reserves getting at least a point when they met Manchester United Reserves in this Central League game at Manchester on Saturday.  Twice they fought back from a goal behind Latham scored the winner ten minutes from time when he beat three Everton defenders before unleashing a strong left-foot shot.  Lill, on the Everton right wing, was the star of the game.  He was always too good for the United left back, scored one of his sides goals and laid on the other.  Webber was a hard-working centre forward while Sharples was generally too good for United’s Ackerley, but Dunne did not inspire confidence in goal.  Scorers for United were Latham, Quixall (penalty) and McMillian, and for Everton, Lill and Webber. 
NON-LEAGUERS
When Everton play their F.A Cup game with King’s Lynn at Goodison Park it will be the 19th Non-League team they will have opposed in this competition.  Many of them, among them members of the old Southern League, like Southampton, Millwall, Portsmouth, have since attained League status, but were Non-Leaguers in the old Cup battles. 
HOW LONG SINCE?
When Everton had hit five goals at half-time their jubilant supporters began a memory test-when did we last score more than five and what is our top score?  The first of course, was easy to answer for it was only on October 7 that Everton scored six against Nottingham Forest and many of Saturday’s crowd must have seen them do it.  How many I wonder, saw them score their last nine, which is the top score, for it happened nearly thirty years ago.  They reached this total twice in 1931-32 against Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday. 

OUT OF THIS WORLD-THEN CAME FADE-OUT
Monday, December 4, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
By Michael Charters
A fantastic match at Goodison Park on Saturday.  Forty-five minutes of out-of-this-world football from Everton against the poorest Manchester United side since the war, and then 45 minutes of half-pace mediocrity.  Never can a game have taken such a turn after an interval, and although one can understood Everton giving themselves a comfortable second half after pulverising United with five great goals, I also felt sorry for spectators who pay to see a 90 minutes game of all-out endeavour.  Everton’s first half display had been of such excellence that perhaps it was too much to expect them to carry on similarly all through, and the tendency to ease up must have been great.  In the first half, Everton made scoring look as easy as shelling peas.  United’s defence was demoralised against the craft of Vernon, Young and Collins, who made the ball almost talk as they flicked it around and then went for goal as though they intended to carry Gaskell, net and all, into Stanley park.  This was stylish football allied to wonderful finishing power which would be hard to equal anywhere.  During the week Everton had been given the additional training stint of shooting with the ball on the run.  How it paid off!  Their strength on the ball all along the line, backed by a wonderful service from Gabriel and Harris, brushed the United defence almost impudently aside.  The half backs, Nicholson, Foukles and Setters, almost disappeared from view in the welter of fast, punishing attacks, and with Gaskell faulty at times, it was little wonder that Everton goals came five times to tremendous roars of appreciation from their delighted fans. 
PARKER AT HIS BEST
Poor as United defenders were, with little help from their forwards against such pressure, few sides could have withstood Everton in this crushing mood.  Parker, brilliant in everything he did, was at outside right more than he was at full back; Gabriel and Harris were breathing down the necks of their forwards, pushing the ball through; and the attack responded to the utter confusion of United’s wilting defence.  The goals were gems of cultured constructive work, plus deadly finishing.  The first (nine minutes) was Collins’s first of the season, brought about initially by Gabriel coming right through with the ball to the penalty area, hitting it back to Young, who unselfishly turned it further back for Collins to take accurate aim and shoot coolly into the corner of the net.  Vernon, superb in this first half, scored the next (11 minutes) after Foulkes had mistimed a headed clearance.  Vernon (I’ve never seen him so fast on the ball and with it) snapped it up, raced through a midfield gap as wide as Lime Street, with Nicholson tagging along helplessly alongside, and cleverly lobbed it over Gaskill’s head as the goalkeeper came slowly out.  United were staggering and looked down and out for the count when the third goal arrived (15 minutes).  This was a Parker-inspired effort as he moved powerfully onto goal, flicked the ball to Collins, who shot against Gaskell, the ball coming back to Parker, whose left-foot drive slammed against Gaskell again.  This time the ball spun out to the left, where Fell controlled it very neatly and rammed it home from an angle. 
A SPECIAL BY VERNON
There were near misses (Vernon hit the post once) and panic measures by United during the next 17 minutes before goal No. 4 came.  This was Vernon’s own, a great individual effort.  He collected a pass from Thomson in midfield, beating Nicholson with a swerve and dummy, and then hared for goal to shoot past Gaskell from 15 yards.  Five minutes later Young joined the scorers.  Vernon repeated the move which had led to the fourth goal, but this time he shot against the goalkeeper and the ball rebounded to Young, who very coolly lifted it above the sprawl of bodies in front of him and the ball was in the roof of the net before United could move an inch to intercept.  This was vintage football and all United had to show for 45 minutes of hectic chasing after shadows were a couple of chances which Herd muffed.  Then came the transformation.  United were able to have 75 per cent, of the second half, scored through Herd on the hour from what looked like an offside position, but even so they did not regain more than a small part of their reputation which Everton had left a tattered wreck by the interval.  Their pressure went to prove that Dunlop has never been in better form- two saves from Chisnall and Nicholson were brilliant-that Labone is the best centre half in England, that Gabriel and Harris are just as good defensively as they were constructively earlier, and that Charlton got not the slightest change out of the dominating Parker.  The only crumb of consolation for United was the display of 19-years old Chisnall, on the right wing, who had a grand League debut and was the one forward who looked dangerous consistently.  Everton’s forwards after the interval faded, I counted just two shots from a side which did everything right in the first half.  Collins almost surprised Gaskell with a surprise 35-yard which hit the side netting, and Harris went through on his own with a brilliant run to shoot straight at the goalkeeper.  Still 45 minutes of the football Everton provided initially was sufficient to keep us warm during the chill of the second half, when driving rain into the faces of the Everton players could have had something to do with their take-it-easy tactics. 

SOUTHAMPTON INTERESTED IN FRANK WIGNALL
Tuesday, December 5, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Jack Rowe
With the return of Bobby Collins to the Everton team several clubs are showing renewed interest in centre forward Frank Wignall, who played for the Reserves last Saturday.  One of them in Southampton latest conquerors of Liverpool who had their chief scout checking up on Saturday. 

MANAGERS HEAD FOR THE STARS AT WREXHAM
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 05 December 1961
By Michael Charters
Two years ago, the bright young football men of Wales and Scotland met at Wrexham in an Under-23 international and began the train of events which brought Alex Young and Jimmy Gabriel to Everton.  Both were in the Scottish side and convinced Everton watchers that they were the type needed at Goodison Park. Since then, they have played for the full international side and Gabriel re-appears on the international scene in the corresponding fixture at Wrexham again to-morrow night (7 p.m.) -two days after his wedding to a Liverpool girl! This is a match which attracts club managers in their dozens and who knows what future stars will emerge and blossom under the Racecourse floodlights this time, to be vetted and noted for future action by the big-money clubs of the First Division.  In addition to Gabriel, three other local boys step up  for their first big honour—all for Wales—in Southport's  Reg Blore at centre forward, Everton's Colin Green at left  back and Wrexham's Ron Roberts on the left wing. The choice of Blore is remarkable because the No. 1 candidate for the position was Wyn Davies, of Wrexham, but Blore has rapidly established himself as the finest young leader in the Fourth Division this season, although very few people thought he would be chosen by Wales. His parents are both from Liverpool but he was born near Wrexham when his mother was living there during the war evacuation years, so he qualifies on that ground.  At present, Roberts cannot hold a regular first team place for Wrexham but has proved earlier that, on form, he is one of the best young wingers in Wales. Green's rise to fame has been rapid, for he only made his League debut for Everton last season and has no more than a dozen first team appearances. He has never appeared on the losing side and Everton have a fine prospect in this Wrexham-born boy. Wales have defensive problems in the senior side and Green, with his other colleagues, has a wonderful chance to make a lasting impression on the selectors, who, I know are hoping to find some youngsters who can be earmarked for full selection, perhaps this season.
EVERTON THERE IN FORCE
Everton have arranged a coach party for players and officials who want to see the game and more than 30 of them will be there to see their club-mates, Gabriel and Green, in opposition. Gabriel joined the Scottish team when they arrived in Liverpool this afternoon from Glasgow before going on to the Chester hotel which is their prematch headquarters. The team will do some light training on Chester's ground at Sealand Road to-morrow morning.  One Scot I am looking forward to seeing again is Barry Ogston, the Aberdeen goalkeeper, who looked outstanding when he played for the Army team at Anfield last season.  This powerfully-built youngster seems good enough for First Division and I wonder how long it will be before some English club moves in for him.  Results of these Under-23 matches are Insignificant compared to the Interest of watching the youthful talent of the two countries. Scotland, especially, seems to be having a boom in quality just now, and I hear reports that Crerand (Celtic) and Baxter (Rangers) the wing halves in the senior side, both have tremendous ability which has not been lost on English clubs. Rangers and Celtic are two of  the few Scottish clubs who can hold on to their players  because they can offer financial rewards equivalent to First  Division teams here, so it is unlikely that Baxter and  Crerand will leave Glasgow.  Gabriel, playing up to international standard by any reckoning these days, is unfortunate to have a class player like Crerand opposing him for the right half position.  There are; few stand tickets still available to-morrow from the Wrexham club and I hope the weather is kinder than two seasons ago. I still recall with a shudder the deluge which soaked everyone around Wrexham that night but still could not dampen the quality of the game.

FROM THE MANAGERIAL CHAIR
Wednesday, December 6, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
SCOTLAND HAS PLENTY OF REAL TALENT
By Harry Catterick
In common with the Scots, I was disappointed when the team failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in Chile next summer.  A great pity.  It would not only have given the necessary fillip to football lovers in this country but also have been a companionship boom to the England team to have them near at hand.  The Scottish side had made rapid strides in the past twelve months; advancing in style as England went back.  But they were unable to maintain this improvement against the Czechs.  Throughout the years Scotland has made a very great contribution to the national game far in excess of what would be expected from its five and a half million population.  The true craftsmen of the game still come from North of the border and, I have no doubt, will continue to do so.  In the years before the war it was unusual indeed to find an English League side that did not have one Scot in the engine-room-wing-half or inside-forward. 
NATURAL INSTINCT
English clubs have been ever-ready to do transfer deals over the border because they knew they would be getting a player with a natural instinct for the game.  Last season, for instance the value of that dynamic wing-half Dave Mackay, and intelligent ball-playing inside forward John white to Spurs was inestimable.  Mackay is a power-house wing-half recalling the great deeds of Wilf Copping in Arsenal’s great days while White is undoubtedly one of the best inside-forwards in the game today.  The joint fee, round about £65,000 has been well repaid.  Strangely enough their Cup Final opponents Leicester City had no less than four Scots in their team at Wembley.  The Filbert Street club have often scouted over the border for players, and in right-half.  Frank McLintock and centre-half Ian King they have two of the most highly promising young players in the game at the present time.  It is perhaps therefore a trifle strange to find that Manchester United, managed by former Scottish international wing-half Matt Busby, have only three Scots (youngsters Ian Moir, outside-right, Michael Lorimer, full-back, as well as centre-forward Dave Herd on their staff.  Matt seems to be one man who does not regularly explore the Scottish fields for talent.  But then United have done so well with local talent that they can be excused from casting their eyes so far away. 
TRATAN PROMINENT
We have always had a sprinkling of Scots at Goodison Park.  Well do I recall bluff, burly and breezy Jock Thomson, who was skipper here, and now, of course, the tartan is very prominent with Bobby Collins, Alec Young, Alex Parker, George Thomson, Willie Mailey, Jimmy Gabriel.  Across the road at Anfield our neighbours will not be doing anything but rejoice over bringing Ron Yeats and Ian St. John to team up with the others.  Both these players speedily made their mark in our football and are playing a very big part indeed in ensuing that those great and memorable Liverpool derbies will be resumed once again next season!  We find Scots too among the managerial fraternity.  In the First Division we have Les McDowall (Manchester City), Matt Busby (Manchester United) Archie Macaulay (W.B.A) Matt Gillies (Leicester City) and Andy Beattie (Nottingham Forest).  Each and every one of them, of course, first made their mark down here on the playing pitch and have remained with us.  Such names at the late Alex James, of course, have become legendary in this game old game of ours.  Alex, with his straight hair parted down the middle, his long baggy pants extending below his knees and his habit of waving his foot mesmerically over the ball made him a figure beloved by the cartoonists.  He was a brilliant inside-forward and one who sank his own playing ideas to conform to the job laid down for him by the great Herbert Chapman.  As far as I am concerned the Scottish football fields will always be carefully scrutinised in our continued search for talent.  Ever since I came on to the managerial side of football I have paid regular excursions each season into Scotland.  Like England’s North-Eastern area the place is one hugh nursery of football talent and the game never seems to lose its appeal there.  I rate it one of the finest areas for soccer talent. 

EVERTON FREE-WHEELING PUT THEM IN LUMBER
Wednesday, December 6, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
By Leslie Edwards
Only one thing worse than getting into lumber (as Everton did in the second-half of the Manchester United game). That is getting a painful lumbar into yourself. I speak from experience. There is no certain cure, it seems. Unless, like a friend of mine last winter, you go ski-ing and come such a purler that something clicks back into place and you never feel a twinge of lumbago again!  It is only proper to add that if you hear the wrong sort of click the probability is that you won't ever ski again or play golf or do anything of the things your lumbago precludes.  As a lay-man (both prone and as to physio-therapy) it  was interesting to hear that there is, among physiotherapists'  innumerable battery of modern aids, a box  whose magic rivals that of the other box which has us  goggling. It has super-sonic sound and is so effective in reducing the size of a badly kicked or strained ankle the swelling discolouration can actually be seen disappearing.  No wonder the machine costs between two and three hundred pounds.  The snag, they say, is that if the super-sonic pressure is put on too fiercely the bone of the leg can be cracked.  That is why; say experts, the box which is already in use in most other parts of the world, cannot be used, without the authority of the medicos, in Britain.   Unhappily, I missed the United game and so was spared the anti-climax of a second half in which the team which had made all the running, and five goals, rested, for one reason or another (see Alex Young s explanation on this page) to such an extent hundreds were leaving the ground half an hour before the end.  But others didn't and became so frustrated they wrote (as do so many complainants in this city) to me. 
“It’s their duty” 
Here is what Mr. J. M. Joinson, ofOrrell Park. says; - Howlong does a football match last? With Everton it appears that 45 minutes is the rule when they are leading by three or more goals at the interval. Saturday's match was the fourth time this season they have taken it easy after the interval. Also last season there were a few 45-minute games.  "Surely it is the duty of club and players to provide 90 minutes entertainment, which is what the spectator pays for, not the rubbish it was our misfortune to see during the second half on this occasion? Everton are losing their chance of improving their goal average which they may need if they want to overtake Burnley.  The truth of my remarks was shown by the number of people who left the ground long before the end” I sympathise with Mr. Johnson and with Everton players It is hard, when you are five goals up inside 40 minutes to take any game seriously. Quite clearly they did not want to rub it in; they aimed. I should say, at holding their lead and at not risking injury.  Perhaps the easiest way of playing out a match in which you lead 5-0 is by trying to make your lead one of six, seven, or eight goals or more?  That is assuming, of course, that in getting your five in one half you have run yourself ragged… Boxing does not have this problem. The fans see a knock-out and are satisfied they have seen the contest won and lost. Everton had their opponents "cold” the same way, but they still had to play out, as best they could, the 45 minutes which remained.
Two games in one 
To obviate second halves which are almost formalities R E. Jones, from Mayfield Road, Ashton, near Preston, would make each game two-in-one. "It was obvious." he writes. "That most of the interest of the United game had gone by the interval. In order to make games interesting to the end, and hence bring back some of the missingfans, why not award points for each half?  For instance, Everton would have got four points out of this match and Manchester United two.

