When Everton won their sixth Division 1 League Title and first post-war title in the 1962-63 season they were labelled as the ‘cheque-book champions’ by the Daily Telegraph, due to the influx of money from their owner John Moores. Everton were the richest team in the country and this vast amount of money may take the shine from their achievements in that season. The role that Catterick played in gaining the ‘League Championship for the first time since 1939’ at Everton, will be examined.
Catterick was supplied with the financial prowess that enabled them to court the finest players in English football. This led to attempts, according to George Cohen (right back for England in the 66 World Cup Final), to ‘tap-up’ players with ‘under the counter’ payments to sway their decisions. These accusations from Cohen were not widespread but help exemplify the money that Everton had at their disposal. Although not all players were succumbed by this tactic they did manage to acquire numerous players with the help of Moores’ financial backing. In signing Fred Pickering from Blackburn Rovers and Johnny Morrisey from Merseyside rivals Liverpool along with Denis Stevens and Tony Kay, Catterick bolstered his squad and took them from a fourth-place finish in the 1961-62 season to Champions of England the following year.
Catterick was keen to point out that having money does not make the job of being a football manager any easier. He said; “It’s a fallacy to suggest that because you have thousands to spend things are easier”, comparing his situation to “driving a big car and a little one. You’ve still got to travel the same road”. Catterick must have been aware that having money makes the job of a football manager easier, he did not have to worry as much as the other managers in the league to balance the books and manage player sales and purchases. No matter how much Catterick wanted to avert attention from his side’s financial ability, there is a reason his two title winning sides were labelled ‘Cheque-book Champions’. Despite this financial backing, it would be unfair to not attribute a considerable amount of praise for Catterick winning the Division 1 League Title in his second season as manager at Everton. Much like with Shankly at Liverpool, Catterick did not only purchase talented players but he nurtured the ones he had at the club already.
Amongst his title winning squad were Everton legends Roy Vernon, Brian Labone, Alex Young and Alex Parker. This combination of new and old was phenomenally successful. It led to Everton being unbeaten at Goodison Park all season and ultimately winning the First Division. When Alex Young scored the winning goal against Tottenham the Division 1 League Title was won, a moment remembered by some Everton fans as ‘the most iconic football moment in the world’. Catterick admitted that at Everton he had the perfect balance of money and home-grown players. He said; “they had the fantastic training facilities and obtained the best results through producing their own players”, yet he also said that “At the same time I could always buy big if necessary”.
The 1962-63 season had the winter known as the ‘Big Freeze’, this ‘provided football with record days for numbers of postponements’, from the 12th of January to the 2nd of February there were ‘only four’ matches played in England. Everton did not play any games from late December to mid-February and their form was severely hampered by this break. They did not win in their first four games after the hiatus, yet their title winning form was soon rediscovered. Catterick’s Everton were far from cold in their performances for the rest of the season and they ran out winners by six points.
This season was also poignant as it was the first Merseyside Derby ‘after eleven long years’, within ‘24 hours of their being on sale the ground tickets had all been sold’. Liverpool had just been promoted from the Second Division and Everton FC were contenders for winning the First Division. Despite this, Everton’s Official Match Day Programme was keen to note that ‘form goes by the board in a local “Derby” match, so the fact that Everton are better placed in the League than Liverpool counts for very little’.
The excitement and build up for the game was huge, over 73,000 fans attended the match. The meeting of the Merseyside clubs made front page news in the Liverpool Echo. The headline ‘“Derby” Day is Here’, illustrated the building excitement. Catterick said that ‘there is nothing to equal the atmosphere of the Merseyside match’, this was an opinion shared across Merseyside. The match lived up to its huge billing with a 2-2 draw and a last-minute equaliser from Liverpool’s Roger Hunt. The build up to the next Merseyside Derby at Anfield began the very next day, local newspaper reports read ‘Even if you live as far away from Merseyside as China, I implore you: See the return game between these two terrible twins of Soccer’.
The return game was at Anfield in April of that season. Liverpool were still the underdogs, yet the discussion pre-game was of who was the better team. This ‘argument of two religions’ centred around ‘the tremendous enthusiasm on Merseyside … through thick and thin, a worthy reflection of a hardy community that can look at either wealth or poverty with an equal, unflinching eye’. Of course, there was never going to be a definitive answer as to who was the better team, but this certainly was a period where Liverpool as a city was rising to become a significant city in football, once again. Nevertheless, the build up to this game was as extravagant as the previous meeting. Both teams had ‘waited a long time’ to play each other again, Liverpool were keen ‘to prove that as good as Everton are, our own team will bear favourable comparison’. This proved true as the game ended as a goalless draw. The defences ruled the day, it ‘almost seemed as though the only way to make any real breach would have been with a machine gun’. Newly promoted Liverpool had held their own against the eventual Champions Everton. The fanfare around the games meant that the city was electric, although this game did not live up to the hype which surrounded it, this certainly was a golden age for derby games on Merseyside.
It was not only the games between the two Merseyside clubs that brought large crowds to Goodison Park. Throughout the whole of Catterick’s reign across both Everton and Liverpool, the 1962-63 season provided the largest average attendances. There were over 51,500 fans attending each game, on average, for Everton. This is a phenomenal statistic that so many people were attending football games on Merseyside. Given that at Anfield that season nearly 44,000 fans were attending, this meant that there were close to 100,000 fans watching football on Merseyside each home game.
This illustrates that this season under discussion must be considered a golden age for football in Liverpool. The 1962-63 season had the highest combined average of the whole time Catterick was in charge of Everton, this of course will be linked with Everton winning the Division 1 League Title that season and it being Liverpool’s first back in the First Division, and that they reached the FA Cup Semi-Final that season. Nevertheless, this is a phenomenal example of the passion for football across Merseyside that season.
The 1962-63 season established Catterick as a top-quality manager in English football. He won the Division 1 League Title in his second season at Everton and he built a team that partnered Moores’ money with home-grown talent, and resilience for the harsh winter with a competent winning side. The magnitude of the two Merseyside Derbies in that season illustrate the hunger for football within the city. With Everton ending up the eventual winners of the First Division and the huge crowds that watched football in the city that season, it is hard to argue that this is not a season that perfectly exemplifies the love for for football across Merseyside.
When Everton lifted the Division 1 League Title in 1963 the fans were optimistic that this was to begin a period of success under the stewardship of Catterick. They did not have to wait long for more silverware to come to Goodison Park, through finishing 3rd and 4th in the following two seasons success did not seem far away. In fact, it was only three years after their winning the league in the 1962-63 season that they were winning a trophy once again.
-Peter (@PeterKennyJones)
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