The great snag, for me would be that a team winning 5-1 would get only four points to their opponents’ two, whereas a team winning 2-0 (one goal to nil in each half) would pick up six points.  The margin of difference in points would be too wide to cover such contingencies. 

GABRIEL KEPT SCOTS STAR URE OUT OF THE TEAM
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 06 December 1961
Says Everton’s Alex Young
What went wrong after the interval? Did you ease up after half-time? These are a sample of questions I have been asked this week, following last Saturday's match against Manchester United.  The subject has been as much discussed in the dressing room as it appears to have been outside, and naturally all kinds of theories have been advanced.  Those who have been with  Everton a little longer than I  point out that there was a  similar match during the  1959-60 season, when Everton  led Chelsea 6-1 at half-time  and the second half was  goalless.  For my part, I offer three; points which may perhaps help to throw a little light the matter. Firstly, when side leaves the field at half-time leading by five goals they know that the match virtually over. They probably relax mentally a little  more than usual during the  five minutes or so in the  dressing room, with a result that on returning to the playing pitch their minds are not keyed up to the same pitch  as before and the timing of  passes, tackles, &c., is just  that fraction of a second out. 
USED UP ENERGY 
Secondly, on Saturday the forwards were on the ball for the whole of the first 45 minutes, perhaps using up energy which in the course of a normal game would be spread over the whole 90 minutes.  Thirdly, in the first half the Goodison pitch was justhow we like it. The ball wasskidding off the wet surface, with the result that we were able to move it quickly.  Then, because of heavy rain towards the end of the first half and during the interval, the pitch became heavy and the ball was slowed down. Just as the pitch suited our style in the first half, I think it was more, suitable to United in the second and they were able to take a much firmer grip on the proceedings.  Anyway, I think I'll forget those second 45 minutes altogether now and remember the first 45. I enjoyed them so much, I doubt if it will ever be possible to forget them.  Saturday was the second time last week that a match did not go quite as I thought it would after the interval.  In Brussels on Wednesday, when Scotland led 1-0 at half-time.  I thought my country was booked for the World Cup finals. In the second half however, things changed and the Czechs really showed their class. 
FAIR RESULT 
A 2-2 draw I thought a fair result after 90 minutes play, but the Czechs did so well during extra time that I think they were deserving winners.  One who certainly could not take any blame for Scotland's defeat was my old rival from Anfield, Ian St John I rated Ian the outstanding Scottish forward, overshadowing even Denis Law and John White.  I am sure that will please Liverpool fans, but the next paragraph may not go down, quite so well with them.  The player who impressed me most in the Scottish team was centre half Ian Ure, of Dundee. He is tall, but nevertheless an extremely fast mover. A solid defender and hard tackler, Ian looks to me as If he may have come to stay as the pivot of Scotland's defence.  JIMMY'S UNDERSTUDY 
Strange thing is that before Jimmy Gabriel came to Everton. Ian could not gain a regular place in the Dundee firm team Jimmy played at centre half and Ian was second choice for thatposition. Then both players switched to wing half and again Jimmy got the first team berth and Ian had to bide his time with the “stiffs.”  Contrary to the "advice” of the married boys at Goodison, Jimmy Gabriel was married on Monday. Joking apart, may I offer best wishes to Jimmy and his bride, a Liverpool girl, Patricia Gaskell, on behalf of myself and all the Everton players.  If you see a coach load of Everton players heading out of town to-day, don't get the idea that we are fleeing from our wives because of that crack I have just made. The real reason we will be heading for the Welsh border isto watch to-night's Under-23 international between Wales and Scotland at Wrexham.  With Jimmy Gabriel playing  at right half in the  Scottish side and Colin Green at left back for Wales, it has  been quite a problem figuring  out which team to support,  but if the match is as good as the corresponding one at the same ground two years ago it will be well worth the journey. 
IBROX IDOL 
In the Scotland team at inside right is Andy Penman; a youngster of great promise whom you will remember had a short spell at Goodison.  Andy forms a very interesting right wing partnership with young Willie Henderson, currently the idol of Ibrox Park.  Henderson, understudy to Scotland and Rangers right winger, Alex Scott is 17 years old and only five feet tall. I am told his ball control is remarkable and it seems Wales picked the right man for the job of marking him when they named Colin Green, a fine tackler who makes a very quick recovery on the rare occasions he is beaten.  I am looking forward to  seeing Penman again, too. I last played with Andy in the Scottish League side against the Irish League in Belfast during November, 1960, Just before I signed for Everton.  We struggled for most of the game with 10 men—one of them, incidentally,was George Thomson and finally won 2-1. Andy had a fine game and I was lucky enough to score the two goals which mattered. 
ADVICE ON DRIBBLING 
Alan Dickens of 21 Ashfield Gardens, Liverpool 5,would like some tips on dribbling and ball control.  To control the ball, Alan, you must practise as much as possible. I suggest hitting  the ball against a wall or  perhaps finding a couple of  pals willing to supply you  with passes from varying  directions and at different heights in dribbling you should try  and send your opponent off  balance. Also, try and stoop over the ball, so that it is difficult for him to tackle you. Once you have mastered the art of putting an opponent off balance, you should then practise quickness off the mark, so that you can gain full advantage from the opening you have created.  By the way, one of the sporting personalities in Brussels last Wednesday for the Scotland -Czechoslovakia match Tommy Gosling.  Sir Winston Churchill's jockey. During the courseof a conversation with Tommy, who had flown from Lanark for the game. I asked him for a tip. Don't back horses, he replied solemnly. Makes you think, doesn't it. 

WALES 23 V SCOTLAND U23 0-0
Thursday, December 7, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
Green of Everton played for Wales and Gabriel for Scotland

SOUTHPORT SIGNING
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 07 December 1961
Former Everton Youth Team Player 
A former member of Everton's Youth team, 19- years-old left-winger Barry Edmondson, has signed professional forms for Southport for a trial period.  Edmondson, who is a product of Southport schoolboy football, joined Everton at 15 and subsequently was with Bolton for a time.  In the past two seasons he has been playing with Blackpool as an amateur and has made several appearances in their Central League side this season.  He has now been released from his registration by Blackpool as an amateur.  Edmondson is expected to make his debut for Southport Reserves at Prescot Cables on Saturday.

THAT UNITED GAME...
Friday, December 8, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON DID NOT PULL ANY SECOND HALF PUNCHES
Says Roy Vernon
I am glad of the opportunity this week to kill a story that Everton deliberately eased up against Manchester United after scoring five goals in the first half on Saturday, to spare Mr. Matt Busby’s side the ignominy of a defeat by what might have been near-record proportions.  This is the inference which many people drew from our second half goal famine, but it could not be further from the truth.  I have been asked over and over again if instructions were issued in the dressing-room in the interval to pull our second half punches.  I could hardly be more emphatic in refuting such an idea.  In fact, if you could have been in the dressing-room you would have heard manager Mr. Harry Catterick warning us that because we had scored five that did not mean to say we were sitting pretty.  Our instructions were to go out continue to play football and continue to score goals. 
WHAT WENT WRONG?
What then, went wrong with the works?  Well, I can only guess, but if I had been manager of United I think I would have been tempted to read the riot Act and tell them that any further goals had to be scored “over their dead bodies,” so to speak!  Whether that happened or not they obviously restarted with the philosophy that they might as well lose by ten goals as five.  The defeat would be equally final and so they threw everything into attack.  The wing halves became forwards and so Everton had to adopt tactics accordingly.  Whether we were right to pack our defence to cope with a bolstered attack is a matter of opinion, but if we had not and that lead had been whittled down the criticism would not have been slow to follow.  I admire United for fighting back so well.  Some of the United players told me after the game that they are not playing as badly as results would appear to indicate.  It is the old story that when a team drops into a rut it does not get the run of the ball just when it needs it most.  We know, for we have experienced it, as of course have most clubs.  When we were riddling the United defence it seemed to me that they were adopting a man-for-man marking, and if by any chance we beat one of their chaps we were clean through.  There was no question of wandering which route to take.  They left it wide open for us.  Naturally we accepted the invitation.  Their full backs played on the wings and the centre half followed Alex Young as faithfully as any little lamb.  I formed the impression that this United side would have to score a lot of goals to win matches with a defensive system like that. 
GOOD LUCK BOOTS....
I christened a new pair of boots in this match after having broken them in during training and if they continue to bring me the sort of luck I enjoyed on Saturday I hope they last a life-time.  For me it was quite an exciting week-end.  On Friday my sister was married in North Wales.  Off I went to Ffynnongroew to see the wedding and because I had a day off, I promised the boss that I would still put in the usual loosening up training we generally do the day before a game.  True to my word, before the celebrations I stripped off and went into a local farmer’s field to put myself through my paces and it was while I was there, in complete solitude, that I realised just how lucky the professional footballer of today really is, especially at Goodison Park where his every whim is catered for.  My mind went back to the time when I was an amateur and used to play sometimes on pitches little better than this farmer’s field.  On Sunday there was Jimmy Gabriel’s bachelor night party, followed by his wedding the following day.  Most of the boys were there with their wives, for all of us have wives now except Brian Labone, George Thomson and Brian Harris and Brian Harris will leave the bachelor ranks next Monday.  Jimmy Gabriel and his wife have taken over Bobby Collins former home, Bobby having moved out a short distance to new property still in the same district. 
WIGNALL MOVES IN
In fact, I think it is true to say that within a radius of about two miles or so you will find houses tenanted by the following football personnel; Bert Slater, myself, Mickey Lill, Ian St. John, Alex Parker, Brian Labone, Alex Young, Bobby Collins, Jimmy Gabriel and Jimmy Fell.  There may be others, but I have not been on the rounds lately!  Frank Wignall has moved into a club house also, but he is a little way removed from us.  On Wednesday we all went over to Wrexham to see Jimmy Gabriel and Colin Green in action in the Under-23 international.  As I sat there I remembered how proud I had been when I trooped out with the Welsh team for a game against Ireland.  I have affectionate memories of the Racecourse.  I hope it will not be considered out of place to offer congratulations to Jimmy Melia and Roger Hunt on being invited to train with the England players.  This may not indicate that there is a cap just waiting to be fitted but it shows they are being watched and that is a tremendous incentive believes me. 

ONLY HUMAN NATURE…
Liverpool Echo - Friday 08 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton, too, should win—this time at Cardiff. The settled eleven which dis- United Manchester a week ago  must be one of the most confident teams in the land. The discerning do not count it against them their failure to score in the second-half last week. They realise that in the conditions and holding such a big lead it was only human nature (and inevitable tiredness) which caused them to appear to lose their grip.  Manager Catterick, a great believer in developing the stamina of his men, has given the staff tests and is now attempting to inculcate stamina where it may be lacking.  The players do, each week, weight training exercises and in one week at least recently the weights were so stepped up that they could almost be termed weight-lifting.  My own view is that the essence in soccer is whether a player can play football: all who can, of course,must benefit from training which gives them added strength, added ability to play a match fiat out from start to finish.  As Mr. Catterick says, physical training is now almost a science. Everton are lucky to have on their staff in Tom Eggleston a trainer who knows just how far he can go with extraneous aids, such as weights, to producing a fit team on the day.  I was amused (and I am sure you were) to read of the case of the Bolton Wanderers' fan who was dis-satisfied with the team and wrote to the local newspaper to say so. Mr.  Bill Ridding's reaction was to invite the complainant to his office for a chat. The man concerned felt he had been “carpeted” and I'm not surprised.  Spectators are entitled to their say, providing they are reasonable, and there should never be doubt in anyone’s mind manager's, players' or directors' that they hold office only because the man in the street supports them and their team.  Perhaps it is as well Mr. Ridding does not manage a team on Merseyside. The successive managers of Liverpool and Everton have received, gratuitously, thousands of letters of criticism, mostly through this column, about their teams and never once have I received from either club intimation that the views of the customers were not wanted.  This says much for the upbringing of football authority in this city.  The truth is that where criticism is stilled or stifled or non-existent the city gets the football it deserves. Rather  irate readers of, and writers to, this column, have done  their share, indirectly, towards giving our clubs a greater  sense of the urgency and of the necessity to give fans more  than the promise of jam to-morrow—jam to-day!  Meantime, the life story everyone wants to read. Danny Blanchower’s has its first chapter to-morrow night In the Football Echo. “The Double and before," written by this great player and controversialist, will tie continuing week by week in our football edition.

EVERTON UNCHANGED 
Liverpool Echo - Friday 08 December 1961
Everton, at Cardiff City, rely on the team which defeated Manchester United 5-1.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.

THE STRANGE CONFESSION OF GEORGE KIRKBY
Liverpool Echo - Friday 08 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
A player with a remarkable history plays for Plymouth Argyle at Anfield to-morrow—George Kirby, a son of Liverpool who is still making his way in the soccer world. As a schoolboy player of great promise it was natural Everton should keep tabs on him and then sign him professional at the earliest opportunity. Manager Cliff Britton was in charge at that time. Came a change  in management and George served under Ian Buchan, whose weight training (not very popular  with some players) so improved the team's stamina  and strength they went straight to the top of  Division I with hardly a defeat in the first ten or  eleven matches. Kirby, filling the Hickson vacancy, was then getting goals and nodding ‘em in with such force and accuracy he looked a second Dixie Dean. Indeed, I said to him: you go on playing like this there's no telling where you’ll finish. Perhaps in an England shirt!"  It was then Kirby let me into a personal secret—a confession. He said: “I don't know how I'm doing it.  I'm sure the bubble will burst soon “Within a week, after a match at Newcastle (one Tom Eglington will remember for a painful clash with Scoular’ Kirby climbed into the coach outside St. James' Park and said: " What did I tell you' you see. I knew it would happen."  He scarcely played another good game in the first team: lost his place and was eventually transferred to Sheffield Wednesday. From there he went to Plymouth and if all I hear is true he's now beginning to find the form which made him such a good 'un in prospect five seasons ago.  We shall see for ourselves at Anfield, where George faces Ron Yeats-and not for the first time-how he has progressed.  Here will be a battle of two big men neither of whom is prepared to give an inch.  And since Ron is of course, an Aberdonian, this is perhaps not to surprising. 

DRAW PROSPECT
Saturday, December 9, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Everton, for all the most encouraging record, have not won a game away from Goodison Park since hammering the Wolves on October 14, but two draws and a defeat in the meantime do not exactly make depressing reading, and I believe that if they come back from Ninian Park today with yet another drawn game added to their record most people would be entirely satisfied.  Because they have lost their last three matches (two of them away) by 3-0 margins, is no reason to assume that the bottom has fallen out of City’s resistance.  A run such as that usually produces the most terrific determination to bring it to a close and Cardiff will yield points today most grudgingly.  If the points were to be awarded by football skills I would have no hesitation in forecasting an Everton success- but that is not always the case.  The loss of points could put Cardiff among the strugglers near the foot of the table and this realisation will certainly tighten up the defence.  It was a pleasure to see Everton hitting five goals into United’s net last Saturday and attacking power of that description will torpedo most sides, and certainly Cardiff City, but I have seen the self same line far less potent.  Much depends therefore, on the mood Vernon must be one of the most consistent scorers in the League just now, for he has collected his 11 goals in the last ten games, only two of which have been blank, so that he is out and out Everton’s leading scorer.  I hope Young falls into the attacking groove alongside the Welshman for if he is thrusting as he can, this line will not lack life.  The corresponding match last season produced a 1-1 draw.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell. 

JADED EVERTON PUT ON DISMAL DISPLAY AT NINIAN PARK
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 09 December 1961
CARDIFF CITY 0 EVERTON 0
By Michael Charters
Cardiff City; - John; Herrington, Milne; Hale, Rankmore, Baker; King (P), Tapscott, Moore, King (J), Pickrell.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Referee; Mr. R.H. Windle (Chesterfield).
Everton were at full strength, but Cardiff made seven changes, three positional,after having lost their four previous matches by 3-0 each time.  Collins missed a fine chance of giving Everton an early goal when Baker mis-headed a back pass to Milne for the Everton captain to have an easy shot at goal. Collins, trying to put it over John’s head, got too much height on the ball.  Everton were taking some time to settle own, but Collins finally produced some vintage Everton with a great pass to Vernon who could not quite hold the ball. 
SHAKY DETENCE
Cardiff's defence looked very shaky and when Bingham crossed the ball from the right Harrington headed it against his own crossbar, the ball going over for a corner.  Parker, ever ready to move up into the attack, hit a fineshot from 30 yards which flew wide of the angle.  Everton, at the moment, were not sharp enough in their tackling.  Everton, looked sharper than Cardiff in their moves however, and Fell beat Harrington to put across a good centre, but Bingham headed into the arms of John.  Gabriel and Labone slipped up in successive moves but Harris came across to help Dunlop each time to save the situation. 
DUNLOP HURT 
Labone looked insecure with his heading and allowed Tapscott to collect the ball closeto goal, and it took a courageous save from Dunlop to stop the inside right fromforcing the ball through.  Dunlop hurt his back and the trainer came on. Labone had made more mistakes in half an hour than hehad done in half a dozen previous games. With others around him playing with uncertainty Everton's defence looked shaky. 
IN A TANGLE 
From a free-kick taken by Tapscott Everton's defenders got into a tangle of their own making and John King hooked ball towards an empty net but, fortunately for Everton went over the bar. Little had been seen of Vernon but he moved up well to take a fine pass from Thomson to shoot against  John as the goalkeeper came out, losing the ball in the process, but recovering well to turn the ball round for a  corner. This move seemed to bring some life into the Everton forwards and Collins sent Fell away beautifully. Young cross for Vernon to try a shot from the edge of the box, the ball going just wide.  Everton continued to look very jaded.  There was no enthusiasm or snap about their play and, with Moore playing very well for Cardiff, a home score always looked likely. 
LUCKY ESCAPE 
Everton were lucky when an attempted clearance by Gabriel struck the back of John King, the ball bobbing just wide with Dunlop helpless in the middle of goal. Everton's wingers were the best of an Indifferent line and Bingham, as half time drew near, made a good cross close to the upright, which Young was only inches wide of turning into the net. Cardiff had had the better of a poor first half without looking a good team and the only Everton players to was approach their normal form had been Dunlop and Parker. Half-time —Cardiff City nil, Everton nil.  Cardiff began the second half with consistent pressure on the Everton goal.  Peter King fired a fierce shot wide and John King was unlucky with a rebound off Labone, the ball running out for a goalkick.  There was a good deal body checking by both teams which the referee allowed to go unchecked. Rankmore was guilty of holding Young back to take a through ball from Parker, which brought Everton nothing but a throw- in.  Moore was easily Cardiff’s best forward and he earned them a corner after a good break down the middle.  From the flag kick on theleft Tapscott made a good header which Dunlop saved equally well.  From an offside position, with the linesman flagging, Young was allowed to collect the ball and put a perfect pass to Bingham, unmarked as the right, but the winger’s shot was yards off target.  This had been one of the few occasions in the game when Everton had been in a shooting position. 
ISOLATED EFFORT 
Fell fired a shot over the bar but this was an isolated Incident and altogether this must have been one of Everton's poorest displays of the season.  The first bit of luck for Cardiff goalkeeper, and particularly their  young goalkeeper, came when  Harris flicked the ball through  and Young headed It on to  Vernon, who back-headed it  right against John when the  goalkeeper must have known  nothing about it.  Within a couple of minutes,John was similarly fortunate when he mistimed Bingham’s corner kick and pushed the ball down at Vernon's feet.  Vernon's shot struck John as he was rising to his feet.  Everton had been playing with a little more fire for the past ten minutes, but their finishing was poor. 
VERNON FOILED
Fell had been the Everton forward to make the least mistakes and good work to Vernon, who took the shot well only to be foiled by a fine save from John.  A minute later Collins volleyed a cross from Fell and John once again made a good save.  Everton now put on some pressure and were playing a little better.  With Cardiff also answering the challenge the game suddenly became worth watching.  Hole hit a shot straight at Dunlop and then Tapscott was guilty of a bad miss as he spooned the ball over from close range.  Then John King shot straight at Dunlop and all the excitement had been crammed into the last few minutes.  Final; Cardiff City nil, Everton nil. 

DON’T BLAME OUR FITNESS FOR SECOND HALF SLUMP
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 09 December 1961
Says Alex Parker
In Wednesday's Echo Alex Young wrote about the number of times he has been asked:  "What went wrong after the interval against ManchesterUnited?" Well, he has not been alone, for I have had exactly the same experience.  I have heard many theories, both by supporters and Everton players, and after weighing them all up, I must agree with the reasons Alex gave. But I would like to kill one suggestion I have heard put forward.  That is that we are not fit enough. I wrote an article the other week on the training we have been doing under Tom Eggleston. I said that although the programme was tough, the players generally agreed that they had never been fitter. I added that as Christmas approached our stamina would be even greater and so it is proving. I doubt very much if there is a fitter team in the country. When discussing last Saturdays fall-away you can probably bring out all sorts of excuses and reasons, even to saying we are not good enough. But please don't blame our fitness.  You'll be wrong if you do. 
GABRIEL MARRIED 
Most of the players were at Jimmy Gabriel's wedding last Monday, and we had a really great time.  There was quite a crowd at the reception as the bride, Pat Gaskell, is a girl. Jimmy had a number of relatives and friends down from Scotland and Wales and Ireland were represented by Roy Vernon and Billy Bingham.  As best man, I had to read the telegrams and there is a there was one from our manager. Mr. Catterick, and his wife, and one from Everton F.C. They were nice gestures which Jimmy obviously appreciated very much.  However, before I started I said that, in view of my Scots accent, I hoped that everybody would understand me. This prompted Roy Vernon to remark:  "Get on with it. Everybody understands you except your wife."  I looked over at my wife to see what reaction this had. Apparently she agrees withRoy.  Later on I was chatting away merrily to one of the guests when, after a few minutes, he stopped me and said: "'Excuse me.  Alex, but I can't understand half of what you say."  Admittedly this set me  back at the time, but thinking  about it later I  realised it didn't really  matter, as half of what I  had been saying was only  rubbish, anyway. 
SOLOISTS 
During the evening somebody (I haven't been able to discover who) suggested we sing -by ourselves.  As I was listening to Albert Dunlop give out with "Frank! and Johnny "  and "Glad Rag Doll" I  really felt sorry for myself,  having to go on soon afterwards.  But when my turn came and sang When I Leave This World Behind" (the only song I know) I looked at the audience andfelt sorry for them.  And then we Scots got a breath of home when Mr.  Gabriel senior (Jimmy’s fathers) gave us his rendering of“Bonnie Scotland,” which was undoubtedly the highlight of an entertaining evening.  As I mentioned last week the Everton players could not get to the Supporters Club on Wednesday for the “Take Your Pick " show, as we had already arranged to go to Wrexham for the Under-23 game. 
PRIZEWINNER
However, trainer Gordon Watson and his wife went, and Gordon tells me there were some wonderful prizes. He won a bottle of sherry which he says he is keeping for Christmas. See you then, Gordon.  I have had a letter from Bobby Hayes, ofSefton Road, Walton, who issailing on the Empress of Canada on Tuesday for the West Indies. By the time they come home, In April, the season will be nearly over, so Bobby said he was going to see the game against Manchester United.  He should sail with good  memories of us.  About your request, Bobby. Time was too short  for me to arrange anything  this trip, but if you give  me plenty of notice next  time you are home I’ll see  what I can do.  And Jimmy and Pat Gabriel thank you and the boys for the good wishes.  Same to you, and a happy trip. 

EVERTON RES V WOLVES RES
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 09 December 1961
Everton Reserves; Rankin; Parnell, Green; Gannon, Sharples, Gorrie; Lill, Wignall, Webber, Temple, Veall.  Wolverhampton Wanderer Reserves;- Davies; Thompson, Harris; Godwin, Woodfield, Jones; Mason, Murray, Farmer, Broadbent, Deeley.  Referee; Mr. D. Pritchard.  Wolves star-studded attack, all five forwards have had plenty of first team experience, soon had Everton’s defence in a tangle.  In the first minute Rankin could not hold a hot shot from Broadbent though he recovered in time to dive on the ball before Farmer got to it.  Farmer twice went close before Wolves took the lead through Deeley at the 13th minute.  Four minutes later, Wolves went further ahead when Broadbent dashed through a spread-eagled defence.  Murray scored a third for Wolverhampton at the 30th minute, coolly lobbing ball over Rankin’s head as the Everton goalkeeper came out.  Everton to their credit never gave up, and at the 35th minute Wignall reduced the arrears with a great shot following a free kick taken by Gorrie.  Half-time Everton Res 1, Wolverhampton Res 3. 

THIS EVERTON WILL NOT TAKE THE TITLE
Monday, December 11, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
CARDIFF CITY 0, EVERTON 0
By Michael Charters
To have any hopes of winning the League championship, Everton must improve their form away from home.  At Cardiff they were lucky to get a point from a side which has not scored in its last five League matches, indeed having lost the four previous by an aggregate of 12-0.  This match, containing much mediocre play and sprinkled with elementary errors, only warmed up in the last twenty minutes and had it not been for the magnificent work of Dunlop, Cardiff would have emerged clear winners.  In the closing stages he made point –winning saves from Baker, Pickrell and Tapscott, after Cardiff had suddenly turned on a burst of pressure, where they had not seemed capable of earlier in the game.  The most disturbing feature of Everton’s performance was the number of defensive mistakes by a team with the best defensive record in the Division. 
LABONE SLIPS
It was unusual to say the least to see the normally immaculate Labone make more slips in 90 minutes than he has done in all the other games this season.  Only Parker of the rest of the defence came anywhere near his normal standard and the result was Dunlop had a tremendous amount to do and he did it faultlessly.  Cardiff also failed with weak finishing and had they been one of the better teams in the Division, Everton would have received a severe hammering.  Everton’s forwards never got going in their normal vein at all.  There was a complete absence of thrust from the inside trio with Vernon strangely innocuous and only flashes from Bingham and Fell brightened a very dull Everton scene.  Wing halves Gabriel and Harris, although tackling hard, could never get their passes going smoothly and with Collins still struggling to find his form, there was no link-up between defence and attack.  Cardiff are not a good side, although Moore worked like two men to get his fine working well, but they had many more chances than Everton and either spoiled them by weak shooting or were beaten by Dunlop when they did get a worthwhile shot through.  Things went against Everton from the start when Collins had a wonderful chance when Baker slipped up with a back pass, but lobbed the ball high over the bar.  The first half dragged wearily on with neither side making much impression and mediocrity all round was the order of the day.  Shortly after the second half started Tapscott had a header well saved by Dunlop and then came a spell of 10 minutes of Everton pressure which was the best thing they produced in this disappointing match.  John, the seventeen-years-old Cardiff goalkeeper, who played well, was lucky to save from Vernon twice, being in the way of the shots rather than saving them, but after he had made a first class save from Collins this seemed to mark the end of Everton’s spell of superiority.
GREAT HEIGHTS
It was then that Dunlop rose to great heights, as Cardiff piled on terrific pressure in the last 10 minutes.  John King, Cardiff’s sharp-shooter had plenty of shooting but was not very sharp, and he could not find a way round Dunlop, after mistakes by Everton defenders had opened the way for him.  Another disappointing feature was the over-use of body checks by both sides and there was a good deal of jersey pulling, with Cardiff rather the more guilty.  Cardiff City; John; Harrington, Milne; Hole, Rankmore, Baker; King (F.), Tapscott, Moore, King (P.), Pickrell.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Referee; Mr. R.H. Windle (Chesterfield).  Attendance 16,000.

A SPLENDID FIGHT-BACK
Monday, December 11, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
AEVERTON RES 3, WOLVERHAMPTON RES 4
Everton Reserves fought back splendidly in this Central League game at Goodison Park after being three goals down in half an hour, at which point it looked as though Wolves, with their star-studded attack of experienced first-team players were on the way to a big victory.  In the first half it was nearly all Wolves and the Everton goal underwent a terrific onslaught, during which Deeley, Broadhurst and Murray scored and only good work by Rankin prevented a much heavier deficit.  Wignall reduced the arrears just before the interval.  Temple added another goal soon after the restart and though Deeley got a fourth for Wolves it was the visitors who had their backs to the wall in the closing stages during which Gorrie got Everton’s third goal.  Wolves were without Famer for the last 25 minutes with a sprain and severe bruising and that upset their forward rhythm.  But before that Everton were having the better of matters. 

TOP-FORM DUNLOP STARS AS EVERTON DISAPPOINT 
Liverpool Echo - Monday 11 December 1961
By Michael Charters
Everton's form away from home is disappointing after the exhilarating displays they seem to reserve for Goodison Park. At Cardiff, on Saturday, they never came within reasonable distance of the peak they reached la the first half against Manchester United the previous Saturday. Greater consistency of performance must be reached if honours are to be won in League and Cup, especially the Cup, this season.  There were two points for the taking at Ninian Park. Cardiff had lost their four previous games by 3-0 each time and made seven changes to face Everton. They played with enthusiasm and drive, had a hard - tackling defence which never conceded an inch, and possessed in 20 - years - old Graham Moore a good link man in their 4-2-4 style. They did not, in my opinion, reveal the craft and finesse one expects from a First Division club and Everton, on their home form, should have crushed them easily. As it was, Everton played with a strange lack of snapin their attacking, were guilty of defensive mistakes which fortunately did not prove fatal in conceding goals, andgenerally gave a jaded display which made a mockery of their position as second in the table. I'm told their worst performance this season was at Fulham so I must put this game on a par with that. I think they were fortunate to take a point from this goalless draw, and have to thank Cardiff's poor finishing and an immaculate exhibition of goalkeeping by Dunlop for valuable point which keeps them within challenging distance of Burnley. Dunlop reached a peak in closing ten minutes when he made fine saves from John King twice, Tapscott and Baker. He had a strangely jittery defence in front of him, for even the normally safe - as - houses Labone was guilty of slips which have become so rare these days that they become notable when he makes them.  Only Parker reached, his normal standard, with Thomson also doing quite well if nothing like his best.  Gabriel and Harris were below form, too, although Gabriel improved as the game wore on. Their constructive work particularly, was not what we have come to expect from them.   The forwards only clicked in a ten-minute spell midway through the second half. Then Vernon was twice unlucky to find Cardiff's 17 - years - old goalkeeper John blockingshots with his body rather than saving them, and Bingham missed a wonderful chance after Young had slid the ball across to him in an unmarked position.  STRUGGLING 
Apart from this burst of pressure, which fully extended the Cardiff defence, the forwards were most disappointing, collectively and individually. Gone was that dash and thrust, that clever building up of attacks in mid-field.  Vernon had an off day, Young could make nothing of young Rankmore, a tough proposition at centre half, and Collins was still struggling to find his touch which has eluded him all season.  I wonder if Everton’s captain is trying too hard?  Certainly, no one could be  more concerned at his loss of  form than Collins and no one will be more pleased when  he suddenly regains that  elusive something, as I'm sure  he will.  Fell and Bingham provided what few effective attacks Everton had, but generally the whole line was innocuous.  Cardiff's followers and officials were pleased with their team's display. I think  It was because they anticipated  they were on a  hiding before the game and  thus were agreeably surprised  when they not only  held Everton, but did  sufficient to win.  Young John looked a fine prospect in goal, while their full backs. Harrington and Milne, tackled soundly. Moore was their star and his midfield bursts had Everton’s defenders worried. Fortunately for Everton, none of his forward colleagues could shoot effectively and when they did hit one on the target Dunlop looked unbeatable. 
DISTURNING
But Cardiff are only an average side, if that, and had this match been at Goodison, with Everton performing in their own felicitous surroundings.  I reckon Everton would have been good for a nap hand against them.  Another disturbing feature of the game was the inordinate amount of body-checking and jersey pulling, not always spotted or punished by referee Windle. Cardiff' defence gave nothing away, literally, and were more guilty than Everton in this respect.  It is alarming to see a defender use his hands and body to check an opponent after he has been fairly and squarely beaten on the ground. Continental-style defensive tactics should be ruthlessly stamped out and only our referees can do it.

EVERTON SIGNING 
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 12 December 1961
Everton to-day signed as a part-time professional Dave Russell, 17-years-old inside forward from the Northern Counties League club, South Shields.  Wolves, Sunderland and Burnley had all been interested in Russell who will be moving to the Liverpool area next week.

FROM THE MANAGERIAL CHAIR
Wednesday, December 13, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
SUCCESS BREEDS ITS OWN SUPPORT IN SOCCER
By Harry Catterick
Some people have expressed surprise that the Football league is to spend some £10,000 on discovering why people are staying away from football.  Many have said; “I can tell them why!”Those are brave words for even with the full facts before them they may find themselves deeply confused.  An analysis of gates since the start of the season is almost revealing.  Ipswich Town the biggest increase in attendance over last season.  That you would say, is quite natural.  In the First Division for the first time in their brief history as a League club-they were elected only just before the last war-the prospect of seeing the top League clubs for the first tome should have presented a thrilling prospect for the East Anglian folk.  It certainly has a 10,000 per match increase over last season presents Ipswich as a soccer boom town of 1961.  Yet contrast this picture with that of Peterborough.  Similar conditions exist there. 
12,000 DOWN
New to the League and promotion winners in their first season as members of the League, you would think the people of Peterbrough would be bursting their sides to watch the Posh.  Moreover, they are in a challenging position, in League Three with more than an outside chance of adding yet another promotion banner to their history.  Yet they are some 12,000 spectators down, so far, on last season and this is a rather surprising turn about.  Now if you sit in the League offices and try to analyse those two clubs where do you get?  That is why professional men attuned to listen to the general public on wide range of matters have been called in.  It is of course, good to know that more people have gone through the Goodison gates than anywhere else in the country.  Even more, in the League than have gone to White Hart lane to cheer on last year’s double winners.  At the moment, we at Goodison are just a little down on last year.  But if the players maintain the form we have been showing in recent weeks we will be entitled to be optimistic about the final figures.  But the greatest increases in gates has been shown by Liverpool and Sunderland.  The knowledgeable soccer-minded people of the North East have supposed Sunderland’s close season spending spree with guste. 
WILL GO SOARING
A similar story can be told at Anfield.  Success has the whole-hearted support of the Spion Kopites –and all the rest.  Newcastle too, can have no complaints at their following so far this season.  There’s no doubt that if Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle are doing well the gates will go soaring.  And that will affect the average all over the country.  I mentioned in a recent article how progressive were the plans of Crystal Palace.  Outside the clubs I have mentioned they stand alone.  Well over a quarter of a million people have already paid to watch the team managed by Arthur Rowe, the man behind Tottenham Hotspur’s push-and-run side of a few years ago.  Quite obviously a club that can rely on that sort of support has no limitations to its prospects in the game.  With a natural arena the Palace have ideas of eventually making their ground one of the finest in the country.  I can confirm the quality of the football played by the side and it must be heartening for football generally to see a Third Division side playing with such poise and method.  The arrival of Stanley Matthews has meant a great surge in enthusiasm in Stoke and their gates have fairly leaped up as a result of his return.  This club has given many great names to football in recent years.  Think of centre-halves Arthur Turner (now successfully managing Oxford United), Neil Franklin and Billy Mould; wing-half Frank Soo, centre forward Freedie Steele and many others.  Stoke reaped a great reward from off their own doorsteps.  Now with Matthews back again the magic will no doubt be transmitted to the school-boys all over again.  All this proclaims that football has not lost its attraction completely, I feel that we are about to enter a steadier period and find myself anything but despondent for the future. 

DON’T PLAY BIG GAMES IN MID-SEASON
Wednesday, December 13, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
Says Everton’s Alex Young
Everton, Sunderland, Scunthorpe United, Aldershot, and Tranmere Rovers have something in common.  You don’t think so? Then take a look at the League charts.  All five clubs have scored 30 goals or more at home so far this season and collected a high percentage of points, but when it comes to playing away there is quite a different story.  I won't bore you with statistics, you can study them yourselves if you wish, but I wonder if the other four are finding the difference between home and away form as puzzling as we are?  As you know, we drew at Cardiff on Saturday, but once again I thought it was a match in which our normal home form would have brought us a win. I assure you it is most frustrating for the players (we try just as hard away as we do at home) to see vital championship points slipping away for no apparent reason.  However, don't write off our championship hopes yet.  All we need is a tonic—and it doesn't require a doctor to prescribe it. A couple of resounding away wins would do the trick, I think. 
DUNLOP'S BEST 
I notice Cardiff's teenage, goalkeeper, John,rightly received praise for his fine display in the goalless game I atNanina Park, but I think Albert Dunlop deserved equal, if not more, credit. To my mind, Albert had his best game of the season, despite being concussed for most of the second half.  The only Scot inCardiff’s team was left back Alex Milne, whom the Welsh club, signed from Arbroath. Alex played with Jimmy Gabriel and me in the Scotland under 23 team against Wales two years ago.  I remember that the match  in 1959 was played in similar conditions to the one at  Wrexham last Wednesday, and it prompts me to question whether it would not be better to play all representative  games in early or late  season, when the pitches are,  reasonably firm.  Last week's match did little to enhance the reputations of most of those who played in it, simply because good football was impossible due to the state of the ground. 
HAVE A DUTY
A player works hard to gain an international cap, be it an Under-23 or full one, and I think the authorities have a duty, both to players and spectators, to arrange representative fixtures at a period in the season when the ground allows a player to display his football skill.  This, after all, is what most spectators pay to see.  Conditions were such that neither the 1959 Wrexham match, played in late November, nor the one last week, could have been successful financially. I would also favour a break in the League programme during the height of winter for the same reasons.  I don’t think we will ever raise the standard of play in this country while League football is played in conditions which encourage brute force rather than skill.  Far better to play on firmer grounds where the footballer could show the “spoiler” a thing or two and convince him that his type of game isn’t worth playing.  I’ve let off steam now, so back to last Wednesday’s match.  I thought Jimmy Gabriel was the best player on the field, while Colin Green, although opposing Scotland’s best forward, did extremely well. 
STEFANO’S FITNESS
Tonight, of course, Real Madrid are playing at Manchester United and I will probably pop across to watch the game.  I know there are plenty of questions soccer fans would like to ask players like Di Stefano, Gento, Santa-Marie and Del Sol, but if I had the chance I’d settle for one answer from Di Stefano.  I would like to know how he manages to keep so fit and play so well at the age of 36.  I will be happy to gain a regular place in the first team at 31 or 32! On Saturday we are off to Birmingham to play Aston Villa, who seem to have improved tremendously since they visited Goodison at the start of the season.  They now have one of the best defensive records in the First Division, but nevertheless I’m hopeful that the resounding victory I talked about earlier will be forthcoming.  Joe Mercer’s boys have to be watched up to the final whistle though, for I remember playing at Villa Park for Hearts and we were leading 3-1 with 10 minutes to go.  That ace goal-snatcher Peter McParland then scored twice in the closing minutes and the game ended 3-3.  Peter is one of those players who senses that there is a half chance in the offing, and moves into position to take it before the opposing defence even realises there is a danger.  Jimmy McEwan Villa’s right winger, is an old pal of mine, I remember when Dave Mackay was transferred from Hearts to Spurs and Jimmy came along and asked me to confirm this.  “Good,” said Jimmy, who never saw the finer points of Dave’s tough tackling, “that will add five years to my football life.” I don’t think Jimmy could have been serious, however, for during the 1959 close season he was transferred from Raith Rovers to Villa, presumably knocking those extra five years off his football career.  Bernard Clark, of Gateacre, he written asking if I will put in a word and try and secure the Everton mascot job for him.  I’m sorry Bernard, but this is strictly a “job for the girls.”  The Everton mascot, recognised by the Supporters Club and given access to the playing pitch and a seat in the stand by the club, is the Toffee Woman.  I don’t know whom the youngsters dressed in blue and white and who joins us on the pitch is, but I am assured he is quite “unofficial.”  The present Toffee Woman is Sheila Radcliffe, who lives not far from the ground and took over the duties from her sister, Maureen, two years ago.  She is appointed to the position by the Supporters’ Club.  Last, but by no means least, congratulations and best wishes to Brian Harris and his wife, formerly Beryl Cupit of Eastham, who were married on Monday. 

VILLA UNCHANGED 
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 13 December 1961
Aston Villa will be unchanged for the third successive match when they meet Everton at Villa Park on Saturday. But Villa, who have  dropped only one point in  their last five League matches,  show four changes ?tom the  side which lost at Goodison  Park in the first game of the  season  Aston Villa; Sims; Lee, Aitken; Crowe, Sleeuwenhoek, Deakin; McEwan, Thomson, Dougan, Wylie, McParland. 

EVERTON’S 3 P.M. STARTS
Thursday, December 14, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
Startling with the F.A Cup games on January 6, no longer will you be in any doubt as to whether your Everton or Liverpool game begins at 3 o’clock or 3.15 p.m., for Everton have decided for an experimental period to make all Saturday kick-off times three o’clock.  This is a step already taken by Liverpool this season with no apparent harmful effects to the gate figures, although naturally the success of the side would have commanded the crowds, matter what time the matches had started.  Although favouring the 3.15 start, Everton have switched to 3 o’clock from time to time for the convenience of the London and Southern clubs, who needed the extra minutes to enable them to catch train transport back home.  The change will apply equally to Centra League games.  I hope Everton’s experience proves there is no reason to revert to the later starts.  While the habits and desires of their public have to be considered, I doubt very much if such a change is going to cause any tremendous upset and the additional convenience to the vast majority will justify the alteration. 

COMFORTABLE WIN BY EVERTON X1
Thursday, December 14, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON X1 6 SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY 0
The Everton side took most of the first half to gain a 1-0 lead, but after the interval the Sheffield defence tired.  But for the fine positional play of their goalkeeper the visitors would have been more heavily defeated.  Scorers were; Moreton (2), Tyrer, Humphries, Shaw and McKenzie. 

EVERTON’S NEW KICK-OFF TIME
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 14 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton F.C. are following, as from the New Year.  Liverpool's lead in having home kick-offs at 3 p.m. and not 3.15.  The first game to start at the new time will be the Cup tie against King's Lynn, on January 6.  If the club find patrons like the idea and attendances do not suffer the kick-off time will be left to 3 p.m. for home matches for the remainder of the season, both for Football League and Central League games.  Many followers of football dislike the later kick-off because it interferes with their Saturday evening activities.  Everton be warned. Dougan's back! And that means that dynamic Derek Dougan, who has sparked Aston Villa’s recent revival, will again be leading the Villa attack against Everton, at Villa Park, on Saturday for only his third home game since his arrival during the summer from Blackburn Rovers.  Unpredictable Dougan, the character of Villa Park, is according to Joe Mercer, "A player with immense potential."  Injured in a car-crash in September, he stormed back into the first team a fortnight ago without a reserve team game try-out to torment the Leicester City fans with his antics which even upset the referee! But as Leicester defenders discovered to their own cost, it is fatal to underestimate this tall Irishman.  While one minute he slows the game with his ambling gait he suddenly electrifies proceedings with phenomenal bursts of speed which take everyone by surprise—even his teammates.  Only outside-right Jimmy MacEwan was injured last week but he should be fit to play in an unchanged side, which has collected nine points from the last five games.  Everton will also face Villa's bright new star, centre-half John Sleeuwenhoek, English schoolboy international, who has displaced stalwart Jimmy outdate in recent weeks.  Villa's team.—Sims: Lee, Aitken: Crowe, Sleeuwenhoek, Deakin, Mac Ewan, Thomson. Dougan. Wylie, McParland.

ROY VERNON SAYS...
Friday, December 15, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON’S POOR AWAY RECORD IS A REAL MYSTERY
Here we are at a very interesting stage of the season, with half the matches gone and the more exciting part of the programme about to begin, and as we renew rivalry without Aston Villa friends tomorrow hardly know whether to look pleased or disappointed.  Possibly it was not the fact that we could only bring back a point from Cardiff which rankled with them, so much as our failure to score.  I think if this had been a 4-4 draw they would have been very much happier.  But they are becoming concerned for since we put three into the back of the Wolves net on October 14, we have scored only one goal at Chelsea, Blackpool and West Ham, followed by the Cardiff blank.  Allow me to let these supporters into a little secret.  They are not the only ones to be worried about it.  So are we and the sooner we can develop the Goodison Park scoring rhythm away from home the better everybody is going to be pleased. It is no use our having the best defence in the First Division if the forwards fail to pay suitable tribute to it.  Although we occupy second place in the table just as we did at this time last season, our record away from home is hardly comparable.  This time we have won two, lost five and drawn three.  Last season we had won five, lost four and drawn two. 
FIVE POINTS DOWN
If you add up the points from those little sums I think you find we are five points down on balance.  Five points would be just enough to allow us to draw level with Burnley at the top of the table.  What a very different position that would be!  If we continue our analysis a little further you will find that we have scored more goals than any team in the division when playing before our own supporters, a record we could not boast last year, but then, curiously enough, we were almost top scorers away from home!  This season only three clubs have beaten opposing goalkeepers less frequently than us on opponents ground and even the bottom two clubs, Chelsea and Manchester City have scored seven goals more than us.  It is as disturbing as it is mysterious.  We know we can do it.  There is nothing wrong with the ability of the forwards.  Our preparation and coaching are first class.  Our spirit could not be better and yet the goals will not come.  I make no apologies for confessing that the Goodison roar does help us tremendously and whether it is that the lack of this support at some of our games affects us, I can only guess but it is quite correct that in the matches in Lancashire, to watch our supporters have been able to go in greatest numbers we have not done so badly.  We won at Manchester City’s ground were narrowly beaten by the League leaders at Burnley and drew at Blackpool.  When we were short handed through injuries the explanation was obvious, or so it seemed, but that excuse cannot be trotted out in our defence now. 
PASSING PHASE
I do believe that this is a passing phase, but I would be very much happier if it would hurry up and pass.  We have scorers in every position and nobody can say when we are likely to break loose.  If we can overcome this falling I don’t think there is any doubt that we can still put up a very formidable challenge to Burnley for the League championship.  Look at my own experience as a case in point.  For the first six minutes I did not score a single goal.  No wonder I felt down in the mouth when I was injured and had to rest.  Since coming back I have played in eleven matches and scored in eight of them.  What happened to me could happen to the others and then the goals would really be forthcoming.  Nobody needs reminding of the qualities of Alex Young.  His talent speaks for itself but he can point to only one goal in eight games.  Bobby Collins has had terrible luck with injuries and I am happy to think that he is well on the way back to form, but when he scored against Manchester United it was his first of the season.  At this stage last year he had hit eleven goals, including three against Newcastle United. 
WELCOME PRESENT
We can all do it and for all I know we may set about proving it at Villa Park tomorrow, if only we do I think that will be a very happy Christmas present in advance for all our faithful followers.  I don’t know what the general opinion of players up and down the land would be if asked whether or not they looked forward to travelling to a match the day before it is played.  I can tell you my opinion and that is that whenever it is possible to turn a trip into a Saturday morning effort I am delighted.  There is no denying that Everton in particular, go to no end of trouble and expense to see that our hotels are always of the top class quality.  Everything possible is done to make our waiting hours pleasurably filled and I don’t think it is possible for anybody to do more for our comfort but for all that footballers are no exception to the old saying –there no place like home.  There is no way out of it for I don’t think the idea of flying to matches would appeal to all the members of the club in any event even flying would still have to be done the day before the game. 

SECOND STANZA…
Liverpool Echo - Friday 15 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton start the second half of the season at Aston  Villa. It only seems a week or so ago since we were greeting Joe Mercer's side as openers of the season at Goodison Park. This match, you will recall, was notable for the first appearance in Villa colours of Dougan whose shorn head soon had the wags at Goodison putting an Indian sign on him.  Dougan has not long been back in the team after being damaged in a car crash. Since his return Villa have been very successful.  However easily Everton won the initial game there can be no doubt that they will need to be very good this time to avoid defeat.  There seems to have been great difference of opinion about Everton's performance at Cardiff. Michael Charters view was that the attack was poor and the defence not as good as usual. In other quarters the defence was rated as playing well. A clue to defensive standards could be found.  I think, by the fact that Dunlop needed to play brilliantly at times to prevent Cardiff getting both points.  Everton's defence record, one of the best in the land, suggests that they are as good a bet as there is for the F.A. Cup. The luck of the draw means a great deal, but a side with a sound defence can usually surmount all difficulties.  Mr E. R. Dixon, a long-standing friend with close associations with South Liverpool says that Wolves and Bolton, two great Cup teams, always have the knack of coming up trumps through their goal-tight defences. He says he does not see any Second Division clubs surviving to the last sixteen. I would not agree with him there. To me the difference between the first half dozen clubs in the Second Division and the last dozen in the premier division seems infinitesimally small. 

EVERTON UNCHANGED AT ASTON VILLA 
Liverpool Echo - Friday 15 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton play anunchanged team at Aston Villa, to-morrow.  Goalkeeper Albert Dunlop, who received a blow to the head in the match at Cardiff last week, is fully recovered. Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.

McPARLAND STAYS
Saturday, December 16, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
With only ten points between the second team in Division One (Everton) and the bottom team (Chelsea), it is hardly surprising (that positional fluctuations are considerable, but nine points from the last ten compared with three out of the previous ten have given Aston Villa a lift to comparative respectability.  New names come and old names go, but McParland lingers on, still the most consistent Villa marksman of them all, but whether he would have enjoyed this distinction, if the dashing Derek Dougan had not been laid aside for so long with injuries received in a car accident is open to some doubt.  Dougan is the sort of player you ignore at your peril and Labone will have to be prepared today for an acceleration that at times appears to be jet assisted.  The former Blackburn Rovers centre forward may not be everybody’s favourite, but on his day, what a match winner he can be.  Ask Sheffield Wednesday.  In Mr. Harry Catterick’s management a Hillsborough, it was Dougan and Dougan alone, who kept Wednesday from Wembley.  It is difficult to name anyone else who could have turned two such modest-looking chances into decisive goals.  That is the type of man Dougan is.  Nit always maybe, or Mr. Joe Mercer would never have obtained his transfer for a meagre £15,000. 
LIVE WIRES
With two such live wires as McParland and Dougan in the forward line, Villa’s attack must be respected and when it is realised that only Everton have a comparable defence before their own crowd, then it is not difficult to imagine why it may be dangerous for Evertonians to bank too heavily on their team’s first away win for a couple of months.  Three of Everton’s last four away games have resulted in draws, I contend that if they can make it four today they will have done well.  Alex Young could be just the man to produce a welcome bonus.  A top class show from him today would not be out of turn for only one goal in the last eight games, has come from his talented feet.  The Scot, in form, can make this line sparkle, especially with the sort of support that Collins and Vernon can provide.  This will be Everton’s fourth game unchanged, an indication of managerial confidence which obviously the players cannot afford to squander.  Aston villa; Sims; Lee, Aitken; Crowe, Sleeuwenhoek, Deakin, MacEwan, Thomson, Dougan, Wylie, McParland.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell. 

EVERTON’S BEST
Monday, December 18, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Peter Price
Everton drawing their fourth game out of their last five away matches, at Aston Villa on Saturday, were complimented by their manager Mr. Harry Catterick, who described their performance as their best of the season away from Goodison.  Mr. Catterick was not over-looking the decisive win at Wolves, but was taking into account the difference in quality of the present Wolves and Aston Villa sides.  Manager Joe Mercer has stiffened the Villa defence to such a pitch that it would hardly be surprising to find them enjoying another good spell in the F.A Cup. 
GOAL FAMINE
The one really big worry about the Everton side of to score goals on opponents grounds.  There is nothing wrong with their Goodison record, but twelve goals are all they have mustered away from home.  Vernon, the team’s leading scorer, tops the away list with a modest total of three, Young and Temple follow with two each.  After that Slater of Wolverhampton with an own goal has scored as many for Everton as anyone else, as also his full back George Thomson and right half Jimmy Gabriel. 
ROLL CALL
Only Dunlop, parker, Thomson and Labone escaped injury of one sort or another at Villa Park and Brian Harris appeared to be the most seriously hurt.  He was kicked in the back of the thigh, but there is optimism that all will be available for the next game. 

NO FLAG OF SURRENDER AT VILLA PARK
Monday, December 18, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON ANSWER POWER PLAY WITH MORE POWER
ASTON VILLA 1, EVERTON 1
By Horace Yates
Undoubtedly Everton have come in for a lot of criticism over the Villa game, it is pointed out against them that both Fell and skipper Collins had their names taken after a general appeal for calmness to the captains, and that the tally of free kicks ran to something like twenty against four.  The atmosphere, as so often happens, was charged by the excited crowd until they would have had you believe that on one side there were only saints and on the other sinners.  Not a bit of it!  There was only one way to take a point at Villa Park, against a tough, unyielding defence and that was by an equally determined reply.  Everton’s response was all of that.  There was not a quitter in the party, no flag of surrender in sight.  The first half was full of really good football by both sides, but this was during the formative stages of the game and as the minutes passed the approach became tougher.
NONE BOOKED
It is completely unfair to pretend that only Everton were putting body into their work.  Even if Villa had none of their players booked, how wrong it would be to pretend that this was brought about by the most exemplary conduct.  There were fouls of course, as must inevitably happen in a match as tight and as spiritedly fought as this, but with one or two exceptions they could be covered under the heading of excessive enthusiasm.  If at the end, Villa could claim that half a dozen of their players carried cuts, scars or bruises, Everton could retaliate equally by pointing to a similar number of their players who required treatment of one sort or another.  No-one pretends that this was other than a cut and thrust encounter, with quarter neither given nor asked, not the type of match you would stage by choice as an exhibition of the skills of British football but for sheer unadulterated endeavour, this battle had its points. 
MR. MERCER’S VIEW
Villa Manager, Mr. Joe Mercer, confided to Everton’s Mr. Harry Catterick at the end of the match, “You are the best side to have visited Villa this season- on your first half display.”  I have no doubt Joe was perfectly sincere.  With typical diplomacy he drew a veil over the second half, but it was a veil, hiding not only Everton’s lapses from good taste, but Villa’s as well.  There is not the slightest doubt Everton could have left a reputation of the most glowing character behind them.  They could have answered Villa’s rugged defence and will to win by relying on pure football.  It might have looked pretty and highly creditable but with the shinning memories they would have earned there would have been two points abandoned in consequence.  This Villa defence is completely unyielding.  In the last three games they had conceded one goal and Everton’s rearguard is the sounder in the League in circumstances such as those, it is perhaps expecting too much to see the accent on blistering attack all the time.  I have seen many games in which Everton would have faded and failed against opposition as resolute as Villa’s but the present day side is fired by a new confidence, and an obvious willingness to concede nothing lightly. 
TOUGH AT THE TOP
It will not suit the book of the purists, but it is tough at the top, and to get there and stay there ambitious sides cannot afford to be intimidated by power play of others.  Everton at least matched Villa in a football sense and lost nothing by comparison later in the battle of wills.  I admit quite frankly that I prefer to see my football less robust, less contentious, more flowing and more natural but I can hardly deny that so far as the turnstiles are concerned, prettiness without points will not keep the grounds filled.  So accustomed have we grown to laudatory comments on Everton’s defensive structure that it is hardly surprising to be able to give a bouquet all round again for the Villa performance.  From kingpin Labone, keeping the Dougan menace within manageable bounds, to Dunlop in goal, every man was as sound as a bell.  Thomson’s confidence, produced by the results he is achieving, makes him a grand back and if Parker was less adventurous than in some of his games, he could claim a well nigh faultless defensive display.  What a pleasure it was to see Bobby Collins well advanced on the road to recovery.   Undoubtedly this was one of his best games of this injury-interrupted season.  Not only was he striving to open up play as he can so effectively, but he was attacking on his own account purposefully and ably.  Alex Young, too, after a quiet spell, made some effective contributions and there was nothing better in the match than when he beat two men to give Vernon a match-winning chance.  Vernon hardly getting into the game in the way we expect was thwarted only by the agile Sims, and in the dying minutes the best shot of the match by Young produced another remarkable save by Sims.  Wingers Bingham and Fell challenged for everything.  Villa took the lead in 28 minutes when Everton were deceived by a cleverly taken free kick by Crowe, which Thomson (R.) hammered into goal, but from the restart Collins rounded Sims and shot an equaliser into an open goal.  Aston Villa; Sims; Lee, Aitken; Crowe, Sleevenboek, Deakin, Macewan; R Thomas, Dougan, Wylie, McParland.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, G. Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins (captain), Young, Vernon, Fell.  Referee; Mr. S. Yates.  Attendance 34,900.

EVERTON LOST GRIP ON GAME
Monday, December 18, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON RES 1, DERBY COUNTY RES 3
Although Everton Reserves were the better team in the first 20 minutes of their Central League game at Goodison Park, they gradually lost their grip on the game after Derby had taken the lead, and in the second half the home goal had a succession of narrow escapes.  Everton’s attack was disappointing after the early bloom had worn off and the defence was decidedly shaky when Derby were putting on the pressure.  Temple was the best Everton forward, but Webber made little headway against the more experienced Young, Derby’s centre half, though he got Everton’s goal at the 40th minute after Temple’s shot had rebounded off the upright.  Buxton and Williamson had previously scored for Derby, and Stephenson got their third goal just before the hour following a faulty back-pass by Green. 

AN AWAY POINT-BUT EVERTON DROP  THREE PLACES 
Liverpool Echo - Monday 18 December 1961
By Horace Yates
It's a cruel world when you think that a point earned away  from home against quality opposition like Aston Villa, a feat  described by manager Harry Catterick as Everton's best  performance of the season other than at Goodison Park, should  drop a club from second position in the table to fifth, but that  was Everton's fate on Saturday,  I hardly think it is generally  realised how tough a proposition  these modem Villans are,  but if we overlook a defeat  by Birmingham, Manchester  United were the last team to  take a point from Villa Park  —on September 18. Moreover, the way in which Villa played on Saturday suggests, that few clubs are sufficiently well equipped to defeat them.  Before two of the best ,  defences in the business  clamped down the tightest  grip on the match, Everton'  had given a shade more than they had received in the way  of football, and if the near  approaches to a goal had been  tabulated we would have found  that only the agility of Sims,  In the Villa goal prevented  Everton from hitting their biggest away score of the  season.  I can recall a Bingham pass that left Collins beautifully positioned, yet Sims saved. We had Young doing all the spadework for a Vernon goal, but how hard it was to find a way past Sims and then, taking courage in both hands, Young released a do-or-die effort, outstandingly the best shot of the match, and still that man Sims barred the way. 
NOT ON TARGET 
Villa had their near approaches, but they were not on target as Everton were.  The game had opened with an incident when Fell crashed into Lee, but an unfortunate start though itwas; there was no reason to suppose that this would be the first of many fouls.  The score against Everton was 20 fouls to four. Fell and  Collins had their names taken  and the referee found it  desirable to ask both captains  to issue a "calm down" appeal  to their players.  The foregoing would appear to be damning evidence Everton, but such a conclusion would hardly do justice and in any event some of the incidents were blown up and magnified by the excited crowd.  Fouls there were and fouls there will invariably be in matches where teams are as closely matched as this,and where neither will willingly concede an inch.  If we can have football without foul, obviously it is going to be much better for, it, but there are fouls and fouls, and I maintain that the majority of these were innocent of any ill will. Determination  there was in abundance on both sides.  Into their tackles went the players as though their very positions in the team depended on it, and who can say in some cases that this may not have been true, but determination in itself was never an offence.  It is an unfortunate fact, without casting any reflection, on the referees, that almost invariably we find it is the visiting teams who are the “dirty " sides. 
TRANSFORMED SCENE
If Villa had played as they did and the match had been at Goodison Park, I have no doubt the ground would have echoed and re-echoed to the indignation and demonstrations of outraged spectators.  Everton's tackling on the other hand would hardly have raised a murmur of protest.  That is what makes the difference. A crowd's hostility, and there was plenty of it Villa, can transform a scene.  I was sorry the incident took place in which Collins had his name taken. Whether it was or  not I don't know but this  seemed to me the toughest  Incident of them all, and the  pity was that the victim was  seventeen-year-old centre half  Sleeuwenhoek, who had shown  malice to no man.  In Collins defence. However, it has to be said that he had skipped his way out of two tackles that could have been damaging, and in so doing had lost complete control of the ball for the split second.  As the centre half dashed in.  Collins made his spirited challenge andunfortunately Sleeuwenhoek was hurt.  I think Collins was probably  as distressed as anyone at  having hurt the youngster, but  this was a match in which the  Everton skipper came nearer  to his normal form than In any  previous game this season.  Even the crowd did not put him off and this rehabilitation of such an important member of the Everton machine can only help to put a healthier spark into the not over-robust attack. Young was almost as satisfactory as Collins and with Bingham and Fell doing better, Vernon's failure to strike normal form was the more noticeable. 
DOUGAN MASTERED
Labone mastered Dougan and the fact that McParland showed hardly any hostility is sufficient to exonerate a competent Parker from any criticism.  Not one of the Everton players shied at his responsivities’ and I contend that this was a point well and worthily earned. Everton were taken by surprise when Villa scored their goal from a free kick.  Fell followed the decoy with  the result that MacEwan was  left in the clear to push the  ball across for a staggering  Thomson to push the ball over  the line, just out of reach of  Parker's outstretched foot.  Villa were jubilant for it had been Everton who had  looked the more likely scorers,  but before their jubilation had  time to die, the scores were  level when Collins raced  through, rounded the advancing  Sims, and pushed the ball  home before embarking on a  victory dance, which no one  begrudged him.  Everton have the spirit to achieve almost anything. With courage such as they showed in face of a tough opposition, they need only solve the mystery the missing goals to pose of a problem for any team. 

A SIX-POOINT CHRISTMAS BONUS WOULD BE MOST ACCEPTABLE
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 20 December 1961
Says Everton’s Alex Young
Manager Harry Catterick gave us a day off on Monday and I think most of the players took the opportunity to finish their Christmas shopping, so it was with some trepidation that I approached Goodison Park yesterday morning to meet mod of my colleagues for the first time since Saturday's trip to Villa Park, During the week -end I had done a little reading and it had made me wonder whether some change might have taken place among the Everton players. I checked in the mirror just to make sure I hadn't grown horns, but I was anxious to see whether the other 10 who had walked off Villa Park on Saturday afternoon still looked the same as I left them. To my relief, I opened the dressing room door and saw same smiling, happy bunch, and fears that I might be playing the Demon King in pantomime on Boxing Day, instead of playing for Everton! against Bolton at Goodison, quickly disappeared.  Seriously though, contrary to some of our critics, my view was that the display against Aston Villa was our best away from home for some time. We played far better than at Cardiff, and I think the level of our improvement can be gauged from the fact that Villa were a much better side than Cardiff.  Bobby Collins had a great game, and if we play as well next time we're on tour that much-awaited third away victory of the season looks more than a possibility. 
COULD BE CLOSE
With Burnley losing on Saturday, things are becoming interesting at the top of the First Division and before the end of the year the title race could be very close indeed.  We are now four points behind Burnley, but I am hopeful we can pick up a nice Christmas bonus in the form of six points from our next three games and narrow the gap. On Saturday we are at  home to Fulham on Boxing  Day, Bolton visit Goodison; and on January 30 we play the  return game at Bolton  Burnley's defence has conceded  an average of two goals  per game so far this season  and they could well run into  trouble if their forwards lose  the goal-scoring touch, so the  teams I think we will have to  keep a watchful eye on are  Tottenham and West Ham.  A few weeks ago I named Spurs as a Cup danger. Now, with the Football League accepting Jimmy Greaves as a player, they are in with a chance of repeating last year’s fantastic double.  By the way my congratulations to Jimmy on keeping up that amazing record of scoring in every League debut he has made. A few more goal-scoring feats like Saturday’s and the “Italian affair” will be quickly forgotten. 
SCHOOL VISIT
Last Wednesday I went along to Brookfield Comprehensive School, Kirkby, to take part in a Sports Forum with Roy Vernon, Jimmy Melia and Alan A’Court.  The Forum was held out-side school hours and it says much for the enthusiasm of the Kirkby youngsters that so many were present.  They seem to have ability as well as keenness, for I was told the school’s Under-23 team is one of the best in these parts.  Afterwards the boys watched a film of the Real Madrid-Eintracht European Cup Final, but Roy and I slipped off to Old Trafford to see the “real” Madrid in action.  I don’t want to detract from Manchester United’s great victory, they played really well but it looked to me as if Real are not quite as good as they used to be.  True they are still a great side and better than most in Europe…but not quite as good as they were I feel. 
GILES BRILLIANT
Real’s defence offered the United forwards plenty of room in which to work and inside right John Giles was now slow to notice this.  I thought John had a really brilliant game.  Another United player, who impressed me, both against Real and when Manchester played at Goodison recently was left back Tony Dunne, I rate Tony as one of the best full back prospects I have seen this season.  Finally may I take this opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas and New Year.  My Christmas wish is that 1962 will prove a memorable year for Everton- and Liverpool too.  Owing to the Christmas holiday, Alex Young’s article will not appear next Wednesday.  Watch out for him again on January 3.

TEACHER TURNS BOOKIE
Wednesday, December 20, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
A school teacher is giving up his post at a primary school after ten years in the profession to become a full-time bookmaker.  The teacher, Mr. Donald Easthope, has told Lancashire County Education Department that he is resigning from his job at the Halsnead Primary School, Whiston where he is a games master.  Mr. Easthope, an Ex-Everton footballer, now employs a full-time staff at his betting shop in Liverpool Road, Huyton and since he opened two weeks ago he has sometimes taken 1,000 bets a day.  In the picture above Mr. Easthope is seen at work in his betting shop. 

FROM THE MANAGERIAL CHAIR
Wednesday, December 21, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
FOOTBALL NEEDS THE GREAT NAMES TO BE GREAT
By Harry Catterick
Manchester United, 3 Real Madrid 1.  I make no apologies for repeating a week old result.  For this was a great blow in favour of English football prestige.  Not only that, but the timing couldn’t have been happier for Matt Busby and his boys.  The former champions of English football had been having a pretty rough time of it for more than two months.  But Matt was good enough to say that when going down 5-1 at Goodison Park he saw the first real encouragement for some weeks.  He told me that he felt the team was on the way back.  He backed up his statement by keeping the same team for the following League match against Fulham which they won, and repeated his vote of confidence last Wednesday night to meet Real Madrid.  This was truly a great performance by United, particularly as there was no aspect of fluke or luck about it.  The Real people themselves acknowledge that the better team on the night won.  Maybe there are signs that one or two of the Madrid players may have passed their peak; true that several of them were engaged in a hard math the previous Sunday.  But these facts should not be allowed in any way to detract from United’s performance.  Any side of World class such as Madrid are capable of defending their rights at all times. 
SUPER ZIP
They tried hard, but they couldn’t match the super zip and enthusiasm of the Old Trafford side.  I and every other football manager, must be delighted at this return to form of Manchester United.  Football became immeasurably poorer following the stark tragedy that struck a club that was quite obviously on the threshold of even greater achievements than it had already accomplished.  I believe that football needs the great names to be great, United, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland, Arsenal and, I humbly add, Everton and those others that I have not mentioned are the corner-stones on which English football is based.  It is said in cricket circles that when Yorkshire has a great team, England has one also, I feel that applies also to our winter game.  Shortly before the war, Arsenal gave seven players to an England eleven and that by no means exhausted the international material at Highbury ...just think of Alex James for one!   Tradition is still a very important factor in our ways of life, and certainly in football it hangs around in every corridor on every ground of the greats up and down the country. 
STILL MEAN MORE
Aston Villa still means more than Wolves in the Midland sporting belt, despite the comparison in post-war achievements to the credit of the latter.  I have no doubt at all that in the years to come the Manchester United players who died at Munich will become legendary.  For the fathers are sure to pass on to their sons the stories of the great European Cup fights of the Red Devils. As the stories are repeated, so their deeds will grow.  The great Sunderland, Villa, Newcastle and Arsenal sides still live on to prove my point.  So, I imagine, will it always be.  Don’t think that I am ignoring the importance of the smaller clubs in the game.  For instance, I am as proud of my association with Rochdale, a wonderfully happy little club, as I am at being back at Goodison.  But it is the big names that carry the glamour and the enthusiasm.  I was more or less brought up to this when I joined Everton and felt utterly and completely overawed by the great names the club had on its books.  But the fans could rattle of their names like wildfire, and the appearance of a great side always pushes the gate up.  I believe Manchester United were agreeably surprised at their 45,000 gate for the Madrid game.  The locals hadn’t been doing well, the prices had to be put up to meet the guarantee, and rain fell heavily an hour before the start.  The public will pay to watch the best.  Of that there is no doubt Madrid like all great sides, are jealous of their reputation.  They don’t like being beaten by anyone.  They’ll be out to wipe the slate clean next time they meet. 

KING’S LYNN TAKE A PEEP AT EVERTON
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 21 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
When Everton and King's Lynn came out of the bag together (or nearly so) in the Cup draw, Manager Harry Catterick said: “Well treat them on their merits. You cannot take any side lightly."  True to his word he has paid King's Lynn the compliment of having them watched. And while the Everton scout was weighing his club's Cup opponents on January 6, little King's Lynn thought they had better have a peep at their opponents. So they sent to Villa Park last Saturday their manager, Mr. Len Richley. He said: "It was very rugged.  I cannot remember ever seeing a side which showed such tremendous skills as Everton. How it developed into such a rough and tumble I don’t know."  Thus, when King's Lynn (wage bill about £198) come  to Goodison Park early in the New Year they will be  expecting opposition from something of a football machine,  with ruggedness thrown in. if required. With them they will bring some 1,000 spectators all hoping for a miracle which would give them a draw—or better—and most of them, I suspect, fearing the worst.  Everton's list of walking wounded after the Villa game reads: Harris, Fell, Vernon, Collins, Bingham. All have been suffering from knocks or bruises, or both. All, fortunately, are likely to be fit to take their place against Fulham, at Goodison Park, on Saturday. Meanwhile, Tom Jones, with a re-plastered knee, is only able to walk on sticks ...  Frost and fog seems to be killing what interest is left in soccer immediately prior to the worst crowd day in the calendar—the Saturday before Christmas.  Let us hope we get a quick reprieve from conditions within the next two days, as London did unexpectedly a week ago.
Note
One of the leading figures in this Skelmersdale rally has been 19-years-old goalkeeper Alan Halsall, who has had trials with Blackpool and Everton and now Manchester United have expressed a liking for the boy. 

FROST WILL NOT PREVENT EVERTON’S  GAME WITH FULHAM
Friday, December 22, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Although the Goodison Park playing pitch was bone hard because of frost yesterday, Everton manager Harry Catterick, does not anticipate any difficulty in playing tomorrow’s fixture with Fulham.  “The ground is perfectly level,” said Mr. Catterick “Although it has been rolled, it is in good order and we do not anticipate any difficulty.”  Like Fulham Everton will not announce their team until today, but with all the players available and in view of the courageous display they gave at Villa Park last Saturday, it is reasonable to assume that Mr. Catterick will show his satisfaction with the team’s efforts by naming an unchanged side.  This team have been together in the last four games, three of them away, and although they were defeated at West Ham four points from the other three engagements can, hardly be termed unsatisfactory. 

ROY VERNON SAYS...
Friday, December 22, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
PUT THE VILLA ON WEMBLEY SHORT LIST
Most people would agree with you if you said Wembley’s Cup finalists will probably come from Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Sheffield Wednesday, but after our close-up view of Aston Villa last Saturday I would advise you not to overlook the possibilities of the Villa.  Mr. Joe Mercer, the manager knows Villa’s business best, but I would say that by substituting Dugdale for the seventeen-year-old Sleeuwenheok, who lacks only the experience that years in a hard school can bring, Villa would have a defence as tight and unyielding almost as any in the game.  As it is defences of that character that are the corner-stone of most Wembley trips, forecasters will ignore Aston Villa’s possibilities at their peril.  You may have gathered a different impression from reading some reports of our game, but I thought Everton were distinctly unfortunate not to have won.  We had the better scoring chances and our wonderful defence coped well with almost everything Villa could hurl at it.  Even before this game we needed no reminding of our chances given reasonable luck, of going to Wembley. 
TOUGEST OF ALL
After it I am more than ever convinced that this could be our year, I have played against Burnley, Tottenham and West Ham in recent weeks and I can say without any fear of being accused of exaggeration that Villa’s defence is the toughest of them all.  You will note that I have omitted the name of Sheffield Wednesday in this assessment not because I think their defence is not of this quality, but because we were so badly off form when we opposed Wednesday that we never really tested it.  With Derek Dougan leading the line, I know from experience of him at Blackburn just what a match winner the can be.  He may appear to be sauntering through a match, but suddenly he can turn on that electric flash and his spell-binding speed has pierced the defence almost before they realise it.  Yes, there is a place on my short list for Villa, and I think we can legitimately claim that the Villa players will not erase our names lightly when they are making their calculations.  That is the sort of impression we left on each other.  Writing of impressions, what better impression could have been made on the Tottenham crowd than the by Jimmy Greaves when he put three goals into the Blackpool net, a feat which only Aston Villa’s McParland had previously accomplished.  In that vast crowd I have no doubt there were those who had gone to cheer and those who had gone to jeer, for with a £100,000 price tag against his name, Greaves is a readymade target for abuse and hostility from some quarters if he fails to live up that valuation.  But for Jimmy there were only cheers and with one display he has put the super tag back against the name of Spurs.  More than ever now it is going to be a feat to conquer these proud Tottenham players.  Not until near the end of March will we have our opportunity of tilting with them again and by that time they should be bang in their stride.  We do not fear them. 
GREAT ADMIRER
I make no bones about it.  I am a great admirer of Greaves.  He has that something that makes all the difference between being just another player and a star of stars.  His positional sense, and anticipation are natural gifts.  All the training in the world will not give these priceless assets.  They are either there or they are not.  He moves just that split second before anyone else and with his shooting ability with both feet that is enough to make him such a tall scorer, Greaves is not such a crack shot that every shot scores, but his average is uncommonly good, I think he will pay good dividends even on a £100,000 outlay.  What a splendid thing it has been for soccer that Stan Matthews never considered handing up his boots even when he fell from favour in the Blackpool side, for he has accomplished a miracle at Stoke; where gates are almost up to First Division level now that the ageless Stan is there.  Not only that but he is adding thousands to gates away from home, just as he used to do in the top flight.  How many people I wonder have decided for or against going to a match on the answer to the question, is Matthews playing?  Without Matthews example I believe that if anyone had been asked if it were possible to play first class football under today’s exacting demands when well into the late forties, he would have given a most emphatic “No.” I wouldn’t like to have to name anyone I think capable of challenging the Matthews record.  It will probably never be beaten in my lifetime.  At Old Trafford I saw Manchester United and Real Madrid.  Although this was not the Real Madrid I had seen in so many of their epic battles on TV what a thrill it was.  If this team were to come to Merseyside to either ground, I am certain the gates would be closed. 

ALL GOING WELL…
Friday, December 22, 1961 The Liverpool Echo
By Leslie Edwards
All going well Fulham will give Everton the first of two holiday home games (and, we hope, victories) at Goodison Park to-morrow. Bolton Wanderers will be at the same ground on Tuesday. The appearance of Haynes, the  first £100 per week professional (by kind permission of  Tommy Trinder) and other stars in the London side, plus  Everton's two points from their last two away games, will  help boost attendance on a day which is notoriously one on  which fans tend to stay away.  Fulham beat a weakened Everton at Craven Cottage earlier in the season, but Everton have done so well when they have been at full strength it could be that Fulham will be on the receiving end of a full-scale bombardment.  All the Everton injured have recovered.  At Leeds Liverpool face a team which includes two  former players of this city—Derek Mayers who left Everton  for Preston (where he learned much from Tom Finney)  and Tom Younger the goalkeeper who was so afflicted with  back trouble his career with non-League club Rhyl ended  all too quickly.  Leeds are said to be one of the poorest sides in the division. I don't see them halting Liverpool s live, go-getting forwards who must be sensing that if they can maintain their form for the next few weeks’ promotion,if not the championship, will be in their grasp long before the end of the season.  What relief will be demonstrably evident when the clinching point is in the bag. And what joy there would be if some success could be found, also, in the F.A. Cup. The possibility arises that if Liverpool did survive a few rounds their League position would be good enough to allow them to go all out for their second honour without fear of failing in both. 

EVERTON TEAM
Liverpool Echo - Friday 22 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton are unchanged for the match against Fulham at Goodison Park tomorrow.  The ground is hard, but level and should be in a good order for the game.  Fulham will be without Jim Langley, their England international left back.  Langely was injured in last week’s game against Birmingham and his place is taken by Barry Mealand, who has played only one League game this season-at right back.  Goalkeeper Macedo returns after two weeks absence, but the forward line, which has not scored since November 25 will be chosen from six players.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Fulham; Macedo; Cohen, Mealand; Mulherry, Dodgin, Lowe (from) Kay, Leggat, O’Connell, Cook, Haynes, Metchick. 
EVERTON COACH
LES SHANNON RECEIVES F.A.RECOGNITION
Leslie Shannon, the former Liverpool and Burnley player, now coach at Everton has resumed duties after an operation on his nose at a Liverpool hospital.  While there he listened last Saturday to the hospital’s broadcast of the Liverpool match.  “I’ve never heard better commentators anywhere and how the patients look forward to hearing them, “he said today.  Leslie has received notification that he has been appointed a staff coach to the F.A.  This means he is qualified to make coaching courses anywhere in England and to coach any team, no matter what its status. 

EVERTON AND LIVERPOOL REPORT FOR TRAINING ON CHRISTMAS MORNING
Saturday, December 23, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Everton and Liverpool are taking no chances that holiday period might interfere with their fitness, for after playing today they will report at Goodison and Anfield on Christmas morning for a training session to ensure that all is well for the game on Boxing Day.  Some other teams will be training on Sunday morning.  Manager Harry Catterick told me; “There is nothing unusual in this.  “We always did it when I was a player and I have carried it on since.  Players realise as well as anyone that holidays for others are work days for them and that they have a duty to maintain themselves at the top of their conditions so that they will be in a position to provide the sort of entertainment the public have a right to expect.  What a good thing it is that the weather has shown signs of relenting and from Goodison Park comes reports that the partial thaw yesterday produced some softening of the turf.  Everton have one of the biggest modern attractions on view today in Fulham’s Johnny Haynes the first of the £100 players but not the last, for Jimmy Greaves is said to have returned to this country to an equally priceless salary.  It might seem impossible for opinion to be so sharply divided on the merits of any player as it is over Haynes, so far as North and South are concerned.  Around London he is acknowledged to be a soccer king, but generally it is only grudgingly that tributes are bestowed on him from the North.  I am one of Haynes admirers.  It is always a pleasure to see a player applying so much thought to his game and because Fulham are not among the leading scorers is certainly no reflection on him.  Like Everton’s Collins he has scored only two goals this season, but it we rated every player according to his scoring achievements how many rave notices would Stanley Matthews have commanded?  
POOR ATATCK
Admitting, Fulham’s scoring feats since November came in have been poor in the extreme, for they have failed to score in five of their last seven games, which hardly gives them a robust chance against an Everton defence which gives away goals as reluctantly as any.  I look to a comfortable Everton win, with a repeat performance when Bill Ridding’s Wanderers from Bolton visit Goodison on Boxing Day.  Fulham are cheered by the return of Mecedo to goal, but that capable full back Langley, is out with a damaged ankle, and Barry Mealand is the deputy.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Fulham; Macedo; Cohen, Mealand; Mullery, Dodgin, Lowe; (from) Key, Leggat, O’Connell, Cook, Haynes, Matchick. 

EVERTON HOLD THE ACES
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 23 December 1961
REVENGE WIN LIKELY AGAINST FULHAM
By Leslie Edwards
When Everton last played Fulham—in London—so many stars were missing from the team it was hardly surprising, Fulham won with a bit to spare. To-day, at Goodison Park, the position is very different. Everton, at full strength and  riding high, hold all the aces and the prospect is that Fulham won't take a trick,  much less victory.  The one man who will help to draw spectators (many of whom will have been detailed for other duties) will be Johnny Haynes, the first, but assuredly not the last player to draw £100 per week out of the game. He can be very, very good when the mood is on him and not so good when he has his rare off day.  Haynes will be a menace to the solid Everton defence but I doubt whether Fulham have the team to upset Everton’s fine home record. They scored their most notable win at the ground as a Second Division club when they came here in the F.A. Cup and won gallantly despite their centre half back. Taylor, having a nasty head wound. 
MARKET DORMANT 
Everton have three home matches out of the next four and by mid-January should have closed the gap of points between them and the leaders. Burnley.  It is many years since an Everton side remained so undisturbed, except for cases of injury. The side virtually  selects itself,  I know Manager Harry  Catterick would like a little,  more experience in the  Reserve side from which to  draw in case of emergency  but where can you find  players willing enough to be  content for the time being  with a place in the Central  League side and capable of  holding their place, as  required, for weeks in the  first team? The transfer market, except for the big boys, is dormant.  Like Liverpool, Fulham have nearly always been, famed for their goalkeepers.  Time was when it was a man named Beecham who not only helped to see Liverpool off in a Cup tie, but also had a great game against Everton.  Now Macedo, if fit, is between the sticks. He's a bit mercurial (aren't we all?) but on his day he can be exceptionally good. He'll need to be too, to outdo the little Welshman. Radford, who played at Anfield a week ago.
SHOULD BE A PICNIC
After their rugged battle against Aston Villa-one which did not blind Joe Mercer to the extraordinary talent of his old side-the Fulham game should come as something of a picnic.  Let us hope the iron grip of winter relents sufficiently to give the teams a decent surface.  Games on hard, dangerous grounds always have a little anti-climax about them and invariably produce injury for some unfortunate who decides to give his all.

IT WAS SO EASY FOR EVERTON
Wednesday, December 27, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON 3, FULHAM 0
By Jack Rowe
Bobby Collins still the best buy in post-war soccer, set Everton on the way to a comfortable victory on the frozen Goodison Park pitch on Saturday with a goal in five minutes.  Fulham despite Lowes half back excellence and the midfield precision of Haynes failed to produce a real challenge because there was no penetration in the attack and in this respect even Haynes could do nothing.  Accordingly Everton under-standably treading carefully in conditions of difficult foothold, cruised easily to success and if the score had been doubled Fulham would have had no complaint.  There was little wrong with a confident, competent Everton except in the matter of chance missing, but there was some excuse for this because of the ground and in the finish we had a picture of the Fulham defence always at full stretch while Everton’s was never in the slightest danger of concession.  Thomson had a fine match, but so did Labone, Gabriel, and Harris, while forwards Young and Collins produced much splendid ball play and Vernon illustrated his ability to get a goal from the half chance.  After Collins had scored with a job which went in off the bar, Vernon went through from Gabriel’s through pass in 34 minutes and beat Macedo with a beautifully placed low shot and Collins made it three 15 minutes from the end from Bingham’s cross.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris; Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Fulham; Macado; Cohen, Mealand; Mullery, Dodgin, Lowe; Kay, Leggatt, Cook, Haynes, Matchick.  Referee; Mr. J.E Carr (Sheffield).  Attendance 30,261

EVERTON GRAB VICTORY WITH BINGHAM GOAL
Wednesday, December 27, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
EVERTON 1, BOLTON WANDERERS 0
By Jack Rowe
Bolton’s fine defence and Everton’s inability to snatch what few openings they could make seemed to have this game, played on the hard Goodison Park pitch yesterday, heading for a draw.  Three times we saw gaps made in the Bolton defence and on each occasion Vernon, Collins, and Young were foiled by the out coming of Hopkinson when he was all that stood between Wanderers and a goal.  And when Hopkinson was beaten by Young’s header in another exciting incident in the Bolton area the ball thudded against the bar and came out so it began to look as if Everton were going to surrender their first home point in nine matches.  There were only sixteen minutes left when the goal which had eluded Everton came.  Prior to it they had subjected the Bolton defence to tremendous pressure and one attack had been beaten off when the ball was taken up by Harris on the left wing.  He controlled it beautifully and slipped a lovely pass through to Fell who stopped it almost on the line near the corner flag and then hit over a centre of impeccable length which carried to the far side of the goal where Bingham rose and headed the ball into the net. 
ONLY OCCASION
It was the only occasion when Hopkinson was beaten by the high cross, for before this moment he had collected everything with certainly and he and Dunlop were perhaps the only papers on the pitch who did not make a mistake of some kind or another.  I think Everton deserved to win because they were always capable of making more attacks than Bolton who, however were capable of making the quick raid without really tearing open a Goodison defence which had Labone as an immaculate centre half.  But the whole Everton defence especially in the second half, was on top of its job and the one time when Dunlop really had to assert himself was to a low shot from Stevens which he had to go to full length to save.  In the first half Hartle raced in to hit a shot against the angle of the bar and post and in the first few minutes Thomson headed out from Stevens, but I think Dunlop would have saved in any case.  Apart from this Bolton, like Fulham on Saturday, had no real penetration in spite of the good looking midfield work which they turned on in spells. 
 A GOOD GAME
With the ball often bouncing awkwardly and skidding out of reach it was difficult to keep control and when a player went down he invariably took a painful bump to elbow arm or knee.  In these circumstances the match was quite a good one.  There was an abundance of excitement particularly after half-time as Everton threw in attack after attack and the skill was also there when Young took a foot or a head in things.  The match was helped also by referee H. Webb, of Leeds.  He clamped down on anything dangerous and handed out admonitions when they were necessary.  Without them there could have been much contention, but they had the effect of keeping the tackling within bounds.  But Everton always struck me as having the better craftsmen and more power.  So it proved in the end and but for Hopkinson Wanderers would not have escaped so lightly.  His first stunning save was from Harris and when Collins let Gabriel’s pass through his legs, there was Vernon going in at speed.  He shot quickly but Hopkinson’s anticipation was faultless-as it was seconds after the interval when Collins was the next to get clear from Gabriel’s pass
FRUSTRATED!
When it happened a third time as Young had the goal facing him the frustration of the Everton fans was apparent as they feared that it was going to be a day when the ball just would not go into the net.  Fortunately, Harris made his pass, Fell made his centre and Bingham made his header so four points from two matches made the holiday a happy one for Goodison.  No matter what the conditions, Young always contrives to do something out of the ordinary.  His flicks and glides were first-class and there was nothing better than the one which enabled Vernon to drive in a tremendous shot which Hopkinson saved simply because he was in line for it. A yard or so either side and he must have been beaten.  Edwards at centre half, got through a lot of work in the Bolton defence which covers so well and tackles so quickly it is easy to appreciate why they have given away so few goals lately.  It was perhaps hard on them that they should have to surrender after such sterling work, but if Everton had not won they could have quibbled at poor reward.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; Gabriel, Labone, Harris, Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell.  Bolton Wanderers; Hopkinson; Hartle, Farrimond; Threlfall, Edwards, Rimmer; Holden, Stevens, Phythian, Hill, Birch.  Referee; Mr. H. Webb (Leeds),  Attendance 44,859

EVERTON NEVER GAVE FULHAM A CHANCE
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 27 December 1961
By Michael Charters
Everton played excellent football under difficult conditions to start the Christmas games with a 3-0 win over Fulham at Goodison Park on Saturday.  The ground was hard, sanded, and the ball did tricks which would baffle a circusjuggler. But Everton, and Fulham to a lesser degree, provided a fine match when the frozen surface made turning a problem and ball control a test of skill.  The 30,000 crowd (second  biggest of the day) saw  Everton dominate from start  to finish and their display did much to dispel the biting wind which provided a test  of endurance for the  spectators  Everton have the players to  triumph over these conditions.  The skill of Thomson, Collins, Labone and Young particularly always kept the play to a high level and Fulham had no one to match them.  Haynes passed adroitly enough in midfield but his contribution from an effective standpoint was nil, the rest of the forwards.  Leggett apart, could make nothing of Everton's first class defence in which Labone never put a foot wrong and Thomson gave the best performance I’ve seen from him. 
DEFT TOUCHES
For a full back, Thomson has some remarkably deft touches. At all times, he was  the master of the ball and his  opponents, sliding passes to  Fell and Hams with  incredible accuracy and, on this form, he must rank as  one of the finest backs in  the game.  If Labone and Thomson stood out from the rest, it was just that they reached a peak, for the others all did their part in an all - round team display which deserved victory by half a dozen goals.  Young, neat and quickin his movements, stepped almost daintily over the frozen turf.  His touches of class stood out like a beacon and his entertainment value cannot be assessed too highly for his flashes of genius.  Collins is back to something like his best form and his two goals were well taken, the first being a neat lob shot over Macedo which hit the crossbar and bounced twice before going over the line.
EVERTON TIDE 
Vernon scored the other,a fine left foot shot after bursting through from Thomson's, slide-rule thirty-yard pass beating the excellent Macedo to go just inside the far upright.  Everton missed several, chances—inevitable with the amount of pressure they applied almost non - stop.  Apart from Macedo, Lowe and Cohen did best of Fulham’s hard working defenders to stem the relent less Everton tide.  Fulham played some attractive football but ever in midfield. Final thrust was lacking and looked likely to extend Dunlop, an Everton defender, would break up the move. 

A GOAL WAS BORN WHEN HARRIS DID THE TWIST
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 27 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
It looked as though Everton and Bolton Wanderers would share nothing more useful than a stack of corner kicks at Goodison Park yesterday.  Then, at 74 minutes Brian Harris, crowded by players at the Gwladys Street end, near the corner flag, danced The Twist, found the minutest of gaps, side-footed the ball through to Fell with a deliciously slid pass and the goal of the game was born. Fell had done little before and did little of note afterwards, but he did cross this ball to such perfection the ubiquitous Bingham had only to get his head to it to beat Hopkinson. He did not fail and there was Everton's eighth successive home win in a row.  But not before there had been one almighty alarm in which Bolton all but rubbed out the lead and got the draw their much-improved play almost deserved. I say almost because well as the Bolton defence played they were saved three times by the remarkable phlegm and courage of the former England goalkeeper Hopkinson. And brave goalkeeping on such a day—iron hard ground cushioned only meagrely by a covering of sand—was doubly praiseworthy.  Hopkinson, winded early in the match, came out to make a splendid save off a shot cleverly edged in by Vernon:  then in the second half, when first Collins and then Young were through the Bolton goalkeeper brought down the house with equally dramatic, equally surprising saves with the odds seemed hundreds to one against him. Collins, like Vernon, tried the lob. Hopkinson caught the ball at the peak of its loop. Young, put through by Vernon, after a notable moment of indecision by the defence was similarly denied at almost point-blank range. So it looked as though  it was going to be Hopkinson's day and not Everton's and  it took that line work by Harris and Fell and good finishing  by Bingham to swing the match Everton's way and complete  a four-points-out-of-four holiday programme which  could have hardly been more satisfying.
Belied Their Position 
Normally the better side would show themselves even on a pitch unresponsive to artistry, but here Bolton belied their table position; were strong and competent, and full of fight, and for some periods, at least, looked the better side. But when the crowd started to roar away the effects of too much food (and perhaps too much drink) Everton responded and hinted, for the first time, that they did not intend to surrender a point.  In the circumstances the attendance and the football were excellent. Many must have stayed away because they feared their journey would be in vain. Many took a chance and were rewarded. The ball bounded with the life, and uncertainty, of a ping-pong ball, but it was tamed by the men one would expect to do it, and the standard of play fell little short of normal.  Some of Bolton's tackling had unfortunate results, but the desperation of their situation, and the fact that a tackle once started just had to be completed should not be forgotten.  Phythian chased back yards to make an entirely unprovoked foul on Gabriel, and that player, not to be outdone, put down young Rimmer, a nephew of the famous Ellis Rimmer, with as foul a trip as anyone could be dismayed to witness.  Rimmer played well. He's small, but game and he needed to be, since nearly all afternoon he took upon himself the task of trying to put the shackles on Bobby Collins.  Fists were raised more than once, but never a blow was struck. Contact with the hard, hard ground must have been a bone-shaking, bone-scraping hardship, and in the circumstances it was hardly surprising the man floored got up and vowed vengeance. They would hardly have been human if they hadn't
Magnificent Schemer 
In normal conditions Everton. I think, would have been demonstrably the better side, but one must give Bolton full credit. They had, besides Rimmer and a brilliant goalkeeper a fine right winger in Holden and a magnificent schemer in Stevens, particularly in the first half.  It was Holden's header that Thomson removed to safety from near the line in Bolton's first real attack. Then Hopkinson saved at the foot of the post from Brian Hams, who nearly gave away an own goal when Stevens threatened.  Then Fell, with a fine through pass gave Vernon the sort of chance be takes calmly and usually effectively. But this time his "placed" shot found the body of the advancing Hopkinson.  Bolton had their moments of frustration, too, especially when Hartle having had no luck with his first drive from a free-kick, collected the rebound and hit the Everton goal-angle at the second attempt.  Stevens centre which crossed the Everton goal was all but converted by the head of Birch and Labone—another great contribution by him—wasglad enough to steer the ball for a corner and safety. Twice Young sailed through with the Bolton defence apparently mesmerised.  The Scot was very nearly there with an angled shot after  an acrobatic overhead pass by Bingham had put him in  possession  By the time the cold turkey sandwiches appeared  during the interval there could scarcely have been a soul  on the ground who did not sense that Bolton would take a  lot of stopping—and they did! Collins big chance came  and went; Holden flicked a ball into the side-netting and  Vernon shot more or less straight at the goalkeeper before  Young struck the bar with a header and Hopkinson came  to his third great save, this time at Young's expense.  Only then at 74 minutes did Everton, for the first and  only time, pierce a defence which covered well and did  everything right except perhaps edge the ball into the  attack instead of thumping it hard and so inaccurately that  it was bound to come back at them ...
Listened for the roar 
It took Everton all their time to keep their goal and their balance in Bolton's final fling for the equaliser with the ground starting to freeze again and the mist threatening to come down thickly and perhaps, make all their labour in vain fortunately, all was well. Play was possible to the end:  thousands chased away for their transport and cocked an ear for the Liverpool score as they ran. From Spellow Lane it was possible to hear the roar which could only mean one thing—defeat!

EVERTON MANAGER HARRY CATTERICK SAYS
Wednesday, December 28, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
IT’S UP TO PLAYERS TO PROVE NEW DEAL WAS JUSTIFIED
I suppose 1961 will go down as the hundred thousand pound year.  For Tottenham Hotspur almost hit the six-figure transfer mark when they brought an unhappy Jimmy Greaves back home for Italy.  This fee, of course, will automatically have a bearing on all subsequent fees, in the manner in what we have come to regard as normal, upwards!  Greaves did Plymouth Argyle a good turn when he played his first game for Spurs in a Football Combination match at Home Park.  More people turned out to see the reserve match than normally attend Plymouth’s home games.  Such is fame.  Then he commenced to repay his mammoth fee by hitting a hat-trick in his first League game for his new club.  No doubt a fact duly noted by the England selectors.  What with the Greaves saga and the magnificent effort of Spurs in winning the double, it was a memorable year.  Leicester were gallant losers and for a time made Spurs look like the under-dogs. 
UP TO PLAYERS
As far as the players are concerned the really great moment was when the maximum wage was lifted.  There have been many criticisms that the timing of this award was open to doubt, done as it was at a time of falling gates. But wise or not, this was a decision of a majority vote of the clubs.  Now it is up to the players to prove conclusively that their new deal was justified and will result in a higher standard of play.  Certainly nobody can say football is an underpaid profession!  England and Fulham captain Johnny Haynes immediately gave the new wages structure his “thumps-up” by snubbing Italian efforts to get him to join the rest of the flock on the Continent.  But Gerry Hitchens (Aston Villa) Denis Law (Manchester City) and Joe Baker (Hibs) all left to join John Charles in Italy. 
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT
These were players that we could not afford to lose at a time when the game is short of personalities.  I felt that Joe Baker was destined for big things and I tried unsuccessfully to sign him for my previous club.  Peterborough made it a notable year by winning promotion in their first year as League club.  The “Posh” had tried for many years to break into League soccer and here they were proving their strength in nine short months.  Northern-Eastern soccer got an unexpected fillip-after the disappointment occasioned by the relegation of Newcastle United-when Sunderland decided to go back on the star-studded trail by spending some £85,000 on side forward George Herd from Clyde and Brian Clough from Middlesbrough.  These two experienced players were bought to blend with the home-produced talent that manager Alan Brown so brilliantly introduced to Roker Park.  Now Sunderland are chasing Liverpool in the promotion hunt and their gamble has been justified.  Portsmouth, League champions in 1949 and 1950, suffered a similar fate to Derby County and dropped into the Third Division-a long cry from those two great half-back lines of Scoular, Flewin and Dickinson and Scoular, Froggatt and Dickinson.  The rock on which the great Pompey side was built.  Scoular became player-manager of Bradford Park  Avenue and helped his club climb out of the Fourth Division while Reg Flewin now managers Stockport County.  Only Jimmy Dickinson remains with the club.  Gallant little Ipswich Town, steered by that most elegant of post-war defenders, Alf Ramsey, entered the First Division for the first time in their short tenancy of the Football League.  There were the doubters who said Ipswich would speedily return from whence they came.  But by quality football, shrewd planning and a methodical approach to the game, they have proved themselves worthy of their promotion.  Finally England, in a stumbling and not very confident series of matches have ensured themselves a chance of fighting for the World Cup in Chile next June.  Yes, 1961 was a good year all round.  May 1962 be even better. 

OUT-FOR THE SEASON
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 28 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
Everton, unhappily, can say of two of their most useful reserves, Tom Jones and goalkeeper Willie Mailey. That is your lot for the rest of the season!" Jones broke a knee at Barnsley some weeks ago and Mailey, aged 18 and a Scot, broke a leg at the Sheffield Wednesday ground last Saturday. Neither will play again this season, Manager Catterick told me, with the cup-ties coming and the First Division championship wide open the Everton manager could do with all the extra hands he can find, especially if, as seems likely, the frost isto remain with us awhile ...  Mailey has been brought back to Liverpool and is now recovering in a nursing home at Gateacre. Several of his team-mates visited him over Christmas.  In the same Central League game Wrexham boy, Colin Green was also carried off suffering concussion and an eye so lacerated it needed six stitches. Mick Meagan, too, was in the wars.  At one stage Everton were playing with eight  men and their opponents with ten.  Mr Catterick sees a tough task ahead at Burnden Park on Saturday, partly because Bolton's position is anxious and partly because any game there is usually an uncompromising one. If the frost departs from the pitch all the players will know they have been playing. Liverpool once had a Cup replay there after a sudden thaw and it was as much as Gordon Hodgson and Jimmy McDougall and others could do to drag their feet out of mire six inches deep and trudge to the dressing room.  A clash of colours between Everton and King's Lynn in the Cup-tie on January 6 means both must change.  Everton will play in their alternative amber strip and their opponents in red.  The rise of Leyton Orient, now managed by the former Everton chief, John Carey, has not passed unnoticed. A year ago Leyton were struggling to avoid relegation. Now, with Liverpool still to visit them, they have three points and a match in hand of their nearest rivals, Sunderland, and have won six matches off the reel.  Phlegmatic Mr. Carey says, characteristically, of his side’s six-some of successes “Well, you know how it goes in football…  Surely the understatement of the year?

PROSPECTS FOR EVERTON AND LIVERPOOL GAAMES ARE GOOD
Friday, December 29, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Despite the icy grip which the weather has taken on football pitches all over the country, the outlook for the playing of Everton’s match at Bolton and were last night held to be very bright.  Burnden Park groundsmen were busy yesterday, filling in holes with soil and sand and removing frozen lumps of earth, which might have caused concern in a referee’s inspection.  It is not anticipated that the Everton team will show any changes from that which defeated Bolton on Tuesday for all the players are fit, but Bolton will have Pilkington at outside left.  He has completely recovered from his ankle injury and it may be there will also be a change at centre-forward. 

ROY VERNON SAYS...
Friday, December 29, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
THESE ARCTIC CONDITIONS MEAN BIG RISKS
I remember from my schooldays the theory that only mad dogs and Englishmen ventured into activity in the heat of the summer sun, but it seems to me that if that opinion had been applied to football pitches around Christmas time when grounds are ice bound and treacherous, a good case could have been made out for it.  Everton players were most fortunate this week to have had two home games, for I venture to suggest that Goodison Park was the best pitch in the country during this holiday period.  The heat from the braziers helped to combat the ravages of the frost and, with the ground rolled and level, I do not doubt that we were presented with a playing surface for the Fulham and Bolton Wanderers games which must have been the envy of footballers all over the country.  I am not pretending conditions for us were perfect, but they were certainly playable, and if you were to take the view if teams elsewhere, I think you would find that if decisions had been left to players instead of referees, there would have been very few soccer games played on Saturday and Tuesday.  There is too much of the approach to showland about soccer games these days.  It may be all very well to say the show must go on, but to any with equal certainly that matches must go on, is rather a different kettle of fish.  I need no reminding that the football public like to have their football entertainment at these times and footballers generally are happy to provide it.  But, to ask professional footballers to risk their limbs and careers on pitches which are bone hard, ice-bound and entirely unyielding is carrying duty to extremes.  I don’t think players should be asked to take abnormal risks in conditions such as we are now experiencing.  All the training and the best coaching in the world cannot equip a side to show their wares on unsuitable grounds.  Look at it this way.  A couple of matches lost now which might otherwise have been won in normal conditions can undo the work of a season.  Particularly could this apply to Cup matches.  Usually it is the lesser lights who are prepared to take greater risk when the going is impossible and the Cup competition which in any event is notorious for the unseating of favourites, could be a graveyard for the big boys tomorrow week unless the frost relaxes its grip. 
SHRUNKEN LEAD
We took four points from our games.   Liverpool dropped four points and what was a commanding lead for them has now shrunk to proportions which give their rivals a hope of catching up with them.  You may say this is good for competition and that could be right but it hardly seems fair that the solid work of more than three months endeavour should be undermined in a week-end of abnormality.  You may say that players are paid to take risks so do most other workmen in the course of their labours, but one simple tumble could terminate a career in a trice.  The attendances in these Arctic conditions were, I think, remarkably good but I will need a lot of convincing that spectators were ever intend to brave weather of this sort to see their favourite sport.  We can take all sorts of precautions such as being equipped with rubbers, which at least give some sort of a chance of being able to keep your feet, but I cannot believe that anybody be the worse for postponing matches in circumstances such as I have outlined.  I defy anybody to measure passes and time their kicks as they should be able to do.  Class is largely discounted and the difference in skill which normally makes the gulf between amateur and minor league soccer compared with professional football is smaller under such abnormal circumstances than should ever be the case. 
SHOW IS ALL RIGHT
It is no use assembling the most costly and accomplished team if it is going to be reduced to ordinary levels- not by the quality of the opposition but by the playing field.  Mercifully there does not appear to have been any really major injuries but I do believe the players are justified in being entitled to consideration.  Playing on soft snow is perfectly all right.  Playing in a quagmire presents its difficulties but the snags can be overcome to large extent but the only answer to these iron-hard pitches is to wait until they lose their bone before using them.  What would have been the position I wonder, if the last word had been left with the players?  I doubt if there would have been such League football.  I am convinced that trying though fixture arrears can be even this headache is preferable to pitches which defy you play football rather than encourage it. 

WELL, ITS AN IDEA…
Liverpool Echo - Friday 29 December 1961
By Leslie Edwards
The thought of popping along for an hour or two into  the cold storage firm not far from this office (just to get  warmed up) occurred to me during the intensity of the  freeze. I don't envy Everton followers at Bolton which not only gets few glimpses of winter sun, but can put on its own brand of raw, damp cold. Manager Bill Ridding will doubtless be itching for his side to have a second chance of showing their new and heartening form against an Everton who had to work hard to get the goal that gave them a win on Tuesday. All the Everton team have recovered from bumps and bruises and unless the match develops into a rough one (with Everton, the smaller side, clearly at disadvantage) I think their skill, whatever the "going" should help them to follow their draws at Cardiff and Villa with another useful point.  As in Division 11, there is plenty of scope for teams at the top in the premier Division. Though Burnley, a great side, seems likely champions there is still a long way to go.  Everton's record, once their long spell of injuries ended, is rather the better taken over the last two months.

FROZEN PIPES HALT FOOTBALL
Liverpool Echo - Friday 29 December 1961
BOLTON-EVERTON DOUBTFUL
RESERVES OFF
By Leslie Edwards
Some football matches tomorrow have bene postponed not because iron-hard pitches are unfit for play, but because toilet pipes are frozen solid.  One such game was the Central League match between Everton and West Bromwich Reserves, due to have been played at Goodison Park.  The two clubs agreed, this morning, that the match should not take place.  At Bolton, where the Everton League team is due to play a return match, the situation is just as bad.  Manager Bill Ridding was in touch early today with the Football League headquarters to explain his complete lack of toilet facilities and League secretary Mr. Alan Hardaker concurred that the problem was an almost insurmountable one.  Derby referee, Mr. A.W. Luty, will visit Burnden Park at 9 a.m, to make a decision about the fixture.  My guess is that it will not take place.
SUFFICENT
Everton Manager Harry Catterick, said when told of the Bolton position; “Lack of toilet facilities would be sufficient in my view for the match to be postponed.
If Everton’s game is on, Brian Harris may not play as he is suffering from a heavy cold.  Meagan or Sharples would come in his absence.  Bolton will have forward changes.  Phythian is left out, Stevens moving to centre forward, and Deakin coming in at inside right, while Pilkington, recovered from injury, displaces Birch at outside left.  Bolton; Hopkinson; Hartle, Farrimond; Threlfall, Edwards, Rimmer; Holden, Deakin, Stevens, Hill, Pilkington. 

BOLTON STRUGGLE TO END FREEZE-UP
Saturday, December 30, 1961 The Liverpool Daily Post
By Horace Yates
Although a decision will not be taken until early today there are prospects that both the Bolton v. Everton and Liverpool v Rotherham matches will be played.  Mr. Bill Ridding, manager of Bolton Wanderers was busily engaged last night, taking every possible step that might allow the game to go on.  Referee A.W. Luty, of Leeds saw the ground at Burnden Park last night and decided to look again at 9.15 a.m today.  When a ball was kicked on the field it gathered snow and soon increased in size, Mr. Ridding said it was milder last night and he was hopeful.  An additional hazard here is the freezing up of the sanitary system “I have obtained an assurance from a firm of plumbers that they will be at work on the ground first thing in the morning in an effort to put things right.  The whole system is out of commission and it could be a big job, but at least we shall do everything possible, “Mr Ridding added. 
HARRIS DOUBT
Unless Brian Harris is able to report an improvement in his cold, Everton will be forced to make their first change since Collins and Parker returned to the side at West ham six games ago.  Both Meagan and Sharples will travel and Mr. Harry Catterick, the manager, will decide at the ground which of them shall be the deputy.  Sharples has not played this season, but Meagan held the left half position in the first seven fixtures.  Pikington has had to withdraw from the Bolton team and Lee plays on the right wing.  Holden switching over to the left.  It will not be easy task to win at Bolton, but I don’t think Everton will be let down defensively and their forwards are more goal worthy that the Wanderers I expect to see Bolton beaten.  Bolton Wanderers;- Hopkinson; Hartle, Farrimond; Threlfall, Edwards, Rimmer; Lee, Deakin, Stevens, Hill, Holden.  Everton; Dunlop; Parker, Thomson; (from) Gabriel, Labone, Harris, Meagan, Sharples, Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon, Fell. 

WEATHER CAUSES SPORTING CHAOS
Liverpool Echo-Saturday, December 30, 1961
EVERTON, LIVERPOOL, TRANMERE AND WREXHAM GAMES OFF
PROMOTERS CANCEL FOOTBALL POOLS COUPON
Ice, snow, frost and floods made today the worst Saturday in the peace-time history of League football for postponed matches.  In addition of 12 Rugby League fixtures were called off and also the major Rugby Union fixtures. The Bolton-Everton game was called off shortly before 10 a.m, after referee A.W. Luty, of Derby, had made an inspection.  His decision was a formality after there had been considerable snow overnight in the Bolton area and there was never much chance of the game being on as there had not been a match played on the pitch for a fortnight